Blue White Illustrated

I f you've ever really wondered about the twists and turns one's life can take, then take a look at Rich Lorenzo. The for- mer Penn State wrestling coach was told over the phone in 1968 he had been hired for a job for which he had not applied, that job turned into a good life, and that good life earned him a great honor that soon will be bestowed upon him. The would-be dairy farmer was tasked to help young wrestlers grow into good – even great – wrestlers. Because he did that for 24 years in various roles and on various levels, he's headed to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame induction cere- mony May 31-June 1 in Oklahoma City. Lorenzo's lasting Penn State story began in 1964 when he wrestled for longtime coach Bill Koll. Lorenzo placed fourth in the NCAA championships in 1968 at 191 pounds, one of only two All-Americans from Penn State that season. He was three credits shy of graduating and returned that fall for one agricultural course, and he was ready to take that dairy science degree and head to the family fields when he fielded a call from assistant coach George Edwards, who was about to become head coach at the University of Virginia. "And he said, 'I just want to let you know you're the new assistant coach at Penn State University,'" Lorenzo said, recalling his conversation with Edwards. "I said, 'George, I never dreamt one day about being a coach.' He said, 'Coach, we put your name in and… you've been hired.' " The fact that he hadn't applied was a formality. Almost immediately, he was teaching 18 physical education classes a week and coaching the freshman team because freshmen had no NCAA eligibil- ity in that era. Before he knew it – and not for one day in nearly 25 years did his job ever feel like work, he said – retirement was looming because of health issues and out of loyalty to assistant coaches Hachiro Oishi and John Fritz, who took the program's reins. Lorenzo, 72, was head coach from 1978- 92 and his teams went 188-64-9. He coached 53 All-Americans, and four of his wrestlers won five NCAA titles. He was national Coach of the Year twice, and his teams won 11 consecutive Eastern Wrestling League titles. He stayed deeply involved in the sport, becoming co-executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association and ultimately the executive director and treasurer of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, which today serves as a highly suc- cessful Olympic Regional Training Center based in the – read it closely – Lorenzo Wrestling Complex in Rec Hall. Oklahoma City, here he comes. "Yeah, I'd be lying if I said it's not a great honor," Lorenzo said. "The only thing I feel badly about is I can't have all the people who helped me with this honor at Penn State with me and acknowledge them. I don't know any other way than being straightforward with somebody, and my closest friends, we've had some real chew- ing-out things along the line. But you shake hands and go back to work together. "It's a great honor and there are so many people already in there, just to be in there with them makes it very nice for me and, of course, for my family," he said. Norm Palovcsik was a freshman during Lorenzo's first season as assistant coach in 1968 and he's stayed close to him ever since. "I've known Rich for over 50 years. I don't view him as a coach as much as I do as a mentor. He was a man who was my coach, but coaching has that finite ele- ment to it whereas a mentor never leaves you," Palovcsik said. "He's that way for all of us former wrestlers, he's a mentor. For all of us for- mer guys, it doesn't matter if you were an All-American or if you were just one of the guys. He is and will remain a mentor as long as we both remain on this earth." Palovcsik said Lorenzo had a unique way of getting his point across. "He had these big massive hands and he would take you by the wrist when you did some- thing wrong or didn't put forth the effort he thought you should have, and he would pull you down and get you close to his face and he would speak in your ear. He would be very forceful, but no one would ever know that he's giving you what for," Palovcsik said. "That was just one of his mannerisms. He got his message across but he did it re- ally in a dignified way. And there are a lot of coaches I watch who don't do it that way. Rich was a very competitive guy but he knew how to handle people." Palovcsik will be on hand in Oklahoma City along with Lorenzo's wife, Cindy, two children and brother and sister, as well as longtime friends such as Ira Lubert, Galen Dreibelbis, Fritz and Oishi. Current Penn State coach Cael Sanderson also is making the trip with them, Lorenzo said. "They're so important and so much in- volved in the success we have and we did have and we were able to change the pro- gram around and get it started going to- ward national competition," Lorenzo said. "Those guys mean a lot to me and a lot to the program." Lubert was coached by Lorenzo, and the two of them have remained best of friends. "He truly is one of these unique indi- viduals," Lubert said. "I've met a couple in my life, and he's one who truly gets real pleasure not only out of helping others, but seeing other people be successful or have something good in their life happen. He truly gets tremendous pleasure out of that." That admirable trait is still paying off for Lorenzo; it's called the Hall of Fame. ■ TWIST OF FATE Rich Lorenzo had never intended to get into coaching. Next month, he'll enter the Wrestling Hall of Fame | LORENZO

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