My First Wrestling Hero

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

ONCE UPON A TIME I wrestled in middle school in ILLINOIS. Our family then moved to Texas for a year, and I wrestled for Western Hills High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Not to sound like too much of a Midwestern wrestling snob, but I was varsity as a freshman at the first practice of the season. 

The big tournament for us was the Metroplex championships, which involved all of the high schools in the Dallas and Fort Worth area. That's where I encountered my first wrestling hero. 

He was just a kid like me—probably a freshman as well—but he was super slick on the mat, a sensational wrestler, wore a very cool singlet and was blind. 

Stephon Breedlove is a name that I have never forgotten. 

At the tournament, I watched all of his matches and rooted for him the whole time. As a blind wrestler, he always started matches with his hands on his opponent. His opponent was also given this advantage. In neutral, the wrestlers had to maintain contact by rule. 

How did he know where his opponent was going? How did he know where his opponent's legs were? It was an amazing sight. And yet he dominated that bracket and won a city championship as a freshman. I had heard rumor at the tournament that he was a National AAU champion, and that kind of explained it. 

Recently, I decided to look up this amazing fellow.

The University of Texas at Austin archive had an image of a young Stephon Breedlove learning to read braille. They spelled his first name wrong, but this was still an amazing find. Later, I discovered that he wrestled at Paschal High School in Fort Worth before transferring to Fort Worth Country Day, although he also wrestled for the Texas School for the Blind. 

Next, I discovered that he had matriculated to that very same University of Texas where he had learned to read braille and eventually graduated with an honors degree in Government. He went on to law school at UT and practiced law in Houston, married a beautiful woman and fathered two children.

And so, with that background information, I decided to call my first wrestling hero. We ended up having a lot in common—from education to work experience to family—and not just one wrestling tournament in a large Texas metropolitan area. 

 

IWB&F&B:  When did you start wrestling?

BREEDLOVE:  In Sixth grade. 

IWB&F&B:  Did you ever wrestle your brother, who was an amazing athlete in his own right? [He is sighted]

BREEDLOVE:  No. He was interested in basketball. Haha!

IWB&F&B:  Did you wrestle for Paschal High School in Fort Worth for one year?

BREEDLOVE:  Yes. 

IWB&F&B:  Do you recall that DFW Metroplex wrestling tournament?

BREEDLOVE: Yes. 

IWB&F&B:  Did you have extra help from any coach?

BREEDLOVE:  Yes. Coach Murph at Country Day and the Texas School for the Blind.

IWB&F&B:  Where else did you wrestle?

BREEDLOVE:  There were tournaments in Canada and Europe. Also, there were AAU tournaments. 

IWB&F&B:  What advice would you give to wrestlers?

BREEDLOVE:  Go straight at them and take them down. [I think he meant it metaphorically, as in don't dilly-dally around and get after it.]

IWB&F&B:  What advice would you give to wrestlers without sight?

BREEDLOVE: Be ready for obstacles and GO FOR IT! 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

The article at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond has links to other inspirational stories about blind wrestlers, including the trailer for A Shot in the Dark. Also, I have included the true story of Laura Bridgman, a young girl who became the first deaf, blind and mute human in history to break free from her dark and soundless cage to learn braille and hand signs and join the world of ideas and words. It is the best thing I have ever read, and it was shared by none other than Charles Dickens. This all happened while Dickens visited America, Hell Ya!

 

Finally, while I was researching the Stephon Breedlove story, I came across this powerful image of Breedlove as a young boy learning to read braille:

[Idaho]

Good stuff... thanks for sharing! We had a kid in Idaho a number of years ago that was as tough as they come who was deaf. Much easier to wrestle with hearing loss than sight loss, however an amazing story in itself. He ended up being a 2x state champ  in a small school division, but beat most of the big school guys if I remember correctly. 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

5 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Good stuff... thanks for sharing! We had a kid in Idaho a number of years ago that was as tough as they come who was deaf. Much easier to wrestle with hearing loss than sight loss, however an amazing story in itself. He ended up being a 2x state champ  in a small school division, but beat most of the big school guys if I remember correctly. 

Beautiful story! Ref whistles, end-of-period horns and even cheering crowds are lost. Coaches can't coach their wrestlers while on the mat. You can't hear your opponent breathing hard. You gotta be tough to even try it! Wasn't there a deaf wrestler on that old UFC show The Ultimate Fighter? He was a bad *** as well. 

On another note, I forgot to link to the original story on The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond. It has more pictures, links to other cool stories, and that Laura Bridgman narrative from Charles Dickens. It is right here. 

[Gambatte]

Great stories. Thanks! Way back in the 60s Marty Wiiligan, Hofstra was a 2-time NCAA All American including runner-up to Dan Gable in ‘69. Willigan was deaf and went on to a long, successful career coaching at Gallaudet University.
 

One of the proudest honors of my wrestling accomplishments was coaching a blind wrestler here in New Hampshire. Cory Wilkins was a two time state place winner.

 

Reading the story of Stephon Breedlove made my day today.

[fishbane]

2 hours ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

Wasn't there a deaf wrestler on that old UFC show The Ultimate Fighter? He was a bad *** as well. 

Matt Hamill.  He wrestled for a year at Purdue then transferred to RIT (D3).  Won three D3 national titles.  

There was a wrestler that I coached for a couple of years that was both deaf and legally blind.  I recall the visual impairment being described as a tunnel vision that would get progressively worse until he was totally blind.  He didn't reach a high level of success, but I recall being totally surprised by his performance the first time he took the mat in competition. 

[fishbane]

https://shoresportsnetwork.com/a-shot-in-the-dark-new-movie-portrays-inspirational-story-of-blind-st-john-vianney-wrestler-anthony-ferraro/

[Idaho]

28 minutes ago, fishbane said:

Matt Hamill.  He wrestled for a year at Purdue then transferred to RIT (D3).  Won three D3 national titles.  

There was a wrestler that I coached for a couple of years that was both deaf and legally blind.  I recall the visual impairment being described as a tunnel vision that would get progressively worse until he was totally blind.  He didn't reach a high level of success, but I recall being totally surprised by his performance the first time he took the mat in competition. 

Was there a movie about Hamill or am I thinking of another guy? 

[fishbane]

5 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Was there a movie about Hamill or am I thinking of another guy? 

Yes.  It wasn't a very wide release, but I did manage to see it in a theater. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hammer_(2010_film)

Edited July 3, 2023 by fishbane

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

2 hours ago, Gambatte said:

One of the proudest honors of my wrestling accomplishments was coaching a blind wrestler here in New Hampshire. Cory Wilkins was a two time state place winner.

Reading the story of Stephon Breedlove made my day today.

And you made my day. Cheers!

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

2 hours ago, fishbane said:

Matt Hamill.  He wrestled for a year at Purdue then transferred to RIT (D3).  Won three D3 national titles.  

There was a wrestler that I coached for a couple of years that was both deaf and legally blind.  I recall the visual impairment being described as a tunnel vision that would get progressively worse until he was totally blind.  He didn't reach a high level of success, but I recall being totally surprised by his performance the first time he took the mat in competition. 

Yes. That's him! Thanks.

[fishbane]

6 hours ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

The article at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond has links to other inspirational stories about blind wrestlers, including the trailer for A Shot in the Dark.

I had never heard of A Shot in the Dark before.  The link to the trailer I posted I found when searching for a different TCNJ wrestler.  Anthony Ferraro would have been at TCNJ around 2014-2018.  I recall seeing a blind wrestler represent TCNJ at a tournament maybe 10 years earlier than that.  As I recall he needed a teammate to lead him around by the arm and I'm pretty sure he won his first match by fall.  There was more applause than normal and he stood up with a big smile on his face and his teammate lead him off the mat.  It was pretty cool.

I'm pretty sure it was this guy - Brandon Scott.  Here is a little info I found on him.

"Ferris was also proud of coaching Brandon Scott, a blind wrestler who was a two-time district champion and placed fourth in the region twice under Ferris’s tutelage."

https://archive.centraljersey.com/2002/03/01/scott-continues-to-win-and-takes-home-district-22-title/  

[Idaho]

13 hours ago, fishbane said:

Yes.  It wasn't a very wide release, but I did manage to see it in a theater. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hammer_(2010_film)

Yep that's it... I watched that a few years ago. 

Wrestling is extremely difficult, but doing it with a disability and being successful with it is beyond impressive. Guys like Hamil, Robles, Ackerman, etc. are the toughest of the tough IMO. 

[TexRef]

On 7/3/2023 at 3:20 PM, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

ONCE UPON A TIME I wrestled in middle school in ILLINOIS. Our family then moved to Texas for a year, and I wrestled for Western Hills High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Not to sound like too much of a Midwestern wrestling snob, but I was varsity as a freshman at the first practice of the season. 

The big tournament for us was the Metroplex championships, which involved all of the high schools in the Dallas and Fort Worth area. That's where I encountered my first wrestling hero. 

He was just a kid like me—probably a freshman as well—but he was super slick on the mat, a sensational wrestler, wore a very cool singlet and was blind. 

Stephon Breedlove is a name that I have never forgotten. 

At the tournament, I watched all of his matches and rooted for him the whole time. As a blind wrestler, he always started matches with his hands on his opponent. His opponent was also given this advantage. In neutral, the wrestlers had to maintain contact by rule. 

How did he know where his opponent was going? How did he know where his opponent's legs were? It was an amazing sight. And yet he dominated that bracket and won a city championship as a freshman. I had heard rumor at the tournament that he was a National AAU champion, and that kind of explained it. 

Recently, I decided to look up this amazing fellow.

The University of Texas at Austin archive had an image of a young Stephon Breedlove learning to read braille. They spelled his first name wrong, but this was still an amazing find. Later, I discovered that he wrestled at Paschal High School in Fort Worth before transferring to Fort Worth Country Day, although he also wrestled for the Texas School for the Blind. 

Next, I discovered that he had matriculated to that very same University of Texas where he had learned to read braille and eventually graduated with an honors degree in Government. He went on to law school at UT and practiced law in Houston, married a beautiful woman and fathered two children.

And so, with that background information, I decided to call my first wrestling hero. We ended up having a lot in common—from education to work experience to family—and not just one wrestling tournament in a large Texas metropolitan area. 

I officiated a match at Western Hills about 15 years ago with another blind kid. He was a lighter weight kid and seemed tough. That has turned into a hard scrabble area for sure. 

[Offthemat]

In high school we went to a tournament every year that the Oklahoma School for the Blind wrestled.  I never wrestled a blind guy, but some of them did well in the tournament.  Our coach who never wrestled in his life, but knew you had to be in good condition to wrestle, was so impressed by them that he had us practice with our eyes closed, (he made some guys wear blindfolds).  It was interesting and I think it helped me, but I never wrestled a match with my eyes closed.  

[NewYooper]

LJ Helbig was partially/mostly deaf and wrestled at Wyoming from ~2009-2013.  As a freshman wrestled at 184 behind Joe LeBlanc (who was All American).  As a sophomore, wrestled at 197 - qualified for NCAA tournament.  As a junior wrestled at 285.  Lost 3-2 in the WWC finals to Christian Brantley from UNI and didn't make NCAA.  As a senior wrestled at 174 and qualified for NCAA tournament.  Referees always had to remember to use hand signals for him on restarts and to touch him in some way to let him know the whistle had sounded.  Not quite Kyle Dake, but four years and four weights - with the smallest weight last.

[mspart]

That is a great story.   Thanks for sharing. 

I saw a blind guy wrestle at a Old Man wrestling tourney that I was participating in in Owatonna, MN.   He was strong and ended up with a much older man and tore the guy's ACL (I'm assuming based on I went out to help him with some others and had his leg up on my shoulder after someone said to elevate it.   When I started to bring his leg down after he calmed down a bit, his lower leg moved in a very different direction than it should have and he yelled.  That movement creeped me out).   He was actually very good and it was a genuine pleasure to watch him do his thing.   That is my only experience with a blind wrestler.   What a fascinating thing to do as a blind person - wrestle. 

mspart

[gimpeltf]

28 minutes ago, NewYooper said:

LJ Helbig was partially/mostly deaf and wrestled at Wyoming from ~2009-2013.  As a freshman wrestled at 184 behind Joe LeBlanc (who was All American).  As a sophomore, wrestled at 197 - qualified for NCAA tournament.  As a junior wrestled at 285.  Lost 3-2 in the WWC finals to Christian Brantley from UNI and didn't make NCAA.  As a senior wrestled at 174 and qualified for NCAA tournament.  Referees always had to remember to use hand signals for him on restarts and to touch him in some way to let him know the whistle had sounded.  Not quite Kyle Dake, but four years and four weights - with the smallest weight last.

LJ is tech support for Flo (mainly in the setup area- he's by far the best cable pull-up/arm wrapper ever). He came and worked the Preps the first couple years of Flo Arena software.  The Flo table was a few yards from the head table and other side from the stairs coming down from the head table. For me to get his attention consisted of me throwing a frisbee into his sight line.

Also, about 40 years ago I reffed the World Deaf games trials in Philly. No whistle. All hand signals. I enjoyed it. I don't know ASL. After one match, the kid that lost looked over towards me and made something like this- 

I guess he wasn't Italian and this means water. It's not exactly the same but ...

[fishbane]

26 minutes ago, gimpeltf said:

After one match, the kid that lost looked over towards me and made something like this- 

I guess he wasn't Italian and this means water. It's not exactly the same but ...

I am pretty sure the sign for water is just the sign for the letter W near the mouth.  A W is just the three middle fingers up in the air like an average American person would use to signify the number 3.  The three fingers kind of look like a W.  Three in ASL is the like the number 2 with the addition of the thumb.  I think Europeans use the same gesture for the the number 3 as used in ASL.  This was a plot device in Inglorious Bastards. 

[gimpeltf]

9 minutes ago, fishbane said:

I am pretty sure the sign for water is just the sign for the letter W near the mouth.  A W is just the three middle fingers up in the air like an average American person would use to signify the number 3.  The three fingers kind of look like a W.  Three in ASL is the like the number 2 with the addition of the thumb.  I think Europeans use the same gesture for the the number 3 as used in ASL.  This was a plot device in Inglorious Bastards. 

I said the sign wasn't exactly the same . I just saw the only thing similar I understood. I asked about it because there was no fire in the kid's eyes- and I forgot to mention his coach was directly behind me. It might have been one of a few signs tied together as they might have been having a more substantial conversation. They told me it meant he was tired.  But in looking the signs up before the previous post, I realized that the water sign was closer and he might have been saying I'm tired and I want water. Having the fingers like you mention near the mouth would have looked similar enough to the picture to fool me.

[Cody Pirtle in Amarillo]

Stephon Breedlove was one of my first mentors out of law school. I wanted to help the disabled and those who were considered poor. I met him at Advocacy Inc. in Lubbock. He was a great inspiration. He did not let the difficulties of not being able to see distract him. He amazed me with his knowledge of the law; he had to know by reading braille (now considered outdated by technology). The technology we have today has gone leaps and bounds since 1996. He told me about swimming competitions where he had to be hit on the hit to know that he was about to hit the wall. He was very competitive. He loved his wife who was blind also. And she was beautiful. One year,  he wanted a good Christmas tree and asked me to help him pick it out so the salesman did not cheat him on an ugly tree. I asked why he wanted to put lights on a tree and decorate a tree. He wanted to repeat decorating a tree like what he had his whole life from a loving family. And he said the lights on the tree make it smell like the pine tree it is. He was a remarkable person and wonderful person. 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

14 hours ago, Cody Pirtle in Amarillo said:

Stephon Breedlove was one of my first mentors out of law school. I wanted to help the disabled and those who were considered poor. I met him at Advocacy Inc. in Lubbock. He was a great inspiration. He did not let the difficulties of not being able to see distract him. He amazed me with his knowledge of the law; he had to know by reading braille (now considered outdated by technology). The technology we have today has gone leaps and bounds since 1996. He told me about swimming competitions where he had to be hit on the hit to know that he was about to hit the wall. He was very competitive. He loved his wife who was blind also. And she was beautiful. One year,  he wanted a good Christmas tree and asked me to help him pick it out so the salesman did not cheat him on an ugly tree. I asked why he wanted to put lights on a tree and decorate a tree. He wanted to repeat decorating a tree like what he had his whole life from a loving family. And he said the lights on the tree make it smell like the pine tree it is. He was a remarkable person and wonderful person. 

 

Wow! Love to read this! 

I was amazed by his athletic ability back in the day. Back in June 2023 when I looked him up, I was amazed by his many accomplishments. He was a striver and a barrier-breaker his whole life. Thanks for your testimony!

 

[MidwestMan]

This was a great read and brought back memories of a high school teammate that was one of our team captains and totally blind.  Regardless of his handicap, he was just one of the boys on the team and one hell of a sense of humor.  I can remember one particular incident when one of my teammates came into the locker room and asked if anyone had seen "so and so?"  This voice pipes up from the row over, "I saw him walk by just a minute ago!"  Recognizing the voice, I broke out in a big belly laugh.  Mike had been a source of motivation to me when I started wrestling as he accomplished so much regardless of his handicap and always positive and encouraging.  After HS, Mike enrolled at the University of Missouri where he completed his undergraduate degree and then Law degree and then went home to the Raytown area and opened a law practice.  He has continued to practice law over 40 years and has served as a municipal judge.  He has also been active holding various leadership positions on local charities and civic organizations.  I couldn't tell you what his win and loss record was while he was a HS wrestler, but as a contributing member of our society, he was 100-0.  He too, was one of my life heroes.

[Elevator]

One frrom the 1930's, Robert Allman:

https://www.eiwawrestling.org/HOF/Hall_of_Fame/allman-robert?view=bio