Wilfred E. Cann, Bill as he was known, came to America from England in 1887. He first broke into wrestling at county fairs and then spent time touring with circus outfits. (Talk about the history of wrestling.) His first formal instruction of wrestling occurred at the Springfield Massachusetts YMCA. He attended Springfield College and following graduation accepted a position as physical education director at the Elizabeth YMCA , from 1907 through 1924 developing some of the finest wrestlers in the United States. The Elizabeth YMCA spawned wrestling tournaments for both novice and Olympic hopefuls in its early years as a sponsor of amateur and interscholastic competition in New Jersey. Names which have become synonymous with the excellence of New Jersey wrestling : Henry Boresch of Newton, Charlie Speidel of Penn State fame, Harry Lake, Puggy Williams, Danny Forrester and Edward Loeser to name a few were all connected to the Elizabeth YMCA. In 1924 Cann was selected to coach the American Olympic Wrestling team in Paris, France and again in 1928 he was honored to coach the Olympic team as they competed in Amsterdam, Holland. During his time at Elizabeth, Cann began to develop a wrestling team at Rutgers College serving as their head coach for some nine years until 1944 when wrestling was suspended during World War II. Coach Cann is credited with starting wrestling in New Jersey at the Elizabeth Y while Harry Lake promoted the sport at the high school level. Both were critical to the development of the sport which now serves over 350 teams and thousand of wrestlers each year in NJSIAA programs. Bill Cann was respected by his peers for his forthrightness and sense of fair play. He died in February 1963 at the age of 85 and indeed deserves to be known as the Father of Amateur Wrestling in the State of New Jersey.