the wrestling world descended on The Plains. That is what Alabamians fondly call Auburn University (well at least the Alabamians that like Auburn - the Roll Tiders probably refer to Auburn in another way). After years of work, Auburn Coach Arnold “Swede” Umbach was finally able to bring the NCAA Tournament to the south in the spring of 1971. Coach Umbach coached at Auburn from 1946 to 1973, but bringing the NCAA Tournament didn’t become a reality until there was a large enough facility to host the event. Upon completion of Memorial Coliseum, Coach Umbach bid for the event and the NCAA awarded the 1971 NCAA Championships to a school in the “Deep South” for the first - and unfortunately only time in its long history (the first NCAA tournament occurred in 1928 at Iowa Agricultural College - now known as Iowa State). The closest it has come since was in 1994 when the University of North Carolina hosted (and finished 6th with TJ Jaworsky taking his 2nd title).
Despite the new location - familiar names and schools headlined the event. Oklahoma State was on quite a run at the time and came in as the favorites. But Iowa State, Penn State and others would all be in the running. Auburn, which was in the second year of being part of the new Southeastern Conference - and still a member of the Southeastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, qualified four, but only one, Mike Roberts, would win his opening match. The NCAA tournament - like many state tournaments up until the late 1990’s - used a repechage system to determine All Americans. The system remains in place currently for the World Championships and the Olympics - so if you know the process for medaling - you can apply that to this tournament. The SEC also had wrestlers from Alabama and LSU in the bracket. LSU’s Jules Plaisance, who wrestled Unlimited, lost in the bloodround (in 1971 the top 6 were All Americans).
The tournament was not devoid of star-power with Larry Owings returning to defend his title (his full match vs. Gable) as well as Dwayne and Darrell Keller of Oklahoma State. The following is a clip from the Anniston Star (in Alabama) …
It was similar to articles from around the country … this one was from the Sapulpa Daily Herald out of Oklahoma …
The names on the podium are familiar with Oklahoma State claiming the team title with 3 champs ahead of Iowa State and Michigan State. Darrell Keller of Oklahoma State won the 142 lb. weight class and was named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler. The thing that is interesting is the number of schools on the list that no longer have programs. Teams like …
Washington
Portland State
Brigham Young
UCLA
New Mexico
Toledo
and so on …
Auburn was the was the host, but the number of wrestlers that competed in the 1971 NCAA Championships at Auburn that were part of programs that no longer exist is staggering. So yes - once upon a time, they wrestled the NCAA tournament in Auburn, Alabama. Don’t know if we will ever see that again.
