Continued from page 32 191.


“It was logical to me, but Port said it was one of the stupidest things he ever heard of. He said that the only way I could con- vince him that I was a 191-pounder was to win the national championships, which I did against Joe James,” said Baughman.


The victory over James remains vivid in his memory. “James was the best built wrestler I’ve ever seen, period. He looked like a giant version of Lee Kemp with more muscle and more ripped. He also cut a lot of weight and had wrestled most- ly heavyweight. A few hours before the finals, I went to the wrestling room at Oklahoma State. James was standing on the scale with his gear on. He weighed 211. We weighed in at 193. When he got off the scale, I checked my weight and was 187. Most people would be scared but for me, it fired me up. It was always speed that beat me, so that gave me a little bit of confi- dence. I thought I deserved it more than he did. It was a close match, an exciting match, and I pulled out,” he said. Baughman placed second in the NCAAs as a senior, losing in the finals to Jack Barden of Michigan, 4-2. He was undefeated going in and had been Outstanding Wrestler at Big Eights. In his mind, he had choked. It was a disappointing finish to his career, which Baughman thought would be his last wrestling match. He joined the Air Force ROTC when he came into college, seeking to become an officer, and a pilot. The long-term goal was to leave the Air Force and become a commercial pilot. His coach Tommy Evans had other plans about wrestling, telling him he still had to compete at the national AAUs before the end of his senior season. Baughman had not wrestled much in the international styles.


“He said there was nothing different from collegiate style to freestyle. He said there was no transition. He said everything that works on your feet in collegiate works in freestyle. Everything that works in the top position in collegiate works in freestyle. From the bottom position, you don’t do anything. All you do is protect yourself. In the United States, Greco-Roman is just a legal street fight and you have been in a lot of illegal street fights, so just beat the crap out of all of them. He said coming off the collegiate season, you will be in a lot better con- dition than 90% of the guys you’ll wrestle. I said I can’t afford to go, and he said he could get the O Club to pay my way. I said I didn’t want to go, and he said it would haunt me the rest of my life,” said Baughman.


With no experience and little international training, Baughman won the 1963 AAU Nationals in Greco-Roman and placed sec- ond in freestyle. He defeated Olympian Russ Camillieri in the Greco-Roman finals. Suddenly, his plans to leave wrestling had changed forever.


“The head of the ROTC detachment came up and asked when I was going out for the World Championship team. I said I wasn’t going out. He said I beat the people who make World Teams. Until he said that, I never thought about it. He said he could get me into the Air Force, and I could get paid while I go overseas and compete. I still didn’t believe I was good enough to do it. I went on to make the Greco World team, and the Air Force asked me to wait a year for pilot training so I could make the Olympic team. I ended up making the Olympic team,” he said.


It started a continuing saga for many years, with Baughman having success in both styles, while considering getting out of the sport to pursue his military career. Because he kept winning, he was asked to keep wrestling and representing the Air Force at the Olympic level. It led to making three Greco-Roman Olympic wrestling teams, including serving as captain for two of


them. He also made eight World Teams, competing in both styles.


At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Baughman had his best run in Greco-Roman, placing fifth at 87 kg. Although it was an excellent performance, Baughman is still haunted with the fact he could have done better.


“I felt I was at my prime. I was 28 years old. I had more expe- rience than most Americans. Going into the Olympics, I really felt good. Henry Wittenburg was our coach. I thought this was an old man, didn’t have any Greco experience and didn’t know anything about Greco. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Henry was as great a coach as I ever had. Right up front, he said he didn’t know much about Greco-Roman but knew what it takes to win in wrestling. Our team was as well prepared as any team we ever had in Greco,” said Baughman. He had a match against Valentin Oleynik of the Soviet Union, with both athletes having a loss. Under the pairing rules at the time, the winner would finish second, but the loser would end up fifth. Baughman led throughout the match, and was ahead by three points in the closing seconds. “I did have a bad leg I had injured in workouts, where I had a limited range of motion. It wasn’t really my power leg but I com- pensated real well. We were at the edge of the mat and I did something uncharacteristic for me. I kind of relaxed. He used a sombo throw, where he used his leg to lift, which was technical- ly illegal. Even then, I was not that concerned. I would have to post my front leg out. I tried to post it out, the range of motion caught me and I got whipped under and pinned. That was a bad dream that will never go away,” he said.


Had Baughman won that match, he would have become the


first American to ever win an Olympic medal in Greco-Roman. That honor went to Steve Fraser, with a gold in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.


“I would have liked to earn that silver medal, not for myself, but for Greco-Roman wrestling. It would have been a big boost back then. We had one World bronze in 1962, and had not won an Olympic medal. But, coulda, shoulda, oughta. One thing I took great pride in was I didn’t make mistakes and could capital- ize on other people’s stupid mistakes. When it counted the most, I made a dumb mistake,” he said. Although Baughman was more often a Greco-Roman team member and won nine Greco national titles, he did win five national titles in freestyle, made two U.S. Freestyle World Teams and won the Pan American Games in freestyle. Every year, he trained and competed in both styles. He even won a national title and competed at the World Championships in Sombo, a style within FILA which many thought might become an Olympic sport. “A lot of people considered me a Greco-Roman wrestler. I did- n’t consider myself either. I like to try different styles. I consid- ered myself a wrestler, not a freestyle wrestler or a Greco- Roman wrestler,” he said. Even today, Baughman thinks wrestlers should not restrict themselves to one style, something he advocates when he speaks and in articles he has published.


“I am trying to get wrestlers to wrestle both ways. I don’t understand why these freestyle wrestlers don’t go Greco and double their chance to make a World or Olympic team. If they participate in Greco-Roman, they will improve in freestyle,” he said.


When the 1972 Olympics ended and his competitive career was over, the AAU asked Baughman to serve as its head freestyle coach for the four-year cycle between 1973 Worlds and the 1976 Olympic Games. This was a bit of a surprise,


Continued on page 39 33 USA Wrestler


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