yelled at me, which I thought was great. I made mistakes but the coaches were understanding since they knew I was a col- lege kid. I did a few more matches that year. We didn’t make much money, like 30 bucks. That was my start.
USA Wrestler: Tell us about your teaching career in Florida. Tucci: I ended up at Norlin Junior High School in the north end of town. I enjoyed it. I was there two years. There was an opening at Miami Dade College. On a whim, I applied. They needed someone with experience. I had refereed Dade County, so they kind of knew me. There were graduates from West Virginia who worked there which helped. I got the job and was there 10 years. We did very well. We hosted the Sunshine Tournament. We won the Florida state championships a few times. I had national placewinners at Junior College Nationals. We had 20 colleges in Florida which wrestled. The University of Florida hired a new football coach, Charley Pell. Over one of the weekends, he took all the mats from the wrestling room and made it a weight room. They dropped wrestling there. It was a domino effect. Other schools started dropping it. They dropped wrestling at Miami Dade. That was my main job. I taught every- thing there, swimming, diving, gymnastics, diving, tennis. I knew my job was in jeopardy. Coaching was the main part of it. I applied back to the Dade County system and went back to Norlin, and finished my career at another middle school.
USA Wrestler: When did you officiate your first international
event? Tucci: I was teaching at Miami Dade. There was an announcement we were going to do a Junior World Tournament at Miami Beach Convention Center in 1973. It was going to be the biggest tournament ever held in the United States. The guy running it was Steve Evanoff. I knew him, he had a restaurant and I would go there. He invited Chuck Almeida, Mort Geller and I to an organizational meeting. I had never seen an interna- tional match. At the meeting, he wanted me to be co-director because I ran the Sunshine Open. He asked if I refereed inter- national-style. I said no. He said to go to some of the local tour- naments around. The Junior World qualifier was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I had a license and went there and refereed with Mort and Chuck. It was interesting and I enjoyed it. We put the Junior World Tournament on and I got my international licence in Miami. Milan Ercegan was there. I refereed a few matches there and it was enough. The next year, I got elevated to a 2. The fol- lowing year, I went with Chuck to Mexico for the Pan American Games. Ercegan and Mario Saletnig were there, and I got my Exceptionelle, which was the highest ranking then.
USA Wrestler: Who were some of your early mentors as a referee, and what did they do to advance your abilities? Tucci: I would say Steve Evanoff, Dick Torio, a Japanese gentleman Azuma and Dr. Hamidi from Iran. They liked me, and would chastise me, pat me on the back like a son, they would tell me what I needed to do and didn’t need to do. One good experience for me was at the World Championships in Iran. Dr. Hamidi, a year before he died, was walking with an entourage of people with him. He saw me, and went ‘Tucci, my son, my son.’ He embraced me and they were taking pictures. It made me feel so good.
USA Wrestler: What was the journey to becoming an elite
official like? Tucci: I took my family to Montreal to see the 1976 Olympic Games. I went to every session. I was thinking to myself, these guys aren’t that good. I saw a lot of mistakes, problems. I felt I
could do as well or better than them, so I kept working at it. In 1977, I did the World Championships in Sweden for Greco. I went to Lausanne, Switzerland for freestyle, where Stan Dziedzic won his gold medal, and I got Outstanding Official. I kept refereeing and doing what I had to do.
USA Wrestler: In 1980, you were chosen for the Olympics in Moscow and did not go because of the USA boycott. What are your thoughts of that now? Tucci: In 1980, I did the Trials again and it was a selection process. You didn’t try out. Jerry Wager, Larry Warren, Dan Dierdorf and myself were selected to go to Moscow. The U.S. boycotted. I turned it down and so did Wager and Dierdorf. Larry Warren went. He was treated well and got a lot of match- es. For me, being part of a World Championships or Olympic Games is being a part of the USA team, seeing how they per- form. You think, I could have done the Olympic Games, but I was thinking ahead. At the Olympics, you see the team march in with the U.S. flag, and they wouldn’t be there. I was thinking I’d make another Olympic Games, and if I don’t, I am not going to regret the decision. And I haven’t.
USA Wrestler: Tell us about the first Olympic Games you offi-
ciated. Tucci: The first Olympics was in 1984 in Los Angeles. I refer- eed a match, and the FILA Bureau at the time wanted the other guy to win. At that time, they’d take you in a room, show a video and you score the match. I’m a young guy, first Olympics, and the President of international wrestling has me looking at video. I could be suspended, thrown out. We looked at it. He said, ‘Tucci, what do you think.’ I said, ‘Mr. President, I think is what I called, three points.’ Look at it again. I wasn’t being stubborn. I guess I was being stupid. We looked at it a third time. I said, ‘Mr. President, it is whatever you think it should be.’ That was it. They didn’t suspend me and I refereed the whole thing. It was at home, everybody was cheering for the USA. I did two Greco finals. I didn’t do many freestyle finals because the U.S. was involved in almost every one of them.
USA Wrestler: Do you know how many countries you have visited? What locations do you remember the most? Tucci: I think it is close to 100 different countries. Some of them were multiple times. We used to have our meeting in Rome, Italy for seven straight years. The best place, and maybe I’m a little prejudiced because I am Italian, was when we had the World Military Championships in Sicily. The food was out- standing, it was summer, and it was beautiful weather. The com- petition was very good. One of the worst ones was in Egypt. Everybody was getting sick. The accommodations weren’t very good. It was a World Junior Championship. There were so many things wrong.
USA Wrestler: Do any athletes or matches stand out in your
mind? Tucci: One of the great experiences was in 1983 when I saw Dave Schultz win the gold medal at the World Championships in Kiev in the Soviet Union. The place was filled with Russians. There weren’t many Americans there, just our team. They were playing the U.S. national anthem and this whole, completely full venue, everybody was standing for the U.S. national anthem. There is Dave standing in the gold-medal spot. That to me was one of my most memorable moments.
USA Wrestler: As an international referee, you must work Continued on page 27
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