Harry E. Lake - Union
Harry Lake is considered the Father of High School Wrestling in NJ. Harry had no experience in the sport however he caught the wrestling fever under Bill Caan at the Elizabeth YMCA. Caan,member of the 1928 Olympic team would be a good tutor as Harry would give much to the promotion of the sport in the Garden State. In 1930 he would start the wrestling program at Union HS and in 1934 would organize and direct the 1st New Jersey State Wrestling Championship Tournament at Union.The first tournament had a budget of forty dollars for medals and two officials so he commandered numerous volunteers. Harry ran the tournament for the next five years until in 1939 he got the NJSIAA to take it over and they named him Tournament Director, a position he held until his accidental death in 1959. He would also serve as the 1st Chairman of the Wrestling Committee and started the New Jersey Wrestling Officials ad Coaches Association which would later split into the two groups we have in place today. They would start with only 40 members but today have over 600 members statewide. In 1943 Harry would initiate the Donald Ringler Award which would be given to the State Tournament's Outstanding Wrestler. The award was named after a NJ coach who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country in World War Two. In 1948 he would start the Union County Junior Varsity Tournament,the first of it's kind, which still runs to this day. To honor his memory the NJ Wrestling Coaches Association created the Harry E.Lake Award for outstanding contributions to NJ wrestling. This award is given out annually at the State Tournament and is considered the most presigious honor in the sport of NJ wrestling. No fewer than 21 of our Hall of Famers to date have recieved this award which is emblematic of his contributions to the development of NJ wrestling.
James R.Wright - Woodbury
This years Outstanding American Award winner competed at Woodbury HS under coach Bill Morro where he would start as a 7th grader and in his senior year win a Region title and place second at the State Championships. An outstanding athlete he would earn seven varsity letters in wrestling,tennis and Cross-country.After his high school career was done he would continue on the D-1 level at Brigham Young University wrestling two years and placing 3rd in the Western Atletic Conference. After college Jim would devote his life to help preserve the peace and safety of our country serving 26 years as a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During this time he would recieve 25 letters of commendation for excellance and that would include a letter of commendation from the President of the United States. Jim's work on numerous high profile cases such as the Jonestown Massacre,Patty Hurst kidnapping,the Walker/Whitworth espionoge case and the Ted Kaczynski unabomber case helped make the country a safer place to live. Jim epitomizes the qualities of leadership on which American society depends and credits these qualities to his wrestling career under Coach Morro.
