1941: Wrestling

The professional sport of wrestling is now practically nonexistent, except in a few midwest cities where some enthusiasm can be found for so-called champions whose status is ignored by state ruling bodies. Among amateurs, wrestling made encouraging progress during 1941. As usual, the wrestlers from Oklahoma ran away with top honors in the National Collegiate A. A. when four grapplers of Oklahoma A. and M., namely Al Whitehurst, Dave Arndt, Earl Van Bebber and Virgil Smith, took four titles, capturing the 136- to the 165-lb. divisions. Two brothers from Michigan, Merle and Burl Jennings, took the 121- and 128-pound classes.

The West Side 'Y' team captured the National A. A. U. title for the second year, when Henry Wittenberg took the 174-pound title and several other wrestlers placed in the summaries. Louis Maschi of 23rd St. 'Y' took the heavyweight title; Gilbert Frei, New York A. C., 191-pound class; Homer Faucett, of Indiana, 158-pound class; Douglas Lee, Baltimore 'Y,' 134-pound class; Harold Byrd, University of Oklahoma, 123-lb. class; Joseph Mc Daniels, Pauls Valley, Okla., Herbert Farrell, University of Indiana, 112-pound class. Princeton and Yale tied for the team title in the Eastern Intercollegiate Championships, with Navy taking two titles.