Wrestling's foremost historian, Donald A. Sayenga of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was selected by the Distinguished Members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for the second Order of Merit.

Sayenga is known throughout wrestling for his historical column, "The Oldest Sport," which has appeared in Amateur Wrestling News since 1964. He has been chairman of the Veterans Committee of the Hall of Fame since the first election of Distinguished Members in 1976, and he helped create the ancient history display in the national museum.

Sayenga has been actively involved in wrestling for four decades. He wrestled heavyweight for Lafayette College and for the late Clay Roberts at the Tulsa YMCA, where Terry McCann, Shelby Wilson and Doug Blubaugh trained for their sweep of 1960 Olympic golds.

In the early 1960s, he helped launch high school wrestling in Florida. He began writing The Oldest Sport in 1964, bringing to light the little-known background of wrestling in this country during the early days of the 20th Century. Traveling extensively as a sales executive for Bethlehem Steel's wire rope division, he visited schools and libraries to research old-time wrestling. A long-term resident of Bethlehem, he has been active in wrestling programs at Lehigh University and others in the area.

As co-founder of a summer tournament in Bethlehem, for high school and open division wrestlers, he once found himself drawn into a memorable confrontation. To help avoid first round byes, Sayenga would enter the heavyweight division whenever there was an odd number of contestants. In 1972 this practice gave him a first round match with the mammoth Chris Taylor, who at 440 pounds was about twice Sayenga's size. "It was interesting, very interesting," he recalls.

Retired from Bethlehem Steel, Sayenga acts as a consultant for wire-related industries. He has been honored by the Helms Hall of Fame and the Lafayette College Hall of Fame and is a past winner of the Dellinger Award as wrestling's Writer of the Year.