Not all storied wrestling programs are found on college campuses. Some of the truly great ones have been located in high schools -- Blair Academy (New Jersey), Great Bridge (Virginia), Clearfield (Pennsylvania), Waterloo West and Cresco (Iowa), Perry (Oklahoma), to name a few.
Jim Kalin would make the case that Maple Heights High School in suburban Cleveland and its legendary head wrestling coach Mike Milkovich should be included in any list of all-time legacy mat programs. He does just that in his brand-new book "Mustang" now available.
Meet Jim Kalin
Jim Kalin and Russ RussoAlthough he now lives in Los Angeles, Kalin described himself as "Ohio born and raised," adding "I was born at University Hospital at Ohio State. Dad wrestled at Ohio State. He took me to practice. Eighteen years later, I was back in that room as an Ohio State wrestler."
Kalin was raised in the Cleveland area. His father coached at Parma High School, then at Parma Normandy High. Jim Kalin attended and wrestled at Strongsville High, a bit further to the south.
"It was great to be a kid in the Sixties and be aware of Maple Heights," Kalin told InterMat. "I competed at a lot of summer tournaments throughout the Midwest. Whenever coach Milkovich and his team would enter a tournament, it was like Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers entering the gym."
Meet Mike Milkovich
Mike Milkovich with son Tom Milkovich"Mike Milkovich changed American wrestling," Kalin asserts in the back-cover promotional text for "Mustang." "In this definitive biography, 'Mustang' chronicles the life of this National Wrestling Hall of Fame coach and provides the reader with an accurate, honest look at his genius and modesty, his unparalleled sense of fairness, but also the contradictions, the strict discipline toward his sons, and the refusal of anything but victory. Mike Milkovich was ferocious as General George Patton and as unbending as the Great Santini ..."
As Kalin pointed out in his interview with InterMat, Mike Milkovich was only the third high school wrestling coach to be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. His Maple Heights Mustangs grabbed ten team titles at the Ohio state championships (back when there was only one division) and were runners-up eight times. At one state tournament, Milkovich's Mustangs could claim six state placers ... "all without recruiting," according to Kalin.
So how did Milkovich manage to get so much great mat talent from a high school that served just one working-class suburb south of Cleveland, populated by dads who toiled in the steel mills and car plants of Northeast Ohio?
"Milkovich would prowl the halls like a bloodhound, sniffing out would-be wrestlers," said Kalin. "Some were tough guys or thugs. He'd challenge them to go out for wrestling. Some did, and decided they liked it."
How the book came about
"I've always been a big reader," Kalin said. "I've always wanted to write."
"Once I stopped wrestling, I stepped away from the sport. Didn't have any contact with it until the late 1990s."
"I became an official here in LA for a season. That got me back into wrestling."
"Once I started writing for Amateur Wrestling News, I began thinking about doing a wrestling book." (Up until that point, Kalin had written fiction.)
"I was asked by Bob Preusse to do a feature on Mike Milkovich for AWN."
That request from a fellow wrestling writer ended up being the book "Mustang" which was nearly four years in the making.
"I interviewed over one hundred individuals," said Kalin. "A lot of the stories I got from two different people."
"If you were alive and wrestled at Maple Heights, I made every attempt to interview you."
"Whenever I'm writing, I really like to learn something," Kalin added. "It's very rewarding to uncover something new."
"It's kind of like throwing a stone into the water and rings that come out from that and intersect each other -- all those intersecting stories from teammates. That's how I wrote the book; that's how I tell those stories."
That explanation describes "Mustang" well. It's not your typical biography told in chronological order that begins with the subject's birth and concludes with death or retirement.
Kalin says the blueprint for his Milkovich/Maple Heights mat story was "Son of the Morning Star" about General George Custer by Evan S. Connell, who also wrote "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge."
"That book starts with the battlefield scene days after Little Big Horn," according to Kalin.
"Milkovich was kind of a Custer-like figure. I figured I had to start ("Mustang") with a big thing -- (son) Tom's third state title."
You don't have to be from Ohio to read "Mustang"
It would be easy to imagine wrestling fans outside the greater Cleveland area -- or the Buckeye State -- to say "Why should I read this?"
Despite being an Ohio resident who spent two years living in suburban Cleveland early in his career, this writer had to ask the author.
"Mike Milkovich and Maple Heights changed Cleveland wrestling at a time when Ohio really didn't figure into the national scene," replied Kalin. "He and his wrestlers forced Ohio to become better. Now Ohio ranks among the top two or three states for wrestling in the nation."
"He helped other coaches up their game."
"This is your heritage, no matter where you live, no matter where you wrestled."
What's more, "Mustang" is chock-full of compelling stories that anyone who stepped onto a mat -- or sat in the stands at a dual meet or tournament -- can appreciate. Especially if you had a coach and teammates who shaped your own life beyond wrestling.
"About a third of the guys I talked to started to cry during the interview," said Kalin. "They'd say things like, 'This man changed my life' or 'He was a father figure for me.'"
"It was a most glorious time in their lives."
"I want wrestlers to learn about their (Milkovich's and Maple Heights') heritage, whether they're a 40-year-old past wrestler, or a seventh grader," Kalin concluded.
If you have a connection to wrestling, you owe it to yourself to read "Mustang" ... even if the only things that come to mind when you hear "Cleveland" are the Cavaliers or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You'll probably recognize a bit of Mike Milkovich in your own coach ... and see yourself and your teammates in some of the stories told by his wrestlers over the years. Beyond that, there are threads that connect a number of big names in wrestling who never set foot in Maple Heights but are instantly recognizable to any student of the sport. What's more, the book is constructed in a way that is incredibly reader-friendly; you can pick it up, read a chapter or two, and easily return to it when you have time ... or you can gallop through major portions at will.
To learn more about "Mustang", visit the official website www.mustangthebook.com. You can order from the website, or by email to info@shemcreekpublishing.com, or call (323) 456-3299.
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