In Memory of Coach Jerry Daniels
| We pass along this notice for a worthy cause. We remember “Mousey” as a positive man with a great love of wrestling and people. Your support would be appreciated. — TDR Editor & Staff |
| Friends of Coach Jerry Daniels You may have heard the sad news of the passing of Coach Jerry Daniels in Raleigh on June 20,2024 at the age of 92. He was well known to thousands of people primarily because of his absolute passion for the sport of wrestling. He coached at two colleges, a couple of high schools and refereed hundreds of high school and college wrestling matches for over 60 years and served as a coach at summer wrestling camps for over 50 years! Imagine how many kids and coaches knew him! Imagine how many fans yelled at him for making a “bad call” as a referee! You know if you talked for any length of time with Coach, you never forgot him. The purpose of this contact with you is to ask you to consider something special. Anyone who talked to Coach always got an earful of wrestling stories. In all the stories, his absolute love for the sport of wrestling shined through. Another thing that always shined as well was his attitude of serving people and going out of his way to help people…of all stripes. He often worked for free or stepped outside of his world of wrestling to give help or advice to someone. He would often drive for miles or stay up late into the night to help someone. My quick personal story with Coach began my junior year at NC State when he came to be our assistant wrestling coach, after leaving the head coaching job at Pfieffer College. At the beginning of my senior year, my head coach Al Crawford suddenly died at a wrestling tournament in Atlanta, GA. This led to Coach Daniels becoming head coach of the Wolfpack, a position he held for 7 years. He finished with a 60-36-3 dual meet record. He continued in the sport for many more decades as a camp clinician and referee. For me personally, my contact with him literally changed the trajectory of my life. I digress a bit to give you the brief story. My senior year, he gave me a copy of the first Athletes in Action magazine. Inside there was a story about AIA starting a new traveling all-star wrestling team to travel the US and around the world with the goal of competing at the highest level and sharing their faith with anyone who would listen. Long story made short, we joined AIA wrestling and never got back to the hopeful engineering career. Wrestling for the USA on two world championship teams and the Pan Am team changed everything for me. Now, I am a Certified Financial Planner. Who knew? My life was forever redirected, humanly speaking, because Coach Daniels handed me a magazine and said, “Hey you might be interested, read this.”. He did that because he cared for me! I am forever grateful that he cared. You too may have a similar impactful story. We want to honor Coach Daniels with a permanent memento in Reynolds Coliseum, to memorialize his life and influence. Consider joining me and my friends to make this happen as soon as we can, preferably before the current wrestling season ends. I would love to honor Coach and give a token of our appreciation to his family at a dual in January or February. This means we need to fund it before the end of 2024. Our goal is to raise at least $25,000. We already have big start with a couple nice gifts and look forward to seeing what you may consider. Any size gift will be greatly appreciated. Keep in mind that gifts made to the Wolfpack Club in support of this initiative are tax deductible and will honor Coach Daniels as well as supporting wrestling in our community. Your gift can be made online by clicking Coach Daniels Wrestling Fund or by check made payable to Wolfpack Club, PO Box 37100, Raleigh, NC 27627. If you have questions don’t hesitate to call me, or you can reach out to Ben Broussard at the Wolfpack Club, Ben.Broussard@Wolfpackclub.com or by phone at 919-605-2321. Thanks! Greg HicksClick Here to Donate to the Coach Daniels Wrestling Fund |
| Copyright © 2024 Wolfpack Club, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Wolfpack Club PO Box 37100 Raleigh, NC 27627-7100 |
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After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
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