Dedicating oneself to a task the way a wrestler goes about his business isn't easy, he said. "Writing is hard. I learned how to work hard from wrestling, not English courses."
Irving -- who would eventually write such critically acclaimed novels as "The Cider House Rules," "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and "The World According to Garp" -- discovered wrestling as a133-pound prep at Exeter. In "The Imaginary Girlfriend," his 1996 memoir, he explains, "The best answer to why I love wrestling is that it was the first thing I was any good at."
For what he calls his "limited success" in the sport, he said he owes completely to his first coach, Ted Seabrooke, a Big Ten champion for Illinois and an NCAA runner-up.
"The best thing he told me was that I was not very talented," said Irving, who put together two undefeated dual meet seasons at Exeter. "There would always be better athletes -- quicker, stronger kids. I could make myself technically superior, however, and I could out-condition most people. Seabrooke taught me to wrestle within my limits: Keep the score close, avoid scramble, keep good position."
Seabrooke also told him, "Talent is overrated. That you're not talented needn't be the end of it."
Later, as a coach, Irving used the knowledge he'd gained. "If you have a great athlete, you want him to scramble, you want him to force the mix-up, to make mayhem," Irving said, "and just the opposite is true of the not-so-gifted athlete."
John IrvingYears later as a coach, Irving said, "I had the highest respect for the backup wrestlers on good wrestling teams; they were what made the teams good -- as teams."
Irving transferred to the University of New Hampshire, which had no wrestling team, but he became an extra coach for Exeter and competed "unattached" in open tournaments in the area. In fact, Irving competed in his last tournament when he was 34.
But he gives no thought to entering a veteran's competition. "If I entered a veteran's tournament, I would probably lose to the same guys who were beating me when I was in my late 20s and 30s," he said.
Irving's involvement in the sport included time spent in the University of Iowa wrestling room, first as a student and, later, a teacher, in the university's famed Writers' Workshop. In "The Imaginary Girlfriend," he recalls, "Like everyone else, I couldn't resist the occasional thrill (and instant humiliation) of wrestling Dan Gable."
One of the memoir's many photos shows Gable launching Irving with a wicked foot sweep. "I went there only when I wanted to punish myself," he said.
Certified as a referee at 23, Irving retired from coaching in 1989, when he was 47. He occasionally wrestled to age 62 -- until a torn extensor tendon in his right index finger impacted this author's use of a typewriter. However, he still maintains a wrestling room, filled not only with a mat but also with a variety of exercise equipment. That photo of Gable's foot sweep also remains in the wrestling room.
Among wrestlers Irving coached were his two oldest sons: Colin, a 1983 prep school All-American and New England Class A champion, and Brendan, who pinned all his opponents to capture the New England Class A title in 1989.
His youngest son, Everett, 14, excels at downhill skiing, tennis, middle-distance running and soccer, but he's not a wrestler. "Frankly, I'm relieved," Irving said.
Irving sees his strength as a writer in his capacity for rewriting, noting that since scouting locations for a film in late February, he'd already written 13 drafts of a screenplay. "There will probably be 13 more," he said. "I don't get tired of fine-tuning."
And that's another way in which wrestling and writing mesh.
"You can't simply wrestle if you don't love it," Irving said. "The question isn't ‘Can I do this thing?' The question is, ‘How many times can I keep doing it, again and again?'
Irving's tattoo of a starting circle symbolizes that philosophy.
"Whatever you do in life, you're going to have to keep doing it again," he said. "Storytelling is about starting one story after another, often within the same story. You are always beginning again.
"If you don't handle repetition well," he said, "you won't be much of a wrestler or much of a writer."
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