Viking Wrestlers CIAA Champs
By James Finch
ECSU’s Viking Grapplers
were denied the opportunity
to claim the CIAA crown last
year but they more than
made up for it this year. With
sweeping victories in nearly
every weight-class, the
Vikings brought the first
place team troiriiy home. This
was ttie fourth time in five
years that the Vikings have
been the CIAA champs. After
the semi-finals the fighting
Vikings had out distanced
every other team in the
tournament to the extent that
the first place troi^y was out
of reach of any of the other
schools. ,
The Central Intercollegiate
Athletic Association tourney
was held at Virginia State
College, in Petersburg,
Virginia. Virginia State, the
hosting team, trailed the
Vikings with a distant 59
points to ECSU’s 82V2 points.
Livinstone finished third with
55 points followed by Norfolk
State and Winston-Salem
State with 45 and 29V2 points
respectively.
Coach Thurlis Little
entered the tournament with
high expectations. All but
three ^ of Coach Little’s
wrestlers were seated either
first or second in the tourney.
Raymond Morgan 167-
pound, the team’s captain,
was one of Coach Little’s
wrestlers not seated in the
tourney. Raymond had to
wrestle into the tourney from
a pigtail bracket. Morgan,
showing great determination,
came all the way from the
bottom to defeat the tourney’s
top seated wrestler, he
missed being the Most
Outstanding Wrestler Award
by a single vote to Virginia
State’s Charles Isler.
Greg “Cisco Kid” Muir, the
team’s only senior,
successfully defended his
championship against all
contenders in the 134-pound
division.
Lazarus Simmons, a very
strong, quick and aggressive
wrestler, magnificently
defended his crown against
all contenders, pinning all of
his o^wnents in the first few
minutes of each match.
Simmons, known as the
VButterfly” had the Most
Falls Trophy swept away be
fate. While making the pin
that would have given him the
trophy, Simmons’ opponent
was injured, defaulting the
match.
The freshmen members of
the Viking team did
exceptionally well in their
first college conference
tourney. Granville Barnes
(142-pounds), Michael Davis
(167-pounds), William
Hassell (190-pounds), Peter
Horton (118-pounds) and
Allen Covington (unlimited)
finished second. Horton and
Covington are Sophomores.
Hassell and Covington
defaulted to their opponents
after receiving injuries.
Coach Little believes that
there was an excellent chance
that they would have taken
the championship in their
class divisions if they had
been able to wrestle.
The 1976 edition of the ECSU Wrestling Team. First row: (left to right) James Finch, Granville Barnes.
Greg Muir, Donald Farmer, Keith Mitchell, Pete Horton. Second row: Coach Thurlis Little, Allen
Covington, William Hassell. Lazartis Simmons, Raymond Morgan, Mike Davis, Plummer Seward. (Photo
By James Finch)
f*r'
3
Led by Greg Muir, who defended his 134 lb. championship, three Viking grapplers came away from the
CIAA championships held recently with the distinction of being number one in their’ weight class in the
entire CIAA. Pictured above are the champions: from the left, Captian Raymond Morgan, Muir, and
Lazarus Simmons. (Photo By James Finch)
Americans ate about 1.2 per
cent less food in 1975 than in
1974.
Wrestling Is Misunderstood Sport
University Pep Bond Is Organized
By Wendell Parks
For Uie first time in recent
year, a Pep Band was
organized on the Elizabeth
City State University
campus.
The primary function of the
Pep Band is to entertain and
to sparkle the Elizabeth City'
State University Vikings’
basketball team to victory.
By tlffilling the homecrowd
the Pep Band showed some of
their outstanding
performance during the
semester. While still
developing, it is hoped that in
the future the Pep Band will
become a permanent and real
asset to the Viking family.
Temporary plans for
starting a Pep Band was
initiated in the past. Today it
is a reality that something
was done to raised the esteem
of the basektball team as well
as the Viking family with the
help of Coach Robert
Vaughan and Mr. Charles
Finley an Instructor in the
Music Department.
The responsibility of
directing, finding the
personnel, and putting it all
together was the task of
Wendell A. Parks and
Theresa Conroy, two junior
Music Education majors
from Accomac and
Portsmouth, Virginia. They
serve as director and
assistant director.
Members of the Pep Band
for the 1975-76 school year
are: James Holmes, G|Eirrett
Hill, John Ward, Omega
Robinson, Charles Lucas,
George Carter, Carlton
Cheek, David Oliver, Anton
Wesley, Stanley Marshmon,
Robert Backus, Theresa
Conroy, Wendell Parks,
Marcus McLaughlin, William
Mills, William Johnson,
James Gardner, Willie Jones,
and David Bigby.
All the members of the Pep
Band made outstanding
contributions during the
season. We will only mention
a few that have really been an
asset and they are:
Robert Backus, a senior Art
Education major from
Edenton, N. C. who took time
out from student teaching to
give the band some of his
trombone’s’ special. Even '
though Backus isn’t a music
major, he is one of the most
talented musicians to
matriculate at ECSU.
Besides being a music
major, Theresa Conroy plays
the tuba and adds bass to the
many selections played by
the Pep Band.
Last but not least, we have
one of the best CIAA cymbal
players who is William S.
Mills. Mills is a junior
Business Administration
major from High Point, N. C.
He has been and still is an
asset to the Pep Band
because he can spin and twirl
the cymbals while still
pleasing the homecrowd.
The Pep Band members
are -proud of their
achievements for this
semester. They performed at
all of the home basketball
games and once at the
Hampton Road’s Coliseum in
Hampton, Virginia.
On the collegiate athletic
scene wrestling is one of the
least recognized sports.
Unlike football and
basketball players usually
very easily recognized by
their bulk and height,
wrestlers, becjause of the
sports weight classifications,
are not physically
discernable from the rest of
the student body. The
characteristics that
distinguish wrestlers from
the mass aren’t that easily
noticed.
Wrestling is a discipline,
requiring a stringent
adherence to rules that affect
the daily lives of the sport’s
participants. Dedication and
desire are the prime
attributes of a wrestler. One
of the most disliked things
about the sport is its
starvation diet. Courage and
individualism are two more
important attributes. A
wrestler, although he belongs
to a team, is alone when he
engages in competition. He
can not be taken out of the
game if he is psychologically
or physically unprepared for
the contest or ask the coach
for instructions. He must face
the agony of defeat alone
since there are no teammates
to overshadow the mistakes
that cost him his loss.
Intelligence is also one of
the essential characteristics
of a restler. Coaches are
incessantly trying to drill into
their teams the importance of
wrestling “smart” rather
than using “strength
moves”.”
Wrestling requires a
special kind of muscle toning.
Weightlifting is not essential
for a wrestling team.
Wrestlers must have
conditioned and not brute
strength. To develop this
running, reaction and speed
drills and exercises in which
wrestlers lift their own
weight and their partners are
used.
Wrestling receives its due
recognition only in the west
and midwestern colleges.
However, it is growing in
popularity all over the
country. In popularity, it can
not be ranked with football or
basketball or baseball, but in
the things that make a sport a
challenge it can be ranked
with any sport.