‘Wrestlers At The Trials’ – excerpt from Gene Mills

Amongst the 90 wrestlers and coaches whose never-been-published stories are captured in the recent book about the 1960 thru 1988 Olympic wrestling Trials is former Syracuse standout Gene Mills. From “Wrestlers At The Trials”, here is a short excerpt from the stories that Gene tells about his experience at the 1980 Trials and his feeling about the US boycott of those Olympics.

“I went to the wrestle-offs in Brockport still thinking we were going to compete in the Olympics. I wanted to pin my way through the Olympic Games and knew I needed to drop down to 114.5 to meet my goal. That was a tough pull for me but I made it. It was only after I won the wrestle-offs that I finally realized we wouldn’t be wrestling in the Games.

“I was so mad. I wasn’t pulling all that weight to have a good time. I was devastated, furious, angry, you name it. I would have liked to have been locked in a room with the president and make him pay. I had worked my ass off, earned the right to go and I wanted him to feel my pain.

“Obviously, I didn’t do that but I did get to see him on our team visit to Washington. One of his advisors had told him a little about me so as I approached him in the reception line, he says, ‘Hello, I’ve heard about your half-Wilson, Mills’. I chuckled. I wanted to pin him right there. But, I kept my cool and….”

To learn more about this fast-selling 198 page hard-cover book “Wrestlers At The Trials” and to order your own copy, go to www.WrestlersAtTheTrials.com

Jamie Moffatt, author