J. Allen “Pat” Patten, a chemistry teacher, wrestling coach, athletic director and assistant principal during a 36-year span at Boulder High School, died Saturday from complications from asthma and pneumonia.
Patten, 86, died at Boulder Community Hospital. A memorial service is pending.
While Patten was a devoted educator, his passion was the sport of wrestling. He helped develop an exchange program between Japan and this area that entailed a high school team from Japan coming here in January and February and a team from this area going to Japan in June and July.
But Patten’s pride and joy was the first Junior World Wrestling Championships in 1969 at the University of Colorado.
Patten organized and directed the tournament of international teams, bringing the championships to reality at a time when most national sports federations didn’t put much time, effort and money into their junior programs.
“You bet your life, wrestling is a major sport with me,” Patten would say. “As far as the participants and people around the sport are concerned, it’s the No. 1 sport. Wrestling was a driving force in my life. It was a great pleasure for me to see my wrestlers develop and become pretty good in the sport.”
Jim Burke, who wrestled for Patten at Boulder, made the U.S. Olympic team in 1960 and 1964. Bill Lam went on from Boulder to be an All-American at Oklahoma and later was a longtime wrestling coach at the University of North Carolina.
“He’s a volcano of energy,” Conard Metcalf, another of Patten’s wrestlers, said two years ago when Patten was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. “He’s a smart, driven, dedicated and innovative man who gave excellence and demanded it from others.”
Patten grew up in Denver and graduated from Manual High School. He went on to CU, where he competed in wrestling, track and field and cross country. He earned seven varsity letters and was inducted into CU’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. He also received a Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla.
Patten retired from Boulder High School in 1984 and began a career in insurance and investments. He retired again in 2001.
