WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA
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WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA |
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| Respect and admiration do not diminish after 40 years |
| November 9yh 2023| Written by: Staff writer |
On a whim I went to the best wrestling birthday party I
could ever imagine.
Whether he knew exactly who I was or not, I got to be, at
least, a bystander to watch people who know Stephon Breedlove better than I do
to celebrate his life and accomplishments.
Stephon may not have remembered me, but I got to meet
Stephon’s wife Marilyn and his daughter Lydia and son Isaac.
Everyone else knew the five of us (Rich, Mike, Scott, Larry and me) were
from his 1983 UT wrestling team, and they were all a pleasure to meet.
I know going to this event counts in my top-five wrestling
memories of all time.
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| Birthday celebrants Marylyn and Stephon Breedlove | His name is misspelled and he did not compete for Canada, but that's our may |
I recently learned Stephon Breedlove, a teammate of
mine from the UT@Austin Texas Collegiate Wrestling Association state
championship team of 1984, was suffering from some physical and mental
disabilities. So, I thought I would try to get a few teammates to go to Longhorn
Classic at UT@Austin on January 27th.
The UT Wrestling Club president said she would introduce us as, well,
“wrestling trailblazers,” or the like, to the crowd, prior to the finals.
Two days later I learned Neil deGrasse Tyson was speaking
at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans on January 23rd.
I bought “Elite Seats” for my daughter, a friend of my sister’s and me to
see him. Neil, of course, counts as
one on that 1983 team. He did not compete as he was at Texas acquiring hi
master’s degree in astrophysics. I figured I spent enough on wrestling
sentimentality that week. I would
have to figure out something else to get some of my teammates together.
Two days later, on a Tuesday – problem solved.
Scott Kirby, from that UT team, informed me that Stephon’s children were
planning a surprise birthday party for Stephon and his wife, Marilyn, the
following Saturday, November 4th. I
booked a plane immediately and convinced two other members of our UT team to
come. From our 1983 TWCA
championship team were Stephon, Scott Kirby, Michal Shanks and Larry Swonke.
From an earlier team was Richard Fulmer.
Rich Fulmer I consider my best friend for the last 40 years
or so. We became friends because he was the only one comprehending my little
"under one's breath" sarcastic comments during practice.
He was a little heavier than I was and hence was a prime workout partner
for me. That lasted two weeks.
Our coach, Dwayne Keller, forbade us from practicing with one another
because we were laughing too much.
All of a sudden we are in fifth-grade and had to sit in desks at the opposite
side of the room.
Scott Kirby, deferring to Stephon as the best wrestler on
the team, holds “second best” all to himself.
One day Coach Keller asked us to arm-spar each other to put the other on
the mats on the wall of the 5th floor Belmont Hall room.
(That’s Texas Memorial Stadium, but they had classrooms in it.)
I got the best of him that day, and he told me that impressed him.
Today I carry that as great a memory, comparable to when Coach Sam, at
one practice, saw me stifle Gary Lagasse for a few sparing rounds.
(My thought was Gary must have been sick or something.)
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| 2023 | 1983 |
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| Larry, Stephon and Mike | Top: Scott, Rich, Martin Bottom: Larry, Stephon, Mike |
Rich and Larry | Mike, Rich, Larry and Scott |
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Stephon Breedlove has been blind since he was
two-years-old. In high school he
wrestled a ranked Iowa State kid.
The Cyclone won, by a point, and said he had never competed against a wrestler as fast as
Stephon. In 1980, Stephon won the
gold medal at the 1980 Paralympic Games in Stockholm (for Canada, for a reason I
do not know). In the three years
during which I wrestled for UT I never saw him come close to losing a match.
In the practice room, he did not sweat.
I had about 15 lbs. on him and would grab his wrist, and while I was
marveling about how there was no sweat and that his skin just felt like silk, he
was finishing his takedown on me.
He was inducted into the Texas Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2004.
Being blind was “cake” for Stephon Breedlove.
Of the stories told of him after the party, one involved that, yes, at
times he got lost on campus.
UT@Austin has a monstrous campus and he never used assistance to traverse it,
aside from his cane. When he did
get lost, he said he listened to AC compressors.
They all had different, individual sounds to him.
When he found one he recognized, he was back on track.
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| Breedlove Family | Isaac and JayCee (J.C.?) | Marilyn and daughter Lydia |
His new illnesses are of a type that limit one’s memory,
short-term and long. There were
times when I believe he recognized Scott Kirby, Richard Fulmer, Larry Swonke and
Michael Shanks. They knew him
longer than I did. He might have
recognized me for an instant, but after 40 years that may just be a hope on my
part. In Stephon’s condition one
has to consider that he was flustered a little bit after hearing “surprise!”
What I did see is that he has a wonderful family and a
great group of friends. And he can
put up those “Hook ‘em Horns” fingers up better than anyone I have ever seen.
Usually, it takes a subpoena for me to travel across the
Texas State line. Yet this was a
chance to see four guys I had not seen in 40 years and one I had not seen since
2014. If Stephon did not recognize
me at the party and does not later when people tell him about the party, at
least I got to be another one to shake his hand and ask if he needed something.
If he did not know me, yet felt in a safe environment,
perhaps it is enough that he knew
someone he did not recognize was at his service.
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Mr. Edward (seated with Isaac in the far right photograph) scared the heck out
of me. I got to Poppa’s BBQ around
4:30 pm. to see how the lighting was, as well as get out of a room that was 80%
really-comfortable-bed! Richard
Fulmer, whom I met at the UT Wrestling Club, arrived around 5 p.m.
Shortly thereafter he went to a liquor store to buy me a bottle of rum.
While he was on that venture, I went outside to have a cigarette.
Around 5:15 p.m. having my cigarette, a Houston Metro Ride car showed up
and parked next to where I was standing. When
the driver got out and opened the side door, I saw a black guy who looked to ne
in his 60’s. I thought nothing more
of it until he whipped out a walking cane.
Remember, please, that I had not seen Stephon in 40 years, and the man
getting out of the car was black, blind and possibly in his 60’s.
By all means, of course, count that my vision sucks.
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When the party was over I saw us as five ex-wrestling sexagenarians on a
Saturday night in Houston (plus Mike’s wife, who is only 29).
So, Mike and Virginia, Scott, Larry,
Rich and I went to Bombshells, an establishment that happened to be one building
away from my hotel. Bombshells is
like Hooter’s - on crack. At
Bombshells we saw LSU fold against Alabama, and the conversation of the
sexagenarians devolved into prostates and colonoscopies.
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| Hooters | Bombshells (Hooters on crack) |
Stephon has been in inspiration to people re his wrestling and his faith in God, as one ex-teammate told me. Watching him wrestle, just in practice, was something I will never forget. The grace and dignity he exhibits at a very difficult time of his life, should be something many others can experience, I apologize that I cannot do it justice re my verbal acumen.
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