STILLWATER, OK. -- The National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum is saddened to announce that Distinguished Member Joe Clark McDaniel passed away on Friday, Nov. 4 in Sulphur, Okla., at the age of 94 years.


McDaniel was one of the greatest wrestlers to compete for Oklahoma A and M (now Oklahoma State University) in the late 1930's. He captured three NCAA titles for the Cowboys (1937, '38, '39), each year leading coach Edward C. Gallagher's team to the NCAA Championship. As a 118-pound junior, he was voted outstanding wrestler of the 1938 tournament, an honor won a year earlier by his roommate, Stanley Henson. Three times he reigned as National AAU champion, twice as a collegian when the Cowboys also won team honors, and again in 1941, two years after graduation. McDaniel's only serious exposure to international competition came at the close of his junior year, in a 1938 European tour climaxed by a tournament at Stockholm, Sweden, among the leading wrestling nations of the world. He was undefeated in 12 bouts and scored an overwhelming victory over Odon Zombori of Hungary, winner of the Olympic gold two years earlier.

Despite a three-year hitch in the Air Corps and seven years as field representative for a major steel firm, McDaniel was never far from the sport of wrestling. After a year of high school coaching and another at Maryland, he returned from the war to coach 11 years at Syracuse University, leading the Orange to a fourth-place national finish. In 1963, he moved to Wyoming, coaching two years in high school and eight at the University of Wyoming. His career turned full circle in 1973, when he returned to his hometown of Sulphur to serve as high school coach. In 30 years of coaching at all levels, his record was 257 victories against 105 defeats.

Funeral services will be held at 1pm on Thursday, November 10, at the First Methodist Church in Sulphur, Oklahoma.