On March 15th, 1927, Cushing defeated Fort Dodge, Iowa, in an event billed as the “High School Wrestling Championship of the United States”.
Cushing and Fort Dodge will be running back the historic event in a dual in December of 2027. Fort Dodge will host the event, with Cushing making the trip to Iowa to compete in the dual. Cushing will also wrestle in the Fort Dodge tournament the weekend following.
Cushing is coming off a 6th-place finish at the state tournament with several top Junior High wrestlers in the pipeline for the 2027 season. Fort Dodge finished 8th in Iowa’s largest class and is the home of Oklahoma State HWT Dreshaun Ross.
This newspaper article from 1927 recaps the original event.
The members of the Tiger mat squad and their coach, who last night carried the Cushing High School colors to victory in the United States high school wrestling championship match, between Fort Dodge, Iowa grapplers and the Cushing High School “eight,” who for the past three years have held the State and Southwestern mat title without a defeat.
While the Cushingites hold the south and west part of the country in their control on the mat, the Fort Dodge team were acclaimed supreme in the east and the northern edge, and so it brought many people from all over the country to witness the bout. Lauderdale and Plummer, 100 and 145-pound men, respectively, were the victims of the Iowa grapplers, Lauderdale losing by a decision and Plummer, by a fall. Lauderdale, however, the opinion was expressed, would have pinned his man had the bouts been extended to the usual length of time in which the local boys are used to working under.
Kirchmeyer and Robbins were the Cushing men to win their bouts by falls, Robbins coming in the late part of his bout and Kirchmeyer’s in the first minute and 30 seconds.Captain Pontius of the Fort Dodge team, an all—state man in Iowa, was the victim of the hard work of Mohler, a second-year man of Cushing. Mohler rode Pontius through the eight-minute time period and won a decision, thus assuring the local men of victory.
Even though the Dodger grapplers lost to the local men it can be trustfully said that they put forth the strongest competition ever encountered by the local men. They fought from the very first to the very last and when it would look as though Cushing was about to get a fall, the Dodger would twist out and get free. They not only showed some real fight but also a very high degree of sportsmanship. No less could be expected from them since they have a very good coach in the person of Fred N. Cooper.
