Heavyweight
Paul Fowler ’64
My most memorable sporting event at Pomfret was wrestling heavyweight in a match early in the season. With no real heavyweight my senior year, the unenviable job went to the backup man in the next highest weight class. At 157, I was that man. Throughout the preliminary bouts I sat terrified, looking at the visitors’ bench and my 250-pound opponent. When time came for the heavyweight match, we had a substantial point lead, but I decided to wrestle anyway. For most of the first period, I concentrated on staying away from the behemoth. Just before the bell, however, I executed a leg dive and took him down — two points! The partisans lining the overhead running track thundered their approval. In the second period, I started in the down position and was miraculously able to reverse him — more cheers from above. I rode him for a while and finally felt comfortable enough to try to turn him over. It worked! Then, for what seemed like the next half hour, I tried to figure a way to put enough weight on his shoulders to keep him down. Somehow, and at some point, I pinned this huge guy. The place went nuts. What a high!
