I'll be in Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend my first ever Tulsa Nationals tournament. This is going to be great!

and your bracket would be?

Doesn't matter -- my money's on you, Ross.

Tulsa is such a huge tournament; just in numbers of wrestlers in each bracket. I remember there being 50+ kids in my sons bracket when he went. I think every year he went it was like that.

From memory; I thought there was more weight-cutting than normal at this tournament. I suppose that is true for most of the national tournaments.

I remember some parents really carrying on after some matches; which wasn't so cool. That was about the only negative.

The announcers are kind of humorous; very boisterous.

The parade of teams is kind of neat; from what I recall. Each represented state had a banner and all the wrestlers from the state walked in line behind the banner. They announced the teams as they came in.

Every year I was there; Danny Hodges (think that is right spelling) was there and always did a demonstration where he crushed an apple with his bare hand.

quote:

I'll be in Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend my first ever Tulsa Nationals tournament. This is going to be great!

What weight are you wrestling?

Green Goblin, Dan Hodge won his 3 national championships in 1955-56-57. Assuming he was 22 when he graduated he will be 71 years old this year. That's impressive that he still has that kind of grip. In one of my earlier columns I wrote about the stories I heard when I was in college that he could break a pair of pliers with his grip.

My old tired and out of shape self retired from the mat long ago. I'll be an interested observer. Will post daily recaps and try to get some pics as well.

It was probably 5 years ago the last time we were at the Tulsa Nationals (presumably when Danny Hodge was around 66). So I don't know if Danny Hodge is still crushing apples these days. But it was quite impressive; and I bet he still is. HB will have to give us the update.

LG here again, I have been to the Tulsa Nationals the last 5 years. I will attest to the fact that Danny Hodge is always there. And yes, he still crushes apples for a demonstration.

He told me once a couple of years ago, that he was born with a double set of tendons in his arms. Therefore, giving him an unbelieveable grip. When he grapped his opponents they were his to keep.

LG

Danny's getting old, he had some trouble crushing the apple at the Kickoff but still wouldn't want him to sqeeze my hand.