--- On Wed,
11/18/09, ethan lichtblau <[email protected]> wrote:
From: ethan lichtblau <[email protected]>
Subject: Your NYU Wrestling Experience
To: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 11:39 AM
Hi Al,
I know of you from my old wrestling coach, Ron Pollack. I know that you
wrestled at NYU,and that you won the Met Championships. I am writing a
book about my own experiences in wrestling, judo, and ju jitsu. I
wrestled in the Met champioships in 1984 when they were held at NYU, and I
remember seeing an old newspaper article they had on display that talked about
you winning the Mets in '72 or '73. You beat Pollack in the finals.
Pollack's coach was quoted in the article as saying
that Ron "gassed out", I'm assuming from nerves.
I am really interested in the phenomenon of "choking" in a
sports event due to being nervous. I was wondering if you had any
memories you could share about this particular match? I know it was
a long time ago, but if you do remember anything I would appreciate whatever
you could share.
Regards,
Ethan Lichtblau
Date: Wed,
18 Nov 2009 22:50:55 -0800
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Your NYU Wrestling Experience
To: [email protected]
Hello
Ethan:
The mother of one of our team mates worked with Ron Pollack's dad who kept
telling her how badly Ron Pollack was going to beat me (some others played him
up saying he consistently beat his team mate stu pruzansky by substantial
margins and other such things). In fact, he took an early lead with a take-down
that he was quite good at and I was looking for (something between a firemans'
carry and a barrel role)[1972]. However, by the end of the match, he was quite
haggard, in tears, and I actually had to hold him up on the podium. My tougher
match was the semi's where I met two-time defending Met Champion Ed Rufrano (he
got a special trophy for scoring the most team points
over a period of time). He was quite strong and although I won, I had slipped a
cervical disk (for which I ultimately needed traction - I couldn't even do a
push-up after a couple of days which is very humbling when one relies so much
on will-power). I had also beaten Ron in the finals of the Freshman Met Tournament. I was injured by the end of the season in
the two prior intervening years (interestingly, the neurologist for the
herniated disk pointed out that my bones were relatively small compared to my
musculature/body-mass). I was fortunate to have a great coach in Roger Saunders
(Roger and his brother Richard, a former CIA Agent/Mechanic, were both National
Champions). I couldn't imagine Roger saying one of his wrestlers "gassed
out", even if true. Ron certainly didn't "choke" in the first
period, if at all.
Regards,
Al Peia
______
From: ethan lichtblau <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Your NYU Wrestling Experience
To: "Al Peia" <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 2:07 PM
I really appreciate your insights about this. I
never got a chance to speak to Ron about his own college wrestling
days. I only knew him when I was in high school, where he was
coaching a bunch of local high school wrestlers on a part time
basis. He was also helping out at his alma mater
(?FDU) assisting a guy he used to refer to as "Metz" or
"Metzy". By then he was a fairly un-assuming guy and never even
told me that he had taken a 2nd at the Mets when he was in college.
By the time I went off to NYU Ron had left town to go to chiropractic
school, and I don't think we ever saw each other again.
I now remember what struck me so much about that article that was posted
at NYU. It was accompanied by a picture of three guys on the
podium. You were holding Ron up and he was crying. It's really
a classic picture, even more so because unless you know
the "back" story you can only imagine what is going on in
the wrestler's heads at the moment the shot was taken. I saw this
picture once about 25 years ago and it still sticks in my head.
I was wondering if you could clarify: I am assuming your coach
was named Saunders. He wasn't the one who spoke of gassing out.
Like I said above, I thought Ron was coached at FDU by a guy he used to refer
to as "Metz". It was either Ron's coach (whoever he might
have been) or perhaps Ron himself that stated in the article that Ron
had "gassed out". I also remember now that there was some
suggestion that he had come down with a flu, which might explain his reaching a
state of exhaustion by the end of the match. Or perhaps you just kicked
his ass in in the last 2 periods.
Speaking of Stu Pruzanski, I never met him , but I knew his
brother Dave a bit. Dave owned a gym in the early '80's and our
Judo club used to work out there for a while. This was another guy who
never really told you much about himself. I only found out years later
that he once wrestled Gable to a tie. He was also the only guy
to ever win US National championships in
Judo, wrestling, and Sombo, all in the same year. (?1972). Years
later, maybe 1985 or so, he decided to make a comeback in Judo. He cut a
shit load of weight and ended up fighting me in the finals of a small regional
tournament. I beat him by decision, but really got no satisfaction
out of beating a guy who was so out of shape. Can't remember if this
was before or after one of his kids committed suicide.
Ethan
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:49:19 -0800
From: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Your NYU Wrestling Experience
To: [email protected]
|
Roger
Saunders was my coach at NYU and clearly, a great one at that, who
subsequently went to Bloomsburg where he was ultimately Athletic Director on
last info. Bob Metz had quite a few winning teams at FDU, but he was not
Saunders whose brother's wrestling success I alluded to so as to emphasize
his wrestling prowess as no fluke. The last I heard of Dave Pruzansky he was
diving out of a window of his house to evade police who had busted his
drug-dealing operation. As a wrestler he was no joke and you did well to beat
him and are too modest. I included reference to pruzansky because they
developed a very curious, bizarre, and almost gang-like mentality within
their "wrestling click". Upon information, many (if not all) of
their clique "amped up" on amphetamines before their matches. Very
close to their clique was the very weird and corrupt ref spike israel. The
very quiffy spike israel had a "little buddy" jim fiore and had
recruited David and his little buddy (among others) to Temple University to which he had some connection,
and actually attempted to recruit me to same. I didn't take him seriously;
firstly, because he told everyone he had been a state champ (bull s**t);
secondly, because he had screwed me in a high school match wherein I had
pinned leonard pruzanzky in the first period (I had him on his back almost
the entire first period and israel gave me no back points, 2 or 3 for near
fall, let alone the pin, and just the takedown and I lost by a point on
riding time-leg ride). In an open tournament (I think Stroudsburg?), I was
looking at the seedings/pairings/chart and David came up behind me pointed to
my entry and said to the guy he was with that I had beaten his brother
leonard. Roger required our team during one Christmas
break to compete in my first and only free-style tournament. I was up two
weight classes and David won
quite handily. That was the third time I had beaten Ron and frankly, I did
grind him into the mat and kick his ass for the late balance of the first
period and the remainder of the match. The
following is a reply on facebook to someone who said I beat him in
wrestle-off and completes
my wrestling story. Good luck
to you in all your endeavors. Regards, Al Peia
Thank you
for your gracious and overly humble comment. Over time, such things become
less and less important and I can't say that I actually recall that, per se.
As we both know, wrestling was never a pleasant undertaking and although I
respect(ed) the sport, I made it a point never to set foot on a mat off
season. You may also find it somewhat ironic that I actually had made the
basketball team (Hubie Brown for whom I had
high regard was varsity coach and Richie Szura the J.V. coach), which sport I
enjoyed; and in a meeting arranged by Dan Deluca (I had won a tournament in
junior high and the match against the rival Thomas Jefferson Junior High)
with Coach Szura wherein Szura nicely but candidly told me that although I
had made the team, "that I wasn't the tallest of angels" (which I
thought was very funny and we all laughed) and essentially I'd be warming the
bench while Deluca guaranteed me a varsity letter
for wrestling the easy matches since varsity wrestler Richard Zocco was
having difficulty making weight (he never made weight). As trite and cliched
as it sounds, it was the varsity letter guarantee that sealed the deal (and
in my mind, the prospective "help with the babes therefrom" -
actually, it was only the pretty sophomores with whom it ultimately paid
dividends so to speak - how very high school). I had a great Coach in Roger Sanders who recruited me to NYU (Roger and his
brother Richard, a CIA agent/mechanic, were both national champions).
Wrestling has always been an important learning experience for me. Such a
kind and humble remark as yours deserved
a greater explanation. Al ______ From: ethan lichtblau <[email protected]> Truly,
thanks for all your info. Interesting that you should mention Spike Israel. I am assuming that the word "quiffy"
is code for "gay". Spike was coach at Tenafly
High when I was in high school, and was known to "like boys".
Apparently he taught the Tenafly guys only one move, the Granby roll, which they were all quite good at,
but very little else. Besides Ron in the early '70's and Steve and
Dave Yale in the later '70's Tenafly basically had no decent wrestlers during
that period. Not really sure if this was a coaching issue or recruiting
issue. Our high school (DMHS in Englewood) had former state champ
Bob Hurley (Bergenfield) as our assistant coach and former state runner
up Reggie Williams (Hackensack) as head coach, and we also fielded very
few good wrestlers during those years.
I really appreciate your insights
about this. I never got a chance to speak to Ron about his
own college wrestling days. I only knew him when I was in
high school, where he was coaching a bunch of local high school
wrestlers on a part time basis. He was also helping out at his alma
mater Ethan: "As
a wrestler he was no joke and you did well to beat him and are too
modest." To
reiterate: you are far too modest! Good luck
to you in all your endeavors. Regards, Al Peia |