Mark Kirk
Before a packed house of family, friends, and many past and present Oklahoma wrestling coaches, officials, and fans, the 2023 inductees to the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (NWHOF) were officially recognized at the 27th Annual Banquet held Sunday afternoon at the Edmond Conference Center. Lifetime Service to Wrestling inductees were Benny Coleman, Carl Mize, Sid Sanders, John Strickland, and Shawn Wilson. Todd Chesbro was inducted as an Outstanding American while Jason Long was recognized as the Medal of Courage recipient. The Finn Family were recipients of the Lee Roy & Madalene Smith Family Award.
A.L. Haizlip and Lisa Smith served as Master of Ceremonies with NWHOF State Chapter Director Krista Graff and Oklahoma State Chapter President Steve Ferguson providing opening remarks. In his remarks, Ferguson noted that it was the largest crowd to ever attend this very special event. Ferguson also introduced OSU head coach John Smith along with staff members Coleman Scott, Chris Perry, and Gary Wayne Harding. Also recognized was Todd Steidley, head coach of the 2023 DII national champion UCO Bronchos along with assistant coach Scott Chenoweth and several members of the UCO team. NWHOF Executive Director Lee Roy Smith was also introduced at this time.
To start the evening, Stillwater’s Cale Hughes was presented with the 2023 National Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award and Choctaw’s Peyton Hand was presented the Oklahoma Chapter Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award. Hughes finished his high school career as a 4X undefeated state champion while Hand finished her career as Oklahoma’s first 4X girls state champion.
Benny Coleman, a state champion for Choctaw, was a 2X national champion and 4X All-American at UCO. Following graduation, Coleman returned to Choctaw and served as the head coach since 1987. Under Coleman, Choctaw won six state titles, five dual state championships and three academic state championships.
Austin Bernard attended the banquet and took some wonderful photographs. To view his photographs, please tap on the image below. Austin does a great job photographing wrestling across Oklahoma and the United States. Thank you, Austin, for all your hard work!
Carl Mize served as the youth coach in Noble for 29 years, coaching numerous wrestlers who later became state placers and collegiate All-Americans. He was honored as the Tulsa Nationals Coach of the Year in 2002 and the Oklahoma USA Wrestling Man of the Year in 2003. He served as the Oklahoma Kids Wrestling Association Regional Director from 1992-2013 and has been president and tournament director of the US Junior Open Championship from 1981 to 2023.
Sid Sanders was a state runner-up on Midwest City’s first state championship team in 1971. Sanders went on to serve as an Oklahoma wrestling official for 32 years. During that time, Sanders officiated 23 high school state tournaments, 26 regional tournaments, too many other high school tournaments to list and was twice chosen to officiate at the Oklahoma All-State Dual. Sanders also coached youth wrestling for 11 years and for the past 19 years has helped organize the Oklahoma JH All-State Tournament, including hiring the officials for the tournament.
John Strickland served 50 years as a teacher, coach and official, including serving long stints coaching wrestling in Ada and Duncan. Strickland coached two state runner-up teams and one dual state runner-up team. He coached five regional championship teams and five teams that finished as regional runners-up. In addition to coaching, Strickland served as an official for 32 years, working five regional tournaments and one state tournament.
Shawn Wilson was a 2X state champion and 4X state placer for Pawhuska HS. In a 35-year coaching career with stops in Pawhuska, Cleveland, Broken Arrow, Wagoner and Barnsdall, Wilson coached 11 state champions, 47 state placers and 107 state qualifiers. Wilson coached nine All-State wrestlers and five wrestlers who earned high school All-American honors. Wilson was named the 2015 All-State coach and honored as the 2016 Oklahoma Coaches Association Regional Coach of the Year.
Outstanding American Todd Chesbro was a 4X state champion for Stillwater before going on to become a 3X All-American and member of two national championship teams while wrestling at OSU. From one of the most recognized names in Oklahoma Wrestling history, Chesbro was also a 2X Academic All-American who attended OU Law School following his graduation from OSU. Following graduation from OU Law School, Chesbro has served the public in various roles, including serving as an assistant district attorney in two counties, serving as captain of the Major Crime Team for Tulsa County and serving as Director of the Robbery Division. Chesbro currently serves as the Major Crime and Drug Trafficking Prosecutor for the Rogers County District Attorney’s Office.
Jason Long was a 2X state qualifier and life-long wrestler from Midwest City who was hunting in the Alaksa wilderness when he was attached by a mother grizzly bear. Long credits the mental and physical toughness learned through wrestling as the reason he survived not only the attack, but the long wait for help to arrive and then enduring the many surgeries that were part of his recovery.
Last year, the Oklahoma Chapter started a new award, recognizing families that have played a significant role in Oklahoma wrestling. Fittingly, the Lee Roy and Madelene Smith Family received the recognition in 2022 and the award is named in their honor. This year Madelene was on hand to present the award to the Finn Family. Long-time Westmoore coach John Finn, his late wife Nancy (the glue that held it all together) and sons Chris, Dustin, Patrick, John Jacob, and Jordan were recipients of the award this year.Â
NWHOF Oklahoma Chapter Board Members include President Steve Ferguson, Vice-President A.L. Haizlip, Secretary Paul Ameen, Treasurer Howard Seay and members Mike Clark, Todd Goolsby, Dr. Robert Hines, Hardell Moore, Melissa Simmons and Lisa Smith.
To nominate someone for future recognition you may go to the NWFOF website and complete a nomination form. You may submit the form online or send a completed form to [email protected].
