Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
Anyone who suggests to J. Allen “Pat” Patten that wrestling is anything less than a major sport should get prepared to hear a lecture.
It won’t be a short discussion, either, because Patten has worlds of information to prove his point that his sport of choice is as major as any on the calendar. His passion was to increase participation and popularity of wrestling from the high school level to the college ranks and on up to the international scope.
“You bet your life, wrestling is a major sport with me,” Patten said. “I can understand the other side if your calculations are based on it being an income sport, but as far as the participants and people around the sport, it’s No. 1.”
The wrestling program at Boulder High School and the athletes who participated are closest to his heart. But Patten’s pride and joy among his memories are the first Junior World Wrestling Championships, which were conducted at the University of Colorado in 1969.
Patten organized and directed the tournament. His travels around the world secured promises of participation from international wrestling powers such as Russia, Bulgaria and Japan. At the time, many national sports organizations had little interest or money to spend on their junior programs.
“I went to some countries a couple of times to make sure they would come,” Patten said. “It wasn’t easy, but it was worth the effort. I know it helped develop the sport of wrestling in Colorado.”
The Junior World Championships weren’t Patten’s only involvement in the international arena. He was instrumental in the development of an exchange program at the high school level with Japan. The program included the touring of a high school-aged team from Japan through Colorado or at times the Rocky Mountain area in January and February for matches at various high schools.
A team from this area would return the visit to Japan in the summer. One purpose was to introduce the international style of wrestling to high school competitors here for future involvement in world or Olympic competition.
Patten’s wrestling résumé also includes his being a judge and referee at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He also owns a Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla.
Patten coached wrestling for 18 years, 1947-65, at Boulder before moving to the school’s administration staff in 1966. During his tenure, a dozen wrestlers from Boulder won state championships.
Jim Burke, one of his wrestlers at Boulder, made the United States Olympic team in 1960 and 1964. Another Boulder wrestler, Bill Lam, went on to become an All-American at Oklahoma and longtime wrestling coach at North Carolina. Patten’s state champions included Burke, Dave Swerdfeger, Tom Tisone, Bruce McDowell, Gil Espinoza, Dell Rhodes and Stormy Patterson.
After coaching, Patten remained on the school’s faculty for another 18 years, filling the offices of athletic director and assistant principal.
He takes his place Tuesday as an inductee into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. The induction banquet is at the City Center Marriott Hotel.
“Wrestling was a driving factor in my life,” Patten said. “You want people to become better than what they are when they started. It was a great pleasure for me to see the athletes develop and become pretty good wrestlers. I didn’t try to teach them fancy stuff. I stayed with the basics, and it paid off.”
Maybe his appreciation of wrestling could be traced to his roots. Both of his parents died before he was a teenager, and he turned to wrestling in junior high school in Denver because he could find a place on the team. He weighed only 88 pounds when he started high school at Manual and could wrestle at the lighter weight categories. He continued in the sport through high school and the University of Colorado.
“I became a pretty good competitor and was able to win a couple of Rocky Mountain AAU titles,” Patten said. “When I got into coaching, wrestling became a very big part of my life.”
Patten competed in cross country, track and field and wrestling at CU and earned seven letters. He was inducted into CU’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2000 as a member of the third class inducted.
“Thinking about it chokes me up,” Patten said of his early induction in CU’s hall of fame.
Patten, 86, lives in Boulder. He looks back with fond memories over morning coffee with his peers. The group usually includes some of his wrestlers from years ago.
“The best thing that happens to me is hearing from my wrestlers and students,” Patten said. “It’s great to hear them say that they want me to know how much they gained from the experience they had at Boulder High.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
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COLORADO CLASSICS
Irv Moss,
Denver Post
staff writer
