Now in their third decade, Colorado schoolboy wrestlers have rocked the disc-otheque, grappling for a badge of honor that probably won’t ever be available on eBay.
Call the state tournament Colorado’s Route 56: four classifications of 14 weights that will end Saturday night at the Pepsi Center.
Since 1988, each individual champion has earned red-and-green flip discs similar to those used during matches. Inscribed with “Colorado State Champion” as well as the year, winners are presented the memento before they leave the mat.
This is the kind of thing that happens in wrestling.
“As far as I know, they have not been duplicated anywhere,” said Bernie Goss, the Colorado Wrestling Officials Association rules interpreter.
The disc appeared 21 years ago as a woodshop project begun by a retired official. Goss, who worked 31 state meets until 1995, knows the project could have worked decades earlier.
“I’ve had several calls from winners prior to 1988, especially from mothers, asking for those particular things for their state champions,” said Goss. “We think it’s pretty unique.”
As is the wrestling family that took it on — Charles “Chuck” Walters and his clan are prominent in wrestling annals and have funded the project in the past decade in honor of son Blane, who was killed in an automobile accident.
Charles Walters died in January and will be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, located in Stillwater, Okla., in an April ceremony at the Air Force Academy after a career that took him from Denver’s old Cathedral High School to Jefferson County to Durango. In 1958, he was a champion footballer at La Junta. In 1960, after a family move, he was a schoolboy wrestling champion in Topeka, Kan.
Sons Blane and Rylan were state winners for Durango. Blane won at 136 pounds in 1987 and Rylan in 1992, at 160, the same as his father. A year later, Rylan was involved in one of the great matches of the tournament that’s now in its 74th year: With most of the packed house at McNichols Sports Arena on its feet, Walters fell 10-8 in overtime to Thornton’s Steve Granieri, who fought through three injury timeouts on the way to a third title.
Every sport has its traditions, but wrestling tugs at the emotional and physical strain known only by a precious few.
It’s indicative of a sport that offers confounding contrasts. Wrestling is simple yet cerebral. The hard work is staggering, but the rewards are worth it. The sport is one for an everyman (or everywoman) — friendly as it gets, open to all comers, yet weeds out the unworthy through attrition. It’s elite — almost never does a mediocre competitor make it out of the first round, because the fields are too darned good.
Most important, participants and followers have always loved one-against-one, although they quickly discover the long line of support that runs well off the mats touches generations in the Rocky Mountains.
In this case, the discs may only be a few dollars worth of colored plastic and some craftsmanship, but the actual value isn’t something you can bid for on “The Price is Right.”
The Blane and Chuck Walters Memorial Fund to continue the tradition has been established at the First National Bank of Durango, P.O. Box 2910, 81302.
A couple of former wrestlers would be honored to see it endure.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
