This 390-page book follows the 2005 Oklahoma State wrestling team and head coach John Smith on their incredible journey towards their 33rd team title … the year that the Cowboys claimed half of the ten individual championships up for grabs at the NCAA Division I Championships in St. Louis.
Meet the author
Kim Parrish is a self-confessed Cowboy fanatic who "bleeds orange." He is an Oklahoma State graduate who makes a powerful case that the Cowboy wrestling program is THE most significant college sports program in history -- more significant than, say, Notre Dame football or UCLA basketball. (After all, the Cowboy wrestlers have won more national team titles than the Fighting Irish gridiron guys and the Bruins roundballers combined). But, then again, Parrish should be good at making a case; he's a former practicing attorney and prosecutor, now a judge and law professor in his native Oklahoma.
Kim ParrishFor eighteen weeks during the 2004-2005 season, Kim accompanied the Cowboys as they traveled almost 16,000 miles by bus, plane, van and automobile to twelve different states, through four time zones, checking in and out of ten hotels to wrestle at twenty-one dual meets and three tournaments.
In his preface to Cowboy Up, Kim Parrish writes:
I watched and took notes as the wrestlers trained, traveled, pulled weight, studied, bled, starved, fought, prayed, cried, competed, slept, waited, worried, laughed, screamed, cursed, whispered, and held onto hope. All for only one end in mind.
I am trained as a lawyer and not a journalist. My eye is for detail and patterns, and not storylines and drama. But, to my great surprise, the process lent itself to both. It is a story of newcomers getting their chance and veterans losing their way. It is a story of brotherly love and family betrayal. It is about the power of expectations and the blunt, cold truth of not measuring up. It is a tale about boys becoming men, a coach becoming a teacher, and a group becoming a team. But, most of all, it is a story that needs to be told.
Observe and learn
When asked what propelled the writing of Cowboy Up, Kim Parrish immediately responds, "I was curious to see behind-the-scenes of the winningest college program and its legendary coach."
"Even though Oklahoma State is known nationally and internationally for wrestling, (Oklahoma) is still very much a football state."
John SmithKim continues: "I approached Coach Smith about following the team. Coach immediately saw the value of the project -- wanting others to know the sacrifices wrestlers make to the sport … He wanted to share this information with others, to continue the vitality of the sport."
"He was very free with sharing his observations, giving me access."
"My goal wasn't to do nose-to-nose interviews, but to do observations off to the sidelines. More like an anthropological study."
"I dictated my observations into a recorder, then, when I had a chance, typed up my notes as soon as possible, while they were still fresh in my mind."
"I just hung out with the team," says Kim. "I was there for pre-match talks and preparation. I went into the locker room after matches. That was interesting and enlightening."
Kim Parrish was granted unprecedented access to the Oklahoma State wrestling program as they embarked on their quest to win a third straight NCAA team title -- and their 33rd overall in the then 75-year history of the college wrestling championships.
The Cowboy legacy … and what it means today
When asked if the Oklahoma State Cowboys he observed had a sense of the incredible championship legacy of their program that extends back even before the NCAA wrestling tournament started in 1928, Kim Parrish responds, "When they put on the orange singlet, they have that sense of what is expected."
"The photos of 80 previous champs line the wrestling room, almost as if they are watching the current wrestlers."
The author then brings together the historical aspect with its relevance to today: "This book is a study of a culture of excellence … It is an examination of what a program can do to be successful. It provides content on dealing with defeat, teambuilding, and other universal issues that go beyond wrestling."
"That said, this is a wrestling book, not a business success book."
Getting inside = getting personal
"One of the things that really gets me is the heartbreak and suffering (of the wrestlers) -- when they lose a match, when they don't make the team, when their college careers are over," discloses Kim Parrish.
Left to right: Johny Hendricks, Steve Mocco, John Smith, Jake Rosholt, and Zack Esposito (Photo/Cowboy Up)Cowboy Up reflects that feeling, by providing intimate insights into the individuals who make up the 2005 Cowboy wrestling team. Not just the superstars who went on to win individual titles at the 2005 NCAAs -- Zack Esposito, Johny Hendricks, Chris Pendleton, Jake Rosholt, and Steve Mocco -- but also the others on the team who may not be as well-known beyond Oklahoma State wrestling fans who "bleed orange."
With his book, Kim Parrish is able to provide portraits of these wrestlers that may go beyond what the general public knows -- or thinks it knows -- about these wrestlers. For example, take this word-portrait on page 376 of top-ranked Cowboy heavyweight Steve Mocco (who had transferred from the University of Iowa):
But the guy who "expects opponents to tremble when they meet him on the wrestling mat" was a 4.0 student who enjoyed crafting ceramic bowls for fun. Late one sunny afternoon in Lincoln, Nebraska, he sat with (coach) Smith, recited each of the Ten Commandments in order, and debated how they were altered and refined through the vagaries of the Middle Ages …
Mocco's arrival in Stillwater was big news, but sometimes he was unaware of his standing on campus. When asked to serve as a celebrity waiter at a Special Olympics fundraiser in Stillwater with teammate Chris Pendleton, he was curious, asking "Who are the celebrities?"
Cowboy Up doesn't limit its insightful portraits to the Oklahoma State wrestlers, as evidenced by this word-picture on page 373 of eventual two-time NCAA champion Ben Askren, after losing the 174-pound title bout to Chris Pendleton:
Chris Pendleton and Ben Askren embrace after their NCAA finals match at 174 pounds in 2005 (Photo/Danielle Hobeika)Askren was somber as he stood center-stage and received his runner-up plaque. Choosing not to speak to reporters after a match, he sat and sobbed in a dark and private arena corridor. He lost only four matches during the season, all to Pendleton. Askren's teammate, 165-pounder Tyron Woodley, put it best, "I'm guessing he's happy [Pendleton] is gone."
Getting to know Coach John Smith
In addition to providing the reader with rare views of college wrestlers, Cowboy Up also delivers something of a biography of head coach John Smith. In fact, approximately ten percent of the text of the book -- 38 out of 390 pages -- is devoted to telling the story of the Cowboy coach. What's more, Smith is the only individual pictured on the front or back covers of Cowboy Up.
As might be expected, readers learn about John Smith's considerable mat accomplishments as a two-time NCAA champ for Oklahoma State, six-time world champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Sullivan Award winner as best amateur athlete in any sport. Not bad for a guy who admits in the foreword he wrote for this book that, as a small boy growing up in Del City, Oklahoma, he was pinned in his first five matches.
In addition, Cowboy Up also serves up some surprising information on John Smith. It provides insight on how he came to develop the low single-leg takedown, his signature move that confounded college and freestyle opponents alike. Just as significant, the book describes how Smith had to change his mindset from a competitor -- who was described in a 1992 Los Angeles Times story just before the Barcelona Olympics as being "obsessed with three things: himself, wrestling and winning. Anything or anybody else had better get out of the way" -- into a successful coach who not only commands the respect of his wrestlers, but of the wrestling world at large.
Here's how Smith addresses the wrestler-into-coach transition in a quote on page 63 of Cowboy Up: "Being a world-class athlete is about being selfish. You have to. But being a coach is about giving and giving and giving, but I am at peace with that. It was difficult to make that transition when I retired at age 26, giving up that pretense that it was all about me … I am now at peace with the stance of being a giving person and not a taking person. Not that I'm like that all the time, but that is the dynamic I strive for."
If you'd like to get an all-access, behind-the-scenes immersion into a championship college wrestling program � but can't afford to take eighteen weeks out of your life to travel with the team -- Cowboy Up is the next best thing. Thanks to Kim Parrish's thoughtful, detailed observations -- along with tons of great photos -- you'll feel as if you were part of the 2004-2005 Oklahoma State championship wrestling team.
To learn more about Cowboy Up -- or to find out how to purchase a copy, click HERE.
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