Excerpts

“At the start of the Trials my confidence and passion was over the top. I knew I could beat Dave (Schultz) and I would be ‘The Man’. I had just one fear – and that was John duPont.”

Kenny Monday, 1988

“Lewis’s arbitration defense was well supported. Mine was not. They had better technical and tactical expertise on their side…and the Olympic coaching staff.”

Lee Roy Smith, 1984

“Let me make this clear, I can guarantee you this – not one person, not even Lee Roy Smith, can watch that film and tell me that Lee Roy Smith won that match.”

Randy Lewis, 1984

"I went and told Coach Dziedzic that I wasn't going {to Tbilisi}. He threw a fit. I still wasn't going until he said, 'Gene, I'm going to get you a whole bunch of Commies to wrestle and I'm sure you'd like nothing better than to get out on the mat and work them over.' That did it for me. I went on the trip and went 9-0."

Gene Mills, 1980

“A large crowd was awaiting many big matches, but Schalles - Dziedzic was the biggest. I got the opportunity to referee it. Schalles won opening points and had a two or three point lead. However, I could see at a particular point he started to wear down. Both guys were sweating profusely and then Dziedzic scored as the two wrestlers went out of bounds. He goes back to the center circle but Schalles doesn’t. The mat chair, Evanoff, yells at me to get ’em back in the middle. Schalles still doesn’t move and I call an end to the match and award it to Stan.”

Rick Tucci, 1976

“The AAU and the USWF people never agreed on anything, but the one exception was the thought of sending the inexperienced Peterson brothers as our representatives to wrestle in Munich. I kept hearing stuff like ‘These guys will be an embarrassment to us.’”

Wayne Baughman, 1972

“Looking back on that training camp – I think Evans was trying to outdo Port’s 1960 regime. We worked and worked and worked. Three-a-day practices sometimes.”

Wayne Wells, 1968

“I tell you, there were no shenanigans.”

Terry McCann, 1960

“I bear no grudges against Terry. I have great admiration for him. But, I do have bitterness towards the Trials administrators and their politics. They took away my deserved opportunity.”

Dave Auble, 1960