Tom OwensFor today’s wrestlers and young fans, it’s hard to imagine NOT being able to follow wrestling online. These days, there are thousands of Web sites dedicated to the sport (over 6,200 listed at Tom Fortunato’s “The Web's Best of Amateur Wrestling” Web site) … Web sites that provide live streaming video of events around the world, audio and video interviews, athlete profiles, action photos, up-to-the-minute statistics, historical information, and online forums for fans to discuss the sport.
However, 15 years ago, the Internet was in its infancy … at least for individuals outside the government, or major universities or corporations that viewed the Internet as a research/communication tool. For wrestling results, photos and athlete profiles, the wrestling community had to wait for the latest issue of Amateur Wrestling News (or their favorite regional wrestling newsletter) to be snail-mailed to their mailbox. Want to see wrestling action from your home? You’d have to wait for one of those rare TV broadcasts … or score a videotape shot at an event. There was no InterMat, no TheMat, no TheWrestlingMall, no RevWrestling.com, no Flowrestling, no TheWrestlingTalk forum.
You could say that all these Web sites can trace their roots ultimately back to Tom Owens.
From wrestling mat to InterMat
Tom Owens was born in Iowa, raised in the small community of Moville in the western part of the state, near Sioux City. He wrestled at Woodbury Central High for Jim Fisher, a coaching legend in the state of Iowa with an incredible 389-95-9 record.
Owens continued wrestling as a walk-on in college, but, a neck injury sustained years earlier ended his on-the-mat career.
In 1989, armed with his college degree, Owens started a career at Pioneer, the hybrid agricultural business … and also launched his coaching career, at Dallas Center-Grimes.
“In the early 1990s, we used the Internet at work, but it was in its infancy stage,” according to Owens. “At the time, it was very much a business tool, but that started to change. ESPN started its Web site in the early 1990s.”
“At the time, I started thinking, 'Wrestling just doesn’t get attention online.'”
InterMat's logo in 2002With that, Tom Owens had a vision for an online college wrestling recruiting service.
“I talked to a few college coaches, to see if this would be used, and they said yes.”
With that, in June-July 1995, Owens unveiled his amateur wrestling Web site with the clever-but-direct name InterMat. (When asked about the origin of the name, Owens immediately replied, “I have to give credit to my wife, Anne. Before we launched the site, she said, 'InterMat!' tying in 'mat' with the Internet.”)
Paying a premium for one-of-a-kind information
Following ESPN’s lead, InterMat was introduced as a premium paid subscription service.
“I used to do a state-by-state ranking for individual wrestlers, then would put together national rankings based on that information,” according to Tom Owens.
To determine rankings based on solid information -- and not just gut feelings -- Owens compiled a one-of-a-kind databank of up-to-date information on individual wrestlers. Click on a name, find a wrestler’s won-loss record and specific statistical information. Because it was online, the stats were updated constantly. Because it was gathered all in one place, it was easy for anyone to access the data. Not just a coach scouting out a particular recruit. Wrestlers and coaches could use InterMat to scope out future opponents. And fans could follow their mat heroes from anywhere.
What’s more, by being the first to provide complete results from the Cadet and Junior Nationals, InterMat also helped bring Fargo to members of the wrestling community unable to travel to North Dakota. Tom Owens describes how this came about: “My wife and I spent two weeks the first summer typing in complete results from here in Iowa. Then the second year, we actually went to Fargo and I spent at least 18 hours a day entering results. There were a couple evenings that I was up until 2-3 a.m. entering results. We had to do this for about 4-5 years before USA Wrestling were able to catch up with the technology and enter results so we could actually cover the event instead of spending the whole week entering results.”
Tom Owens coaching his oldest son, Zachary, at a kids district wrestling tournament in IowaRealize that the Internet was a vastly different place 15 years ago. Here’s how Tom Owens describes the online world of the mid 1990s: “There was no DSL, all dial-up, using a 540k phone line. Showing video was a distant dream. A heavily graphic site took minutes to load onto the screen.”
“I had to introduce coaches to the Internet,” explains Owens. “When we got started, hardly any schools had a Web site. With that in mind, we offered templates for schools and wrestling camps to create webpages.”
“It pretty much was a full-time venture right away,” says Owens. “We saw that we needed to be more than just recruiting information to be financially successful … make it more an online magazine, with rankings, results, stats for both high school and college.”
“When we started that, business really took off. If it hadn’t, we wouldn’t have lasted 6-8 months.”
“It took a lot of effort, and even more of an investment.”
Grappling for their share of the wrestling audience
Even in the early days of InterMat, there was competition.
“There’s some question as to who’s first,” says Tom Owens. “TheMat was online first, in February 1995. However, it was not as 'national'; it was developed in North Carolina.
It was not part of USA Wrestling back then; it was purchased later, around 1999-2000, instead of USA Wrestling starting from scratch. TheWrestlingMall started about the same time.”
“This competition put pressure on me. We were set up as a for-profit business, requiring paid subscriptions, competing against Web sites that were not for profit, who had deep pockets and could absorb losses.”
One incident that didn’t help InterMat’s situation involved its online forum.
“We had a good message board/discussion group up to about 2000,” says Owens. “However, it was difficult to monitor. The administrator shut it down on his own without my permission. By the time it was restored 2-3 days later, many of its users had already migrated to TheMat Forum.”
Despite that setback, Tom Owens found a way to expand his business and generate more income.
“In 2000, we expanded by opening a retail store for wrestling in Johnston, Iowa, and offering the wrestling merchandise online, too.”
“The grand opening was huge,” says Owens. “We had (Dan) Gable, Bobby Douglas, Jim Miller, Tom Brands. Got a lot of press.”
“The store offered shoes, singlets, posters, etc. If it had to do with wrestling, we probably had it.”
“We had a really good first year,” the InterMat founder continued. “However, 9/11 really hit us hard. After that, we experienced much slower growth, and got stuck with inventory. However, we came out of that OK, and stayed in e-commerce for about four years.”
“In spring 2004, we sold the Web site to NWCA (National Wrestling Coaches Association), and got out of the retail business.”
“I worked for NWCA’s InterMat for one year,” according to Owens. “It gave me a chance to stay within the business without the financial risk.”
“I think about how much happened in my personal life during the InterMat years. I went from being a newlywed to a father of three.”
Why sell?
Why did Tom Owens sell InterMat, and, eventually leave the world of wrestling Web sites -- a world he helped establish a decade earlier?
A screen shot of what InterMat looked like in 1997“We had to change our business paradigm almost every year. I was putting in long hours, and having to hire people to update the site. It was getting more costly for servers. We didn’t have deep pockets.”
”We were seeking to present information in a cleaner, more efficient way. But there was no sign the other Web sites were backing off.”
The competitive landscape continued to change. According to Owens, “Within a year of the sale, TheMat stopped offering college results. At that point, the NWCA-owned InterMat then focused on college.”
Life after InterMat
Since selling InterMat to the NWCA (which has since sold the brand to Rev Wrestling Corporation earlier this year), Tom Owens has employed his fascination with statistics in a whole new way separate from the world of amateur wrestling. Owens is now working in risk management for Wells Fargo in Des Moines, and is presently pursuing his MBA.
What’s more, Owens also retired from coaching at the end of the 2008 season.
“I had been a head coach for two years, an assistant coach for 14 years, and had some volunteer coaching, too,” says Owens.
Has Owens divorced himself completely from wrestling?
”I’m just a fan now,” Owens discloses. “I still follow the sport. I attend 4-5 college duals a year, and Nationals each year. I also go to a few high school meets and the state tournament. Most of my time is spent at youth tournaments which my two sons are heavily involved. I really enjoy watching Zachary and Eric compete.”
“I use the Internet for wrestling news and scores. If I look at the boards, it’s for factual news stories, not the gossip.”
Still passionate about the mat
Tom Owens is no longer an amateur wrestling Web site guru -- and is no longer involved in coaching -- but he still cares passionately about the sport in ways that go beyond attending wrestling events.
During our interview, we talked at length about ways to promote wrestlers and wrestling … including the need for a career option for wrestlers once they’ve graduated from college that doesn’t necessarily involve WWE or MMA.
Owens also has strong feelings about making college wrestling a sport that attracts a larger fan base -- and holds onto it.
“There are too many matches that aren’t particularly exciting to watch,” says the one-time wrestler and coach. “There’s just not enough action. Too many wrestlers ride an opponent without making any attempt to score. And, there’s too much reluctance on the part of officials to call stalling.”
Tom Owens with his youngest son, Eric, before a wrestling match“This would reward an offensive wrestler for being more aggressive, to create more action,” according to Owens. “It could really open up the scoring, and eliminate these too-close, 1-0, 2-1 matches that won’t win over potential fans.”
Who decides what’s an offensive takedown? “Give the second mat official more responsibility. Let him decide the scoring on offensive and defensive takedowns.”
That’s the kind of creative thinking that helped launch InterMat nearly 15 years ago, and revolutionized the way that wrestlers, coaches and fans get stats, scores and more.
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