First off, GREAT article, great headline and great video at the bottom.

During Covid lockdown I was watching old PIAA state finals vids on YouTube. I was struck that Haselrig had so few matches that season and made the finals. He was like 7-0 or something. So, I figured, he must have been injured. So I looked into it. And found out Greater Johnstown didn't even have a wrestling team. Dude had no dual meets his whole career. Just gets in line at the state qualifying tournament and slays all the way to the top. That alone is legendary.

With respect to Johnstown. I grew up about 175 miles east of Johnstown in Lancaster. My best friend and football teammate in high school moved there from Johnstown in the '70s as a kid so his Dad could find work after massive layoffs in the Johnstown steel mills. My friend would always talk about how cool and tough Johnstown was and would talk union politics quite a bit. He told me about the Johnstown Flood too. He liked Lancaster, but would talk about what a shame it was to see what happened to Johnstown. Anyway, when I finally moved on to college and played football at near-by Division II Millersville, we had an (overnight) road game vs. IUP. Our team hotel was in Johnstown. I took several hours that evening to walk around the town and take it all in after hearing my friend talk about it for years. I love gritty, hard-times, underdog places like this. Place was wiped out by a dam break and again by economic depression and is still fighting through life somehow.

[Post edited by Maroon Baboon at 02/07/2021 11:22AM]