University of Tennessee at Chattanooga: Summer, 1998
I was a 133-pound sophomore wrestler at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, working our summer wrestling camp when I first had the pleasure of meeting Doug, one of our camp's featured clinicians. I was slated to be Doug's handler while he was at the camp, moving him from session to session, acting as his technique dummy, and taking him to lunch. To say I was immediately mesmerized by Doug is an understatement.
Doug had driven through the night from Oklahoma to make it to the camp on time. He showed up in a conversion van and asked me to help him unload his gear, which consisted of his 1960 Olympic gold medal and 400 posters of him pinning Emam-Ali Habibi of Iran. He traveled light.
Doug BlubaughAfter the last technique session of the day, Doug would go over to a table and autograph posters. One of the kids got the Olympic champion laughing so hard that Doug -- who suffered from narcolepsy -- fell asleep on the table and drooled on one of the posters. When Doug woke up, he gave me the poster (which I still have), telling me that if he ever died, his DNA was on the poster and to clone him. That was Doug -- always cracking a joke. And, this brings me to my favorite Doug moment.
One the third day of camp, we decided to break up the monotony of wrestling by going to the pool and having a high-dive contest, with the winner receiving all sorts of UTC wrestling gear. We asked Doug to be a judge. He immediately declined. Instead, Doug wanted to enter the competition. Who was I to say no? So, Doug got in line with a bunch of kids.
After about 20 or so lackluster backflips and one-and-a-half dives, a round, little, chubby 10-year-old, whose name was Goldberg, climbed the ladder. Goldberg was one of the big hits of the camp. Whenever he entered the arena, hundreds of campers would shout, "Gooooolllllllddddddd Beeeeerrrrrrrg, Gooooolllllllddddddd Beeeeerrrrrrrg," which was in reference to the enormous popularity of professional wrestler Bill Goldberg.
Chubby, little, Goldberg waved to the onlookers, ran off the board, and did a flawless belly flop to the delight of the crowd. He emerged from the water with perfect 10s across the board -- and everyone chanting, "Gooooolllllllddddddd Beeeeerrrrrrrg."
The 1960 Olympic Gold medalist was undeterred. He climbed the ladder and poised himself. Doug took a deep breath, ran a few steps, and jumped high into the air. He bounced his butt off the diving board (spank the baby) and immediately went into a handstand with his back facing the water. It was magical. However, Doug had problems holding the handstand and he teetered off the side of the board, still trying to complete his inverted one-and-a-half dive. He managed to nail the flip, but he couldn't stick the dive, and he landed on his stomach, causing a huge splash.
After a few tense seconds, Doug popped up from the water unscathed, probably because he had the skin of a bull elephant. He looked at the scores -- 10s across the board, except for an 8. There was a Goldberg sympathizer on the judge's panel -- one of his classmates. Doug was irate, pleading his case that not only did he spank the baby, nail the handstand, and complete a flip, but also his inadvertent belly flop was far more substantial than Goldberg's.
There was nothing I could do. The scores were tallied, and Doug finished third. Here was a man who won an NCAA Championship, Olympic gold medal, and Outstanding Wrestler of the world, and he was getting third in the 1998 UTC Wrestling Camp Diving Contest.
At lunch, Doug told me that he was more mad at himself than the kid who gave him the 8. "I know I could nail that dive if I had another chance," he said. I agreed.
At the end of the week, I tried to give Doug a bag of UTC wrestling gear. Doug refused it, saying, "I didn't earn it." That was Doug. He never wanted anything that he didn't earn. My former teammates and I still talk about Doug every time we get together for reunions. He was an amazing man. Doug Blubaugh will be missed.
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