On my way to set the Inland Empire Jr. Olympic Pole Vault Record, on May 26, 1962. I loved to pole vault since I was 9 when my father taped up a bamboo pole, that came in a rug, so it wouldn't splinter, the summer before my 5th grade. He also made two standards and a crossbar. We used yellow straw for the pit. Not near as good as sawdust or rubber foam.
My Ate told me that when I vaulted 6 feet, way taller than me, that he would take me to a movie in Pendleton, Oregon. Pendleton was about an hour's drive in those days from Mc Nary, Oregon, where we were living.
As I loved both going to a good movie and pole vaulting, I practiced over and over again until I vaulted 6 feet. I had my father come out to the pit, so he could confirm that I had reached my goal. I then vaulted 6 feet again.
When I was in the 6th Grade, I competed in the Umatilla County Track Meet against 7th and 8th Graders. I remember I vaulted 7' 4 inches, a new personal record, and placed 3rd.
Because of my father's training, I was the District Pole Vault Champion in grades 7-9, at Pioneer Jr. High, in Walla Walla, Washington, where we moved when I was 12.
We were classed, A, B, and C class, according to weight. As my father spent many years training for boxing, he passed on his experience of losing weight, including Epsom salt baths, sauna, and steam baths, Petrolager, working out in a rubber sweatsuit.
These ways to lose weight carried over to wrestling. I always tried to follow Dan Gable's example of preparing for a match. He said, "When I go into a match I know that I have run further, have lifted more weights, practiced more, and want to win more than my opponents."
I didn't win every time, but my opponents always had a good fight on thier hands. I was never pinned. My fastest pin in College was 13 seconds. One time, I wanted to see how many points I could run-up in a match against Columbia Basin College, Pasco, Washington. The Tri-Cities were our archrivals in Jr. and Sr. High School, so competed with them for six years in football and track and three years in wrestling, so I wanted to send a message from Wa-Hi to our former opponents.
The final score of the match was 33 to 1. I let him up for 1 point and then I immediately took him down for 2 points. I just kept moving him to near pins, with different moves. I never had an
intention to pin him.
They thankfully changed the rules, so once someone is ahead by 9 points they stop the match. For me, every time I stepped on the mat it was the Custer battle all over again.
To me, this was way more than a wrestling match. This was payback time and even if I lost a match or two, I would fight with every ounce of my physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and volitional strength, I had, and then some.
They were only two matches I let up, in my fierceness. One was when I was a Jr. and I wrestled Sr. Joe Hoptowit, Yakima Nation, from Wapato, in the district meet. I won 3-2. I felt a feeling of family, as I had the privilege and honor to know many wonderful Yakima elders.
In my Sr. Year, I wrestled Vernon Six Killer, Pawnee Nation, in the semi-finals. As he looked like family I was not out for blood, like was against my other opponents.
I had a comfortable 7-3 lead and I felt clearly stronger than him. I was on top for all of the third round. He could not escape or reverse me.
Then with about 20 seconds to go, I let up a little bit, and the next thing I knew, he had reversed me for two points and a near pin for three points, and the match ended and he won 8-7. That was a very tough loss at the time, but a good win by Vernon Six Killer.
I went to the State Meet as a Jr., I had been practicing and training all year to win the State Meet. Only the top two wrestlers in each weight class qualified for the state meet. So my loss to Vernon disqualified me from going to the State Meet. To add injury and insult to my ego, a wrestler, who I had easily beaten earlier in the season, became State Champ.
I have been "knocked down," many times in my life. But the reality is that I have knocked my own self down, many times. As no one but our own selves, can condition our own souls, I take full ownership and responsibility for all words and actions in my life.
I will also do my very best to remember that our Creator is the Ever-Forgiving and has willed for us all to be the same. Not easy!
