RIP Carlton Haselrig
- Thread starter TheSpecialSauce
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Very sad.
Haselrig has sports biography that 99.9% of the world does not.
His feats in wrestling and football and later in MMA were mind boggling.
In Kurt Angle's autobiography, he listed Haselrig and Baumgardner as the 2 toughest wrestlers he ever went against.
Haselrig has sports biography that 99.9% of the world does not.
His feats in wrestling and football and later in MMA were mind boggling.
In Kurt Angle's autobiography, he listed Haselrig and Baumgardner as the 2 toughest wrestlers he ever went against.
Johnstown’s very own. Was awesome to see a UPJ guy on the big stage. May he rest in peace.
Did anyone else ever win D-1 and D-2 championships the same year in wrestling? He did it three times, if I can recall correctly ... absolutely amazing ...
Prior to him, I don't know. I believe after he won his final championship, the NCAA barred D2 wrestlers from entering the NCAA D1 tourney.
That type of resume suggests that he is easily one of the greatest collegiate athletes ever.
Then, he becomes an NFL All-Pro. Then, he takes up MMA after 40. Absolutely ridiculous athlete.
Just saw this. Carlton had one of the most improbable sports lives I have ever seen. His high school had no wrestling program so he entered the state playoffs as an independent, won 9 straight matches to claim the state title. Went on to UPJ where he won 3 titles in D1 and D2. Because of Carlton the NCAA no longer invites D2 champions to compete in the D1 tournaments.
Carlton then tried out for football where he made the Steeler roster as a Nose Tackle then was moved to guard by Chuck Noll. He became a dominant all pro guard for the Steelers before personal demons hijacked his career. If Carlton could have kept his head on straight he could very well be in the HOF right now
RIP Carlton
Yes 2 guys from Clarion. Gary Barton and Wade Schalles (twice). But what Haselrig did outdid them with 3 times and also going Pro football. Crazy freak athlete.
UPJ was a wrestling powerhouse and since he could wrestle for a div I championship and live close to home, why not? ...
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A year younger than me he was my backup at tackle at Garfield Junior High School back in the day and we were classmates all through college... RIP Carlton.
He went to a high school that didn't have a wrestling team so he didn't really wrestle much in high school. Somehow he qualified for the District 6 championships and from there became an unlikely state champion. I'm not sure how a wrestler without a high school team qualified for the District 6 chapionship at that time. He went to Lock Haven to play football but ended up transferring to UPJ.
wrestling is not a team sport..I know, I know, they may say so but it is really not the case.Even more so for him as he did not even have a high school "team"..Also, I'm trying to be nice and not mentioning some of Carlton's academic shortcomings coming out of high school..I'm guessing Pat Pecorra went after him hard after football did not work out...
or maybe he liked the beautiful setting...
They made an exception for him, so that he could participate. I remember him entering the state championships with a record of something like 6-0.
No. he was the first and only then they changed the rule and no D2 champ will get the chance.
Edit: just saw where 2 others did it in lower weight classes including Wade Schalles who I believe was from Hollidaysburg.
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Carlton practiced with the Westmont team all year then petitioned to wrestle as an independent in states. He was allowed in and went the whole way to the title undefeated.
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anon_vmuicqnzlyp3u
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His Uncle worked there and was pretty big within the administration and he could keep an eye on Carlton
The interesting thing was that Westmont had a heavyweight named Bob Fleck who was really good ..... Haselrig and Fleck practiced against each other all season which turned out mutually beneficial to both wrestlers (Johnstown High School where Haselrig went had dropped their once proud wrestling program) ....... Fleck got to wrestle matches all season and was undefeated during the regular season ...... Haselrig received the waiver to wrestle in the post season tournament ...... Haselrig wrestled in AAA and Fleck in AA ...... Haselrig won the District 6 AAA Championship, the Northwest Regional AAA Championship and the AAA State Heavyweight Championship going 10-0 for the tournaments ....... Fleck won the District and Regional AA Championships and entered the State AA Championship 32-0 ..... Fleck won his first 3 matches at States by pins but lost in the AA Finals to the defending AA heavyweight champion (kid named Koontz) ..... so the two practiced against each other all year, Haselrig won the AAA championship and Fleck was runner-up in AA.
He has to be included on the list of best multi-sport athletes from Western PA.
Without question. Being from Johnstown he gets overlooked in the Pittsburgh area as being an all time great but he is up there for sure.
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anon_vmuicqnzlyp3u
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During his senior year at Johnstown High School, his high school entered a team in the league just so Carlton would be eligible for entering the section tournament. They only had one wrestler and defaulted all meets during the season. He was allowed to enter the section tournament and the rest is history. I saw him in the state championships where he dominated. He was one of the best Hwt wrestlers I had ever seen with no high school matches prior to the section tournament. He trained with his uncle who was a coach. I also saw all his NCAA matches where again he dominated.
so clarion hasn’t always competed in DI wrestling? I didn’t know that. When did they stop wrestling division 2?
PSAC has always been confusing to me on how some schools were d1 - clarion, edinboro, bloom, and others were d2 like slippery rock.
Any other UPJ alumni out there? I overlapped with Carlton for one/two years. Super nice guy whenever I ran into him.
A 'rumor' I heard was that he and a few basketball players wanted to go to a frat party. The frat didn't want them in so an ~175lb guy was behind the door with a bat. When Carlton came in, the kid hit him in the upper back/lower neck. With the amount of muscle he had in that area, he just looked at the kid and nailed him right in the nose. Broke his nose, kid needed surgery and looked pretty bad for awhile. The kid never talked about who did it to my knowledge.
If true, can you imagine the fear in that kid when Carlton looked at him?
I wrestled back then and never noticed Clarion was D2. I believe what happened was that when the NCAA banned D2 wrestlers from competing in the NCAA’s
I was involved in wrestling is those days, but never paid attention to those school being D2 in wrestling. I believe that when the NCAA banned D2 wrestlers from competing in the NCAA’s, those schools changed to D 1 in wrestling.
Even schools like Mercyhurst compete in D1 soccer, IIRC. Very confusing indeed.
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