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.