NCAA Championships Q and A: Jay Hammond

t something historical during the NCAA Wrestling Championships, Jay Hammond is the man to ask. The noted wrestling historian and author attended his first NCAA Tournament in 1964 and has been to 25 national meets. His book – The History of Collegiate Wrestling – was a big hit among fans of the sport. He works with the National Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., and writes for Amateur Wrestling News.

TheMat.com: It is pretty rare for a No. 1 seed to lose – it’s only happened 13 times in NCAA Tournament history. Top seed Max Askren of Missouri went 0-2 at 197 on Thursday. Has a No. 1 seed ever gone 0-2 in the NCAAs?

Hammond: To the best of my knowledge, it has not happened. Until 1996, we didn’t have a true double-elimination format. I didn’t see Askren’s second match, but in the first match it just looked like a bad case of freshmanitis.

TheMat.com: How many of these NCAA meets have you been to?

Hammond: I started going in 1964, and I went occasionally over the years when Lehigh was doing well. I’ve been to the last five, and now I’m so much more involved with the sport with the work I do with the Hall of Fame and other people. It’s such a great event. We are kind of like a big family in the sport and it really is like a reunion every year where you see a lot of old friends.

TheMat.com: What’s so special about this event?

Hammond: The intensity of the competition, the frequency you have to wrestle, the fact that everybody peaks for this. You can have a bad performance in your conference tournament or qualifier and still come back strong in this event because the slate’s clean. Ryan Bertin and Joe Dubuque were both two-time national champions who never won the Big Ten. That’s what people remember, that you won a national title.

TheMat.com: What are your best memories of this event?

Hammond: Watching Yojiro Uetake of Oklahoma State in 1964. He went on to become a two-time Olympian. He was an amazing wrestler. Seeing Lehigh do well, because I have a rooting interest there.

TheMat.com: Your book was very well-received from the wrestling community. What kind of feedback did you receive and how much fun was it putting it together?

Hammond: You don’t write something like that unless you enjoy it. I have such great respect for the people who compete in the sport, this was kind of my way to pay back these people for what they do. This is the most difficult sport you can imagine. The people who compete in this sport are genuine and self-effacing and gracious and have wonderful values. My greatest thrill in life was having an Olympic champion, Wayne Wells, run up to me and ask me to sign his book for him. That was an amazing thing for me.

TheMat.com: Were you a wrestler?

Hammond: I never saw a wrestling match until I went to school at Lehigh. That’s kind of a unique thing about Lehigh – you are almost caught up in the culture of wrestling. It caught my fancy and I’ve been a fan of the sport ever since.

TheMat.com What wrestlers do you enjoy watching?

Hammond: Well, Ben Askren of course. He’s great fun to watch. The guy I liked watching yesterday was kind of unheralded, Ryan Hluschak of Drexel, at 157 pounds. He had a tremendous match with (No. 1 seed Trent) Paulson of Iowa State in the second round. It went back and forth before Paulson pulled a five-point move at the end to win it. Hluschak is a great story. He’s a kid that actually went to Lehigh to play football. He discovered he missed wrestling too much, so he went out for wrestling at Lehigh. He had Troy Letters and Derek Zinck in front of him, so he transferred to Drexel. He’s qualified for two nationals and at one time he had outscored Lehigh. What was great he went out there and mixed it up with the No. 1 seed, and that was great to see somebody not the least bit afraid to challenge. Some of these guys who wrestle Ben Askren, Ben needs a

t something historical during the NCAA Wrestling Championships, Jay Hammond is the man to ask. The noted wrestling historian and author attended his first NCAA Tournament in 1964 and has been to 25 national meets. His book – The History of Collegiate Wrestling – was a big hit among fans of the sport. He works with the National Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., and writes for Amateur Wrestling News.

TheMat.com: It is pretty rare for a No. 1 seed to lose – it’s only happened 13 times in NCAA Tournament history. Top seed Max Askren of Missouri went 0-2 at 197 on Thursday. Has a No. 1 seed ever gone 0-2 in the NCAAs?

Hammond: To the best of my knowledge, it has not happened. Until 1996, we didn’t have a true double-elimination format. I didn’t see Askren’s second match, but in the first match it just looked like a bad case of freshmanitis.

TheMat.com: How many of these NCAA meets have you been to?

Hammond: I started going in 1964, and I went occasionally over the years when Lehigh was doing well. I’ve been to the last five, and now I’m so much more involved with the sport with the work I do with the Hall of Fame and other people. It’s such a great event. We are kind of like a big family in the sport and it really is like a reunion every year where you see a lot of old friends.

TheMat.com: What’s so special about this event?

Hammond: The intensity of the competition, the frequency you have to wrestle, the fact that everybody peaks for this. You can have a bad performance in your conference tournament or qualifier and still come back strong in this event because the slate’s clean. Ryan Bertin and Joe Dubuque were both two-time national champions who never won the Big Ten. That’s what people remember, that you won a national title.

TheMat.com: What are your best memories of this event?

Hammond: Watching Yojiro Uetake of Oklahoma State in 1964. He went on to become a two-time Olympian. He was an amazing wrestler. Seeing Lehigh do well, because I have a rooting interest there.

TheMat.com: Your book was very well-received from the wrestling community. What kind of feedback did you receive and how much fun was it putting it together?

Hammond: You don’t write something like that unless you enjoy it. I have such great respect for the people who compete in the sport, this was kind of my way to pay back these people for what they do. This is the most difficult sport you can imagine. The people who compete in this sport are genuine and self-effacing and gracious and have wonderful values. My greatest thrill in life was having an Olympic champion, Wayne Wells, run up to me and ask me to sign his book for him. That was an amazing thing for me.

TheMat.com: Were you a wrestler?

Hammond: I never saw a wrestling match until I went to school at Lehigh. That’s kind of a unique thing about Lehigh – you are almost caught up in the culture of wrestling. It caught my fancy and I’ve been a fan of the sport ever since.

TheMat.com What wrestlers do you enjoy watching?

Hammond: Well, Ben Askren of course. He’s great fun to watch. The guy I liked watching yesterday was kind of unheralded, Ryan Hluschak of Drexel, at 157 pounds. He had a tremendous match with (No. 1 seed Trent) Paulson of Iowa State in the second round. It went back and forth before Paulson pulled a five-point move at the end to win it. Hluschak is a great story. He’s a kid that actually went to Lehigh to play football. He discovered he missed wrestling too much, so he went out for wrestling at Lehigh. He had Troy Letters and Derek Zinck in front of him, so he transferred to Drexel. He’s qualified for two nationals and at one time he had outscored Lehigh. What was great he went out there and mixed it up with the No. 1 seed, and that was great to see somebody not the least bit afraid to challenge. Some of these guys who wrestle Ben Askren, Ben needs a