Friday, March 20, 2015

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Luminaries Attend UNC/NCSU Wrestling Meet (1979)


An article from 1979 from a Chapel Hill, NC newspaper on a collegiate wrestling meet between the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State. In attendance: Bob Caudle, Joe Murnick, and Gene Anderson.



Can You Tell Who’s on Top?   Then You Can Understand Wrestling

Wrestling rules are not complicated.  Each match consists of three 3-minute periods. Points are scored for a takedown (2), reversal (2), escape (1) near fall (2) and a near fall for five seconds (3).

The moves are almost self-explanatory, and the fans are helped by an announcer who gives the calls when the officials signal a point.  A scoreboard keeps a count of individual and team scores.

When a wrestler wins a decision by less than an eight-point margin, his team receives three points.

A win by eight to 11 points nets four team points. A decision of a 12 point margin or more results in five team points. A fall or pin results in six team points, while a match ending in a tie awards two points to each team.

Among the fans watching Carolina’s 20-19 win over State were three men associated with professional wrestling. Joe Murnick, a promoter, Bob Caudle, a television announcer, and Gene Anderson, a pro wrestler since 1963, are on hand. Why would three men who make their living around the canvas rings of the professional wrestling world be on hand for a Carolina match?


“I love it,” said Murnick, who says he attends every amateur match he can. Murnick was a boxer for UNC when boxing was a competitive sport in the 1930s.

Anderson is recognized as one of pro wrestling’s “bad guys.”  He has seen many of the armories, gymnasiums and major coliseums in this country and around the world.  “Most of us were amateur wrestlers,” Anderson says. “You have to know the moves they do to do the moves we do.”

Caudle, who has been involved with pro wrestling for “17 or 18 years,” perhaps best summed up the nature of amateur wrestling.

“I’ve always enjoyed it,” Caudle said. “They really get out there and go all out for the nine minutes they are on the mats.”


And, as Lam says, it’s not very difficult to tell who is winning a match. “When a fan sees a wrestler on top of another one, he knows who is winning.


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Thanks to Carroll Hall for providing this article and to Peggy Lathan for transcribing it for us.