Time to Wrestle

I am a fan of amateur wrestling. When I lived in Iowa I had season tickets to all the home matches of the University of Iowa wrestling team that dominated the college wrestling scene at the time under the leadership of the legendary wrestler and coach Dan Gable. I used to travel to the College Wrestling Championships each year no matter where they were held.

I recall a match during the Saturday night championship finals at the National Championships one year. The start of a wrestling match is supposed to go like this. The referee calls both wrestlers to the center of the mat. They shake hands. The referee blows his whistle and signals with his hand to start wrestling.

During one match a wrestler stopped at the edge of the mat and proceeded to pray for a spell instead of going to the center of the mat. After a few seconds the referee motioned the wrestler to go to the center of the mat which the wrestler promptly did.

A man, who had been sitting next to me for all three days of the tournament and who had wrestled in the National Championships at heavyweight back in the Sixties, turned to me and said, "He should have prayed before he got to the mat." I replied, "Amen, brother."

The said wrestler got beat rather badly even though he put up a good fight against a superior opponent.

I turned to the guy sitting next to me after the match and said, "You were right. He should have prayed before he got to the mat." He replied, "Amen, brother."

I loved going to those wrestling tournaments. I really should start doing it again.