Looking back at 2015: Wrestlers, coaches who left us

In the past year, a number of individuals who once wrestled, coached or otherwise contributed to the sport passed away. There were young athletes, still competing in high school or college ... as well as those whose time in the sport was decades ago. InterMat pays tribute to these individuals who left us in 2015.

Active wrestlers

Three active high school wrestlers died during the 2015-16 season. In November, Tristan White, 14, of Treynor High School in western Iowa was struck and killed by a sport utility vehicle while doing roadwork with his teammates after school. Earlier this month, Cullen Porter, 17, a senior at Franklin High School in Virginia died after being injured in wrestling practice. Then, on Dec. 19, Austin Roberts, 18, a 220-pound placer at the Iowa state wrestling championships in March, collapsed during the finals at a tournament in his home gym at Spencer High School, passing away later that evening at the local hospital.

At least two current collegiate wrestlers died in 2015. In June, Steven Kelly, 157-pound starter for the Colorado State University-Pueblo wrestling squad, drowned while tubing in the Arkansas River near Pueblo. He was 23. In February, Nick Gavazzi, an 18-year-old freshman member of the Clarion University wrestling team, was killed when his car collided with a coal truck in Armstrong County, Pa.

Olympians

Dan Brand was welcomed into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum in 2011 (Photo/Larry Slater)

A quartet of wrestlers who represented the U.S. at the Olympics in the 1950s and 60s died within the past 12 months. Dan Brand, University of Nebraska All-American heavyweight and two-time U.S. Olympic wrestler who earned a bronze medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games, died in February at age 79. Bill Kerslake, three-time Olympian (1952, 1956, 1960) who wrestled heavyweight at what is now Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, died in September at 85. Hugh Perry, a three-time NCAA champ at University of Pittsburgh who wrestled for the U.S. at the '56 Melbourne Games, passed away in January at age 84. A couple weeks earlier, Dick Beattie, 82, two-time NCAA titlewinner for Oklahoma State (1958, 1959) who earned a place on the '56 Olympic team but was forced to sit out because of an emergency appendectomy just before the Games, was killed in a car accident in his native Oklahoma.

Two Olympic alternates also left us this year. Bradley Glass, 1951 NCAA heavyweight champ for Princeton University who was a U.S. Olympic alternate for the 1956 Melbourne Games, died at age 84 in August. Verne Gagne, two-time NCAA champ for Minnesota (1948, 1949) and 1948 London Olympics alternate who went on to become a major pro wrestling star in a career that spanned decades, lost his decade-long battle with Alzheimer's disease in May. He was 89.

College mat stars of the past

In addition to Olympians with college mat titles already mentioned, at least three NCAA champs passed away this year. Bob Hoke, a two-time Big Ten conference champion and 1954 NCAA titlewinner for Michigan State who enjoyed a long career in medicine, died in May at age 82. Steve Fernandes, former Western New England College wrestler who won a 1982 NCAA Division III championship at what was then called Trenton State (now College of New Jersey), died at age 54 in September. The following month saw the passing of Jim Harmon, 81, 1953 NCAA champ for Iowa State Teachers College (now University of Northern Iowa).

As for other former collegiate wrestlers who died in 2015 ... Greg Plitt, a 2000 West Point graduate who wrestled for Army, then went on to become a fitness model featured on dozens of magazine covers (and was the subject of 2007 InterMat profile), died in January after being struck by a commuter train in suburban Los Angeles. He was 37. Gary Dillingham, a 1962 SUNY Athletic Conference champion wrestler at SUNY-Cortland who went on to a long coaching career at Cortland High School, died of an apparent heart attack while maintaining statistics at a high school wrestling event in January. Frank Rader, a former Davidson College wrestler and leader in USA Wrestling, passed away in his North Carolina home in May at age 66. George Hobbs, three-time Big Ten finalist and 1962 NCAA All-American for Michigan State who went on to coach the now-defunct mat program at Western Michigan University, died in July. In October, Carl Abell, two-time Big Ten runner-up in the late 1940s at Ohio State, passed away at age 88. Russ Doan, a three-time Interstate conference champ for Kent State in the late 1930s who went on to a long high school coaching/athletic director career in northeast Ohio, died in December at age 99. Emanuel Yarbrough, larger-than-life two-time NCAA heavyweight All-American for Morgan State in the 1980s who went on to compete in sumo and mixed martial arts, died of a heart attack just before Christmas. Chuck Clausen, heavyweight wrestler for the University of New Mexico in the early 1960s who went on to coach football at big-time college programs as well as the NFL, died Christmas Eve at 75.

Coaches

Death took a trio of well-known, highly-respected former college mat coaches. Joe Wells, former University of Iowa wrestler and retired head coach at Oregon State who led the Beavers to a 161-94-3 record in 14 seasons from 1993-2006, died in April at age 67. Dean Sensenbaugh, who created the intercollegiate wrestling program at California's Modesto Junior College and served as its head coach for nearly 30 years, died in August after suffering a stroke on his 91st birthday. Also passing away in August: Jim Aguiar, 68, former head wrestling coach at New Hampshire's Plymouth State and Minnesota State University Moorhead. In December, it was announced that Dave Foster, long-time wrestling coach at California's Lassen Community College, had passed away.

A number of top-notch high school coaching legends who made their mark in intense wrestling hotbeds passed away in 2015. Ray Nunamaker, Penn State wrestler who became a legendary coach at Nazareth High School in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, died in July at age 74, having been diagnosed with a brain tumor last year. John T. Toggas, the first York County, Pa. wrestling coach to reach 300 victories, passed away in October at 83. George Munnich, long associated with wrestling on Long Island - as a wrestler at the storied Mepham High School program in the early 1950s, then at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and later as wrestling coach on the middle and high school level - passed away at age 78 after suffering a stroke in November.

The wrestling community also felt the loss of individuals with strong connections to the sport. Ruth McCain Nichols, widow of all-time great Iowa State head wrestling coach Harold Nichols, passed away in September at age 92. That same month, Jillian Tsirtsis, 33, sister of Northwestern wrestling champ Jason Tsirtsis and former Iowa All-American Alex Tsirtsis, was killed in an accident on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive. Doug Reiter, patriarch of a wrestling family that included two sons who won four Iowa state titles and who served the Don Bosco High School wrestling program in a number of ways, passed away this fall after a two-year battle with brain cancer. On December 1, Allen Brown, College Editor for the amateur wrestling website WrestlingReport.com and popular, highly respected participant in various online amateur wrestling forums under the name "Stove Pipe" passed away days after suffering a stroke.

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