By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

Bill Weick remembers a time when high school wrestling in Chicago was so tough that wrestlers from the Windy City were not welcome to compete at the state high school tournament downstate.

         “I know my junior year, I lost in the state championship,” recalled Weick in looking back at his 1948 finals loss at 145 pounds in Champaign to a hometown wrestler Paul Riggins, 9-8;  a match that Weick, while competing for Tilden Tech, believed he had won 9-7.

         “After we shook hands, the referee raised (Riggins’)  hand. There is a picture of him with his mouth wide open and I’m pointing to the scoreboard. Our coach went over to the table to point out that I was ahead. A guy at the table said it was 9-8 and added, ‘Hey, you should be thankful that you are here. We don’t even want you people down here.’ ”

         That was at a time when Tilden Tech — located on the legendary tough south side of Chicago — dominated Illinois wrestling; capturing two team titles (1946 and 1952) and 21 individual  championships — including a state championship by Weick at 155 pounds in 1949 —  between 1939 and 1954 under Bob Hicks.

         “My high school (later) won eight (NCAA) national titles,” said Weick, who won a pair of national championships for Northern Iowa in 1952 and 1955, as did former Tilden wrestlers Arnold Plaza and Joe Patacsil (the grandfather of current Boilermaker Jake Patacsil) for Purdue in the 1940s and ‘50s and Joe James for Oklahoma  State in the 1960s.

         Weick, who later earned a spot on the U.S.’s first World Greco-Roman Team in 1961, went on to be a highly-successful high school coach in his homestate.         Before retiring after the 2003 season, Weick became the state of Illinois’ all-time most successful coach at both his alma mater and Mt. Carmel — also in Chicago, where his team won three straight state championships (1992-94) — with 687 victories against just 93 losses and four ties before earning many honors, including a spot in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla.

         That was then. This is now.

         There are quality programs in Chicago’s suburbs. W.I.N.’s seventh-ranked Montini Catholic, which won four straight (2002-05) Class A Dual titles, is located in Lombard. No. 13 Glenbard North can be found in Carol Stream. No. 24 Carl Sandburg, which won the last three AA dual championships, calls Orland Park home.          
       

         Meanwhile, very few Chicago public schools, including Tilden, hardly even have wrestling. Travis Hammons of Hubbard was the last to win a state title in 2005 at 160 pounds. Before that, Toby Willis won at 155 pounds for Morgan Park in 1987.

         “In the old days, you had coaches who were concerned,” said Weick. “Today the jobs are filled by people in the building who are not qualified. Someone will say I’ll take it and get paid $4,000. They may read some books or go to a clinic and then come back and tell their guys to run, do a lot of push-ups, sit-ups and grab each other and throw each other down.”

         Weick currently spends two days a week working with Brother Rice High School in Chicago, where most of the wrestling occurs in the private schools. The best Chicago-based schools are St. Rita, which won two AA state championships in 2002 and 2003, and Mt. Carmel, where brothers Steve, Joe and T.J. Williams won nine of the school’s 28 individual championships between, 1990-96, for Weick.

         Marist High School in Chicago, which has earned two team championships and ten individual titles, will be saying goodbye to another one of the state’s long-time coaches in Mark Gervais, who has compiled over 500 victories since taking over the program in 1983.

         “After 25 years, it was time for a change,” said Gervais, whose 1987 team won the Class AA championship and the 1997 team finished second.

         He takes pride in the level of wrestling coming out of Chicago.

         “With all the kids competing against each other,” said Gervais, who will continue to work with the state’s USA Wrestling team, “it makes you want to be the best.”