Phil Lohrey has been involved in Maryland wrestling since 1945. His activities included competitor, official, and coach at every level of participation. Phil competed while a student at Loyola College and then became an assistant coach at City College, Loyola High School and Head Coach at the University of Baltimore.

He has also been instrumental in assisting the development of several junior leagueprograms in the Baltimore area. During this time, Phil also helped to establish the MarylandWrestling Officials Association in 1951 and is a chartered member of that organization. He has been an active official and currently is an inactive retired member of that organization. Phil's most outstanding success was as a college coach at the University of Baltimore from 1951 to 1957.

His teams won four (4) Mason-Dixon Conference Championships and produced many individual champions during that time. One of his former wrestlers, BernieGordon, was recently inducted into the University of Baltimore Sports Hall of Fame. Bernie personally credited Phil as being the most influential person in his life. Bernie went on to be an outstanding high school coach in the Houston, Texas area.

During the 1960's, high school wrestling experienced tremendous growth in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. This was due to the expanding population in the surroundingarea. It was at this time that one of the local television stations decided to produce live televised high school wrestling conference tournaments.

Phil Lohrey, because of his wrestling notoriety and knowledge, was asked to be the first announcer of live high school wrestling along with a well known sports commentator, Vince Bagli. This experience gave high school wrestling a great deal of credibility at a time whenpeople were not familiar with the sport.

Phil Lohrey has been a true pioneer and an outstanding contributor to the sport of wrestlingsince 1945. His contributions as a competitor, official, coach and wrestling television commentator are what qualify him as a candidate for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.