By Sandy Stevens, W.I.N. Columnist

The newest attempt to interest and excite wrestling fans is “Fan Interaction Night,” a pilot event of the National Wrestling Coaches Association and the NCAA wrestling competition committee. At the Dec. 7 dual meet between Lehigh and Penn State, fans get the chance to convince coaches to put a particular weight on the mat.

With university officials cutting programs and more threatening to do so, it seems we must constantly search for ways to capture fans.

According to one coach, however, the public’s lack of knowledge of and lack of interest in wrestling is partly due to the wrestlers themselves.

“If you get two pussycats pawing each other and trying to stare each other down, even I would walk out on a match like that,” he said.

Don’t bother trying to guess which current coach voiced this opinion, because the comment is vintage Bill Koll. The quote from the legendary wrestler and coach appeared in a feature in the early 1960s by a novice writer for the student newspaper at Iowa State Teachers College; now the University of Northern Iowa.

Interviewed at a time when many considered wrestling to be the most rapidly growing sport in the country, Koll then cited four reasons for its popularity.

One, he said, the state of Iowa is getting more schools of adequate size and better athletic programs. Two, wrestling is probably the only sport where size isn’t a factor. Three, football coaches are realizing that football and wrestling go hand-in-hand.

And the fourth reason, he stressed, was that wrestling is an extremely good spectator sport.

But in order to draw spectators, Koll continued, the sport must feature “an aggressive style.”

“I have my faults as a coach, but one isn’t compassion for our boys,” he said. “They don’t feel like dancing a Gavotte over at the Commons when they leave here!

“Wrestling, above all, takes concentrated effort. It isn’t fun, but there’s the personal satisfaction of pitting one’s speed, strength and skill against another.”

The man wrestled whereof he spoke.

He began his career at Northern Iowa as a student, but World War II interrupted his schooling. As a member of the Army, Koll fought in the D-Day invasion and won a bronze star.

After the war, he completed his college competition — undefeated — with three NCAA titles (freshmen could not compete in the tournament). He was the first wrestler to be twice named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler. He also won three AAU titles.

Koll graduated from Northern Iowa in 1948 and went to London that year as a member of the United States Olympic team. Years later, he would tell a Des Moines Register reporter, “On our starting eight (the number of weight classes at the time), there were six NCAA champions and one runner-up, and there were four Olympic team members.”

He often related how he lost in the Olympics when he did a back roll with his opponent six feet away and pinned himself — which was possible under the rules at that time.

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