1969 Southwest Wrestling Team

1969 Southwest Wrestling Team

The Undefeated, 1968-69 City and Twin City Dual Meet Wrestling Championship Team 

The groundwork for the undefeated, 1968-69, City and Twin City Championship Wrestling team really began back in 9th grade when most of us began our wrestling careers. Encouraged to give wrestling a try by Coaches Horace Mayo and Doug Hackett, we all began our journey in a sport we had no or little experience in. (Assistant coaches Maury Webert and Gene Ermisch also contributed along the way to our senior year.) As there were no wrestling programs in Minneapolis’ lower grades, we quickly demonstrated the athletic talent, commitment and teamwork to develop the skills that that allowed us to complete the unprecedented success of our dual meet season, including our 36-8 defeat of Humboldt HS in our Twin City Championship match.

The 1968-69 team lead by Senior Co-Captains Brent Bigelow (112) and Don Solsvig (133) was, and is, the only wrestling team in Southwest history to go undefeated in their dual meet season, 12-0. That year, we defeated Roosevelt HS, for the first time in school history and were dominant in dual meets, by an average match score of 33-10, on our way to this perfect season. Since there was only individual and no state level team competition during this period, there were no further opportunities to see what this team might have accomplished.

The Varsity line up for the 1968-69 season was:

Our team would like to dedicate the accolades we are receiving today to those no longer with us: Coaches Horace Mayo, Maury Webert and Doug Hackett, wrestlers Don Solsvig and Rich Olin.