Connect with us

Wrestling

Avon’s Mike Golic to be inducted in National Wrestling Hall of Fame

Avon's Mike Golic at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Oklahoma. Golic is being inducted this weekend. (Photo courtesy of Christine Golic via Twitter)

Avon’s Mike Golic at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Oklahoma. Golic is being inducted this weekend. (Photo courtesy of Christine Golic via Twitter)

Avon’s Mike Golic is known across the country as the co-host of the Mike & Mike show each morning on ESPN radio and on ESPN2. But he is also a strong supporter of wrestling and the millions of listeners of his radio show and viewers on television know it, too.

A former high school wrestler in Ohio and a collegiate wrestler at Notre Dame, Golic has been a strong advocate for wrestling. He using the platform and visibility of his job with ESPN to show support for the sport when the International Olympic Committee threatened to remove it from the Olympic Games in 2013. He continues to be a huge supporter of USA Wrestling and collegiate wrestling.

For his vocal and visible support to wrestling, Golic is being inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as an Outstanding American at induction ceremonies this weekend in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Golic is among 10 inductees in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He will be inducted with Frank Bettucci, Joe Gonzales, Sammie Henson, and Greg Johnson, Order of Merit recipient Dr. David “Doc” Bennett, Medal of Courage recipient Mike Powell, and Lifetime Achievement for an Official recipient Kenny Ritchie.

Bettucci was a two-time AAU national champion and a member of the 1956 U.S. Olympic team; Gonzalez won a NCAA Division III and Division I title and is a five-time U.S. World Team member; Henson was a two-time NCAA champion, a Junior World Greco-Roman champion, Senior World Freestyle champion and a Olympic silver medalist; and Johnson, who wrestled at Michigan State, was the first Big 10 wrestler to win three NCAA titles.

Golic joined ESPN in 1995 as a reporter and analyst for Sunday NFL Countdown. Since 1998, he was been working with Mike Greenberg on Mike and Mike on ESPN radio. It was been simulcast on television since 2004. Golic played eight years in the NFL as a defensive lineman with the Houston Oilers, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins.

He played football and wrestled at Notre Dame. He had a record of 24-4-1 with the Irish and wrestled for four years at St. Joseph High in Cleveland. His best finish in high school was third place in 1981.

Golic and his wife, Christine, have three children.

Click on the following link to learn more about the inductees in this year’s National Wrestling Hall of Fame class.

 

Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 30 years.

More in Wrestling