Historical Note

Wrestling is a Varsity sport at Springfield College that evolved from the interest of a group of people after it had been a part of the instructional program for about 24 years. In 1915, Alvin Banks organized, coached, and captained the first official wrestling team at the college. The first meet was against Princeton, and the Springfield College team was defeated 22-4. In the next and final match of the first season, Springfield faced M.I.T. and defeated them 17-8.

Springfield continued to excel in the sport, with a short hiatus during World War I (1918 & 1919) when the campus was closed. Erastus W. Pennock took over coaching as the teams 1st faculty coach in 1927. He coached the team until 1943 when he became ill. He was a very influential coach in the sport throughout his time at Springfield.

In 1950, Sam Coursen joined the Olympic team and was a member of the 1952 Olympic wrestling team in Helsinki. Head coach Douglas Parker took over the team in 1956 and coached until 1990. Under his leadership, the 1963-1964 season produced the first undefeated team in Springfield College history. By 1968, the team had won 18 straight NEIWA (New England Interscholastic Wrestling Association) championships. By the end of his time as head coach, Douglas Parker had amassed an amazing record of 472 wins, 154 losses, and 11 ties. In 1990 Darryl Arroyo took over as coach and led the team until 2011, when Jason Holder took over.

In 2008, Springfield College became only the fourth program in the nation to win 900 matches, joining Division I powers Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and Oregon State. At the time of the writing of this historical note, the Springfield College wrestling program has had over 72 All-Americans. In 2016 Springfield College became one of the only eight schools in Division III wrestling to have multiple individual regional championships. And on January 14, 2017 the wrestling team won their 1000th and 1001 dual meet victory defeating Thiel College & Wesleyan College, becoming the only Division III Wrestling program in the nation to achieve this milestone

Perhaps one of the greatest wrestlers to come through the program was Jeffrey Blatnick, class of 1979. Jeff Blatnick captured the gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1984 summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. In his time at Springfield, Blatnick won a pair of NCAA Division II national titles in the heavyweight class (1978 and 1979). He is the recipient of a trophy for most pins in the least amount of elapsed time. He was also the bronze medal winner in 220 pound weight class at Junior World Games, and was named Athlete-of-the-Year at Springfield College during his sophomore and junior years.

- Original written by Kirsten Arsenault in 2015 - Additions and changes written and researched by Elisana De Leon in 2017

 Information mostly retrieved from: • Springfield College Athletic Department Wrestling Team Website

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