Craig Vitagliano » Rob Koll v. Pat Smith, 1995 US World Team Trials

The US has always had major talent at 74kg. (or right around that weight...) Going back to 1952 with gold medalist Bill Smith, in 1956 Dan Hodge won a silver, 1960 Doug Blubaugh was the gold medalist. We had a little bit of a drought in 64 & 68. In 1972 Wayne Wells won gold, in 1976 Stan Dziedzic won the bronze. 1980 Lee Kemp, because of the boycott, Lee and many other greats did not get the chance to compete, but Lee was a 3X World champ (US first) and in December of 1980 beat Valentin Raychev of Bulgaria, who was the 80 Gold Medalist. In 1984 Dave Schultz won gold, in 1988 Kenny Monday, gold, and in 1992 Kenny won silver and was 6th in 1996. In 2000 Brandon Slay won gold. Joe Williams was World Cup Champ in 2000, 2001, 2002 & 2003 & 5th at the 2004 Olympics. Donny Pritzlaff was a bronze medalist at the 2006 World Championships. And in 2011 Jordan Burroughs won the gold at the Worlds.

As a side note, I think some of the "drop off" in the past 5 years has a lot to do with the silly ass rules. But that’s just my opinion, what do I know...

Pat Smith has his brother's John low level attack, but he doesn't have an effective offense in the par terr position, which in international competition one needs in order to be successful. Koll has an effective ankle lace turn just like John Smith had and that helped those wrestlers in World level tournaments.

great video. id love to see henson vs. abas in the 2004 olympic trials

In my opinion, the 80s and into the 90s was the Golden Era if you will for the United States at 163 lbs with stars like Dan St John, Joe Pantaleo, Jim Zalesky, Nate Carr (for awhile), Dave Lee, Pat Smith, Greg Elinsky, and Rob Koll all fighting to make the team with TWO past Olympic Champions holding the top spots in Dave Schultz and Kenny Monday. Unbelievable competition we had in those years at 163. Thanks Guru for this vintage video. If I am not mistaken, I believe Koll went on to lose in two straight matches to Dave Schultz, the second match of that series featuring some of the most brutal front headlocks and a wicked throw from Schultz.

kenny monday

simply awesome footage. thanks and it is a real highpoint to see your video's. I show the kids to give them a sense of how great this time was.

What a great match!

Team Foxcatcher.... now THAT brings back memories... Whatever happened to Dupont after he executed Schultz, anyway? Sad... Imagine how different East Coast wrestling would be if Dupont had taken down Koll instead. What a shame our best had to depend on such a loon...