1948 West Virginia State High School Wrestling Tournament
March 11, 1948
Mountaineer Fieldhouse, Morgantown, WV
The first post-WWII High School wrestling championship in West Virginia took place in Morgantown, and
included two teams - Parkersburg High and Beckley Woodrow Wilson.
According to newspaper accounts, those were the only two teams in West Virginia in 1948 when
wrestling was resumed after the war. These two teams wrestled first year teams from surrounding states
and each wrestled the WVU Freshman squad, but did not meet each other except for this single dual meet -- which goes down
in history as the first State Wrestling Championship (of the post-war era).
Parkersburg 28 Beckley 11
105 - Thomas C. Radford (Beckley) d Carlyn Jackson 6-5
112 - Bob Johnson (Parkersburg) d Merle Ralston 4-2
120 - Carrol Baker (Parkersburg) d Bob O'Dell 20-5
127 - Raymond Maxson (Parkersburg) d John Operchuk 13-12
133 - Denver Beckner (Parkersburg) p James Patterson 2:13
138 - Jerry Montgomery (Parkersburg) d Mike Seelinger 6-1
145 - Gene Camp (Parkersburg) d Bob Snead 7-6
155 - Graham Bush (Parkersburg) d Harry Moore 4-0
165 - Dave Friley (Beckley) d Bill Kurtz 2-0
175 - Jim Winans (Parkersburg) , trailing 2-0, won via default over Nick Rahalll due to foot injury
HWT - Zernie Wickline (Beckley) p Art Gregg 0:58
Parkersburg Coach - Russ Pfalzgraf
Beckley Coach - Vic Peelich
Referee - "Whitey" Gwynne
Thanks to Brent Sams, Parkersburg WV
From The Pakersburg News
Read all about it in The Parkersburg News
Return to the State Tournament Page
Return to the WV-Mat front page