Wrestling Pain

In the confluence last January of the Super Bowl and Magic’s unretirement and Junior’s $8 million a year, only a madman with a gun could put wrestling on the front page.

Three shots from a .38.

One good life cruelly cut short, others painfully undone.

One sport critically wounded.

Nineteen weeks after those shots were fired, the echo has reached Spokane. The U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling trials begin Friday at the Spokane Arena, the final gantlet for the 10 men we’ll send to wrestle the world in Atlanta this July.

This Olympiad, however, the trials come with an unofficial subtitle:

The Dave Schultz Memorial.

In picking our Olympians, anguish always outweighs exultation. For every wrestler here who makes the team, nine will settle for the sad consolation of watching it on TV.

But these trials have the unwelcome undercurrent of tragedy, as well.

On Jan. 26, Schultz - a 1984 Olympic champion described by more than one of his colleagues as the Michael Jordan of wrestling - was murdered on the Pennsylvania estate of John Eleuthere du Pont. Heir to one of the country’s largest family fortunes and through the years a substantial benefactor to USA Wrestling, du Pont was arrested and charged in the unfathomable shooting after a standoff with police.

Schultz wrestled for and coached Team Foxcatcher, the wrestling club du Pont founded, bankrolled and housed on his 800-acre compound. Though du Pont’s interest in and support of wrestling had waned and his erratic, threatening behavior had chased off several wrestlers, Schultz had planned to stay on through this next bid for the Games - for financial reasons, naturally, but also because he felt he could reason with and help the increasingly troubled du Pont.

“He was,” Schultz’s father, Phil, told the New York Times, “a calming influence.”

Until, that is, the day police say du Pont drove his Lincoln to where Schultz was standing by his car and fired the three shots.

And ever since, there has been as much mourning as there has been training.

“I think the whole year is (his memorial),” said Greg Strobel, a former national coach who served as Foxcatcher’s coach until last summer.

“The nationals and trials and, for the guys that make the team, the Olympics, too - they’re in honor of him and all he did for them and all he did as a wrestler, too.”

This is a tricky deal, however.

Though it obviously takes two to tango, sport has few pursuits as single-minded as wrestling - particularly at this stage of an Olympic year. Memories can be distractions, excess baggage.

“Wrestling is a selfish sport,” said Kurt Angle, who was coached by Schultz and is the No. 1-ranked U.S. wrestler at 220 pounds. “You’ve got to look out for No. 1.”

Dave Schultz, it’s said, looked out for wrestling.

Technically, he was an innovator, a revolutionary, but he was more treasured as a mentor and friend - not only to American wrestlers, but those around the world. The illustrating tale is that he learned to speak Russian to better learn from the wrestling greats of the former Soviet republic, but the fact is he was admired and respected across all borders.

Michael Jordan is an icon - a logo, really. Schultz was a teacher with Jordan’s special competitive gifts, but approachable - of this world.

“At his memorial service,” Strobel recalled, “it was aptly put that Dave had the kind of personality that made you think you were his best friend.”

This, of course, made his murder that much harder to comprehend, regardless of how deranged his sponsor had become. Still, Schultz had been advised to detach himself from du Pont.

“He told me, ‘John has got some problems, but I think I can help him,”’ remembered Joe Seay, this year’s Olympic coach. “We tried to talk him into leaving. And he said, ‘No, we’re going to stay through the Olympic Games and then we’ll readjust.’ And, obviously, that was too long.”

USA Wrestling’s association with du Pont - in the face of the man’s behavior long before Schultz’s death - has since come in for considerable criticism. The fact is, du Pont’s financial support had ended sometime before and a distancing was in the works.

But realistically, wrestling is not the NBA, which is drowning in dollars thrown at it by networks and shoe tycoons and hamburger empires and you and me.

“You have someone who could afford to help the organization improve,” Seay said, in a familiar rationalization, “and to not take advantage of that would be silly. Yes, there’s always a little bit of something tied to it, but we never looked at it like that.”

And who could possibly have expected the strings-attached to be murder? Still, there will always be a certain amount of second-guessing.

“In a way, du Pont’s sponsorship curtailed (USA Wrestling) from expanding and finding other sponsors,” said Strobel. “Potential sponsors either felt we already had the money we needed from du Pont, and some shied away from being associated with the name. In the long run, we’ll be better off without the association.”

That’s dollars. The sense of loss is far greater.

In dealing with the tragic death of Schultz, the trials and Olympics are a Band-Aid and iodine. When the bandage is removed, a scar will remain.

“This sport is hurting,” Strobel insisted. “For some of these guys, they’ll probably wake up in a fog a couple of years from now. Right now, they’ve trained a lifetime to get to this point and they’re focused on this goal. I’ve talked with athletes who’ve dedicated this year to Dave. There are others who never knew him and so aren’t affected.

“But we’re never going to recover from the loss of a genius. We’ve been robbed.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: U.S. OLYMPIC FREESTYLE WRESTLING TRIALS AT A GLANCE Facts about U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling trials, presented by Windermere, Friday and Saturday in the Spokane Arena: Coach: Joe Seay, Phoenix. Format: Best-of-three finals match between top-seeded wrestler in each weight class and winner of Friday’s mini-tournament. Goal: Winners of 10 weight classes will comprise Olympic freestyle team in Atlanta. Times: Friday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 2-5 p.m.; Saturday, kids/coaches clinic 8:30-10 a.m.; 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (round one of best-of-three finals), 6-9 p.m. (rounds 2 and 3 of best-of-three finals). Tickets: G&B Select-A-Seat outlets, 325-SEAT. Prices: $15 per session Friday; $18 first session Saturday; $25 Saturday night; $15 kids/coaches clinic. Fan-fest: Riverfront Park central meadow: international food fair, live music Thursday and Friday night, vendors, beer and wine garden; Thursday, 6-10 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review