Martori wins 2024 Mike Chapman Impact Award

By Mike Finn

Art Martori

For Art Martori, the success of the legendary Sunkist Wrestling Club in Phoenix, Ariz., has been about the people. It was not about himself as the founder of the SKWC, which has produced 72 Olympians, 29 Olympic medalists and 12 Olympic champions since it was created in 1976; a time when even the most elite amateur wrestlers struggled to make enough money to compete at the most prestigious international wrestling events in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.

“We (created Sunkist Kids WC) because we wanted to do this,” said Martori. “We saw a need and it wasn’t for the accolades. We try to stay in the back of the bus as much as we can help the people who need it. They are the ones who should get the rewards for what they do. I don’t do things to be honored.”

But that is what WIN Magazine and its founder Mike Chapman wanted to do when Martori was named the recipient of the 2024 Mike Chapman Impact Award.

“Frankly, it would take an entire issue to fully describe Art Martori’s impact on the sport of wrestling over the last 50 years or so,” said Chapman, who is also the founder of the Dan Hodge Trophy. “Following his own fine mat career at Arizona State, he turned his considerable energies toward numerous other areas of the sport and with stunning success. He founded one of the more powerful wrestling clubs anywhere and has been a leader on the international stage for decades. Along with many others, I stand in awe of his tremendous impact on the sport of wrestling, at all levels and in all places around the country, and even the world.”

And sadly, the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club will no longer exist following the 2024 Olympics in Paris after the 81-year-old graduate of Arizona State announced this spring he was retiring.

“I work in four-year quadrants and I didn’t see myself doing this for four more years,” he said. “When you hit 80, you realize that life is limited and that you are not on the upscale. I decided to pull the pin on the Sunkist Kids and enjoy my family, do things with them and do things for them. It’s not monetary. It’s about time.”

Once upon a time, amateur wrestling in the country was indeed in a tough spot financially; partly because of the International Olympic Committee’s hard-lined description of amateur athletics, restricting athletes from making money off their success. Many had to find part-time jobs to finance their training.

Thousands of wrestlers and coaches have represented the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club since it started in 1976. Pictured above (left) was a group from the 1980s.

That is what Martori faced when he wrestled in the mid-60s and later took over the family citrus business as he was also part of what was called the Phoenix Wristlock Club; somewhat of a predecessor to the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club.

“When I was wrestling, a whole bunch of us would jump in the car and we’d go to a tournament,” he recalled. “If the tournament was two days, we’d rent one hotel room; take the mattress off, where the lightweight guys got the box springs and the heavier weights got the mattress. We’d cut weight with garbage bags and we’d eat bologna sandwiches after we’d weigh in. That’s what it was like in the old days and it limited where you would go.” 

That all changed with the arrival of the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club.

“The Sunkist Kids would send people all over the world on thousands of trips and that helped the athletes get better and it also helped the country get better in wrestling,” said Martori, who also served as president of USA Wrestling from 1992-1994, and who also served on USA Wrestling’s Board of Directors.

Martori also credits the New York Athletic Club, perhaps the first club to help amateur athletes.

“If it wasn’t for the New York AC, which laid the gauntlet down, I might not have started Sunkist,” he said. “They wanted me to stay on the West Coast. I’m kind of a competitive guy so we just started helping more and more athletes and we kind of dominated for some 20 years.”

“He was a leader, legend, innovator, mastermind,” said Zeke Jones, the current head coach at Arizona State, who was introduced to Martori when he chose to also wrestle for the Sun Devils, which won the NCAA title in 1988. “He created the vision that everyone now has duplicated and he also fell in love with the American wrestling program.”

It’s impossible for Martori to credit all those former Sunkist Kids wrestlers who excelled in the Olympics or the 277 all-time SKWC athletes (including 97 medalists and 31 champions) who wrestled in World Championships.

But there are at least two who stand out: John Smith, who won two Olympic gold medals and four World Championships; and Tricia Saunders, who became the first American female World champion in 1992 while representing the Sunkist Kids; well before the Olympics first created a women’s freestyle championship in 2004.

“While John’s accomplishments were about John, Tricia’s accomplishments were more for women’s wrestling and the addition of women’s wrestling in the Olympics,” said Martori.

He also reminds fans the impact women’s wrestling had on the IOC’s decision to reinstate wrestling to the Games in 2013. “The addition of women’s wrestling is a big reason why it is still part of the Olympics. We were diversified and we had all the support of the strong countries in the world for women’s athletics.”

So why was Martori one of the first to promote women’s athletics in this country?

“He has three very strong-willed daughters,” laughed Kim Martori-Wickey, who currently serves as the final Sunkist Kids executive director. Growing up with sisters Carol and Jill, Kim said her father was innovative because he wanted to create opportunities.

“He knew women had the right to pursue their dreams as well and to reach their goals,” Kim said. “He raised us to be strong and assertive to be anything we dreamed. When Tricia came to him, he listened and learned, knew the timing was right and they took action.

“It’s also his passion for the love of the sport and his passion to help others. And I think he is super smart. He understands business and how to stay in front. He listens and pays attention to what the athletes are asking and what coaches are saying. He has this way of putting it all together.”

So, what should be the legacy of Art Martori and the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club?

“I think we made a difference,” said Martori, who paused to catch his emotions. “We were at the right time and gave a shot in the arm to the sport and helped it progress. USA Wrestling was coming out of some struggles financially and they are financially strong now.

“And the athletes we have had representing this country are unbelievable. I think we are going to do unbelievably well at the Olympics this summer.”

(To view a complete history of the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club, go to sunkistkids.org.) n