Gift to grappling

Saturday, January 6, 2007

By MIKE TRUEBLOOD

The Register-Mail

GALESBURG - Chuck Porter helped form Knox College's wrestling program as a student in the late 1940s. It was only fitting that he returned to the Knox campus Friday to see it take a big leap forward.

Thanks to a large gift and fund raising efforts made by Porter, a 1952 graduate and 1967 Knox grad James Nordin, Knox dedicated its Porter Wrestling Complex. Applauding appreciatively was perhaps the largest Prairie Fire wrestling team in history - 16 members strong - as they looked on.

"This year we have a goal to win conference," said Knox wrestler Josh Franklin. "Through the funding, it helps us develop that attitude.

"With the improved training, it will help us get where we want."

The opening of Knox's E. and L. Andrew Fitness center early last year opened up 3,000 square feet of space previously used as a weight room in the basement of Memorial Gym. The space was reworked to create a team meeting and film room used by several sports and to expand the area used by wrestling.

A new workout area includes equipment used specifically by wrestlers.

"Our conditioning is far better than what it was years ago when we had to bounce back and forth between the weight room and wrestling room, said coach Tony Islas, who has coached a roster numbering as few as six in recent years. "That's the way it was before but now they're right outside our door, we don't have to contest for them. They're ours."

Porter, who recalled the first practices as a 147-pounder in 1949 on canvas mats in the women's gym, says he knows wrestling programs have fallen on hard times in recent years.

"It's taken hits at a lot of colleges with budgetary problems," said Porter, a Chicago native and longtime resident of California. "A lot of it came with melding in women's sports and it's hard for colleges to double their athletic programs and lot of men's teams have been dropped and wrestling has been one of the biggest.

"I had a chance to dovetail a gift for wrestling into one for the fitness center."

For Nordin, a Palatine native also living in California, wrestling remains close to his heart as it did when he competed at 115 pounds in the late 1960s.

"I'm an old wrestling and it was an opportunity to get my name up there," he said of the newly-christened Nordin Wrestling Workout Room. "It was a way to help wrestling.

"Like Chuck, wrestling has given me some of the best life lessons I've ever had. There's nobody else to blame, you don't send it to committee - it's you and you produce or you don't produce.

"I can't tell you how many times in my professional life, I've fallen back on wrestling experience and I don't want kids to miss that."

Boosted by its increased numbers, the Fire intend to score more points in meets in the Northern Wrestling Association, the conference in which it competes. The Midwest Conference does not offer competition in wrestling.

Knox will host the eight-team Chuck Porter Duals today. The field, which includes teams from Wisconsin and Illinois, will begin matches at 9 a.m. in the T. Fleming Fieldhouse.