By Ron Good
Amateur Wrestling News Editor and National Wrestling Hall of Fame Order of Merit Recipient

Born into a family of musicians wrestling was the last thing on my mind as a youngster growing up in Oklahoma City. My father was a band leader who had his own orchestra and booking agency. Mom was a vocalist in his band. Dad also had a local television show and was a very popular figure around town. His musical career spanned over 50 years. As a seventh grader, I was handed a trumpet and naturally joined the high school band.

Although a fine piano player, business man and a guy who could fix anything, dad had no athletic ability. Any athleticism handed down to me came from my uncle, dad’s younger brother. He was small at 5-foot-8 and 170 pounds, but an all-around athlete. He was good at anything he tried and played semi-pro baseball. He was a scratch golfer and also excelled in basketball and bowling.

Growing up in a neighborhood of several boys my age, I benefited from playing year-round sports in a vacant lot on our street. We played football in the winter and baseball in the summer. These games were fun yet organized enough to give me a solid understanding of my athletic ability through competition. With good speed plus an accurate arm, my best sport was football. But never big enough to compete in school.

My first exposure to wrestling came as a ninth grader in high school. A friend had a mat in his garage and during the summer would flop around practicing moves. He joined the team the following year and I followed the year after, my junior year.

At the time, everyone wanted to go out for wrestling at John Marshall High School. One of 17 major high schools in Oklahoma City, the team had several state champs and a hard-nosed coach that was building championship teams. It was the most popular sport at the school and 50 boys went out for wrestling. Many quickly learned it wasn’t all that much fun and half either quit or got run off after the first couple of weeks. I stuck with the team my final two years, yet never better than a workout partner and B-teamer for our star-studded squad. My only regret was starting the sport too late.

A major influence in my early life was our high school coach Virgil Milliron. He was tough, stressed discipline, strategy and conditioning in his coaching. He built winning teams with local boys. We didn’t like him much at the time, but later very grateful for what he taught us.

One of his prize pupils was Wayne Baughman, a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, an NCAA champion, Olympian, and long-time coach at the Air Force Academy. Baughman would be a role model for me the rest of my life.

I have all the respect in the world for high school coaches and Hall of Fame Distinguished Members Bob Siddens of Waterloo, Iowa; Billy Martin of Granby, Virginia and Mike Milkovich of Maple Heights, Ohio. But I have to rate coach Milliron right up there with the best of them by record reputation.

As I later wrote in a summer column, the 1963 Oklahoma City John Marshall wrestling team was not only the states’ best, but later named one of the best high school teams ever put together. That experience along with following my teammates in college was the hook that later shaped my career.

The 1963 John Marshall team won the large class state title with four champs, two seconds and two thirds. The 1964 team followed up with another title and five individual champs. Many team members would go on to prove themselves in college with stellar careers.

In a 1966 dual with Iowa State, the Oklahoma Sooners had four former John Marshall products in the starting lineup. And that 1966 team finished second in the NCAA.

Team members who excelled in college were Wayne Wells, a Distinguished Member of the Hall of Fame and an NCAA champ for Oklahoma at 152 pound in 1968; Mike McAdams, NCAA third at 130 pounds for Brigham Young in 1968; Russ McAdams, NCAA sixth at 145 pounds for Brigham Young in 1968; Dickie Haxel, a three-year starter for Oklahoma and two-time NCAA qualifier placing second and third in the Big 8; Bryan Rice, a three-time Big 8 champ for Oklahoma at 123 pounds and twice seeded high at nationals; John Eagleston, a spot starter for Oklahoma at several weights and later a Big 8 third place and NCAA qualifier at 152 pounds. Wells of course would go on to win World and Olympic gold for the U.S.

After high school I attended two colleges in Oklahoma and also served in the National Guard.

My jobs at this time included working for my dad, managing a book store, and selling real estate. That is until my life would change on a winter day in November 1976. I had kept up with wrestling going to local dual meets and even traveled to Kansas State for a Big 8 tournament.

Then on a Saturday morning in early November I drove to Norman for a college open tournament in the Lloyd Noble Center. On the concourse there was a table set up with a guy selling a wrestling magazine. I remember thinking, “Can’t be. A college wrestling magazine? How cool is this!” The publication of course was Amateur Wrestling News. The next day I noticed the offices were in Oklahoma City just four miles from my house. I just had to go by and meet these folks.

The office was nothing like I expected. It was a small four-room frame house they had converted into an office. Inside were Jess and John Hoke busy at their desks. In the adjoining room was Glenna Hoke, John’s wife, working on subscriptions. I introduced myself, told them about my wrestling background and mentioned how pleasantly surprised to discover their publication.

From time to time, I would drop by the office just to talk wrestling. Founder Jess, a wrestling junky like me, seemed to enjoy my visits. We would talk about the wrestlers, coaches, the big duals and tournaments. Jess is also a Distinguished Member of the Hall of Fame.

After around three months, the Hokes got tired of me hanging around the office and hired me in the summer of 1978. The best thing of all was working along side Jess for five years before he passed.

Highlights of my career included being a part of the working press at the 1995 World Championships and 1996 Olympic Games, both held in Atlanta. And the ultimate achievement came in 2016 when I received the Order of Merit award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. There are now three former John Marshall high school wrestlers in the Hall of Fame.

My brother once gave a summary of my career, “You found the perfect thing. Rare for most people. Very little pressure. No corporate rules and awful bosses. No commutes in traffic. Charmed life. You turned a hobby into a profession.”