June 11, 2008
SAN DIEGO - Former Aztec wrestler, Harold Henson, recently was featured in the Rev Rewind series from RevWrestling.com. The article, written by Mark Palmer, is part of a series that provides profiles of legendary wrestlers and other stories of historical interest for the "oldest and greatest sport."
By stepping onto the mat at the 1949 NCAA Wrestling Championships to become the first African-American to compete in that tournament, Henson changed history. Although 136-pounder from San Diego State University did not win a national title that year, he made it possible for generations of wrestlers to have success in wrestling in high school, college and international competition.
The 1949 NCAAs were just two years after Jackie Robinson became the first black to compete in Major League Baseball, but five years before the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" segregated public schools were unconstitutional, and eight years before Simon Roberts of the University of Iowa became the first African-American to win an individual national collegiate wrestling championship, claiming the 147-pound title at the 1957 NCAAs. It was during a time when blacks were discouraged from participating in contact sports, such as football and wrestling. Yet this was not the case with Harold Henson.
Born on the Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma in 1923, Harold Henson and his family first moved to Dixon, Ill., and then during the depths of the Great Depression, headed back across the country to San Diego, Calif. Henson was introduced to organized wrestling at San Diego High School.
"I had been born premature, and had pneumonia when I was young, which made me somewhat scrawny," Henson said in the article. "My older brother Al got me interested in wrestling in high school, wrestling for coach Frank Crosby. I weighed just 80 pounds, but it helped to make me stronger, healthier. When I went to San Diego State, student coach Armando Rodriguez kept me involved in the sport, encouraged Al and me to work out."
Although Henson would fall to Oklahoma State's Don Meeker in his first match at the NCAAs, Henson's efforts helped wrestling reach where it is today.
For the full article, the RevWrestling.com link can be found by clicking the link below: