This is me with Masaaki Hatta, three-time All-American and 1962 NCAA Champion. We had lunch today in Tokyo.
Guess who I had lunch with today?
- Thread starter japancowboy
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This is me with Masaaki Hatta, three-time All-American and 1962 NCAA Champion. We had lunch today in Tokyo.
Masaaki Hatta was one of the first Cowboys I followed when I came to OSU in 1960. He was the first of our Japanese recruits by Coach Roderick followed by his brother Tadaki, Joe Umezawa, Yojiro Uetake, Yoshiro Fujita. Thanks for the pic Japan Cowboy.
This is me with Masaaki Hatta, three-time All-American and 1962 NCAA Champion. We had lunch today in Tokyo.
We won Nationals in 1962 and had two other National champions in Ronnie Clinton at 167 and Bob Johnson at 177. Mark McCracken was 2nd at 115 to Gray Simons of Lockhaven who was the outstanding wrestler of the tournament. Phil Kinyon was the #1 seed but upset in the finals to take second and Joe James came in second at 191 losing to Wayne Baughman of OU. The tournament was at Stillwater.
One of the last things Hatta-san said to me as we were saying our good-byes was, "I can still wrestle!" I am friends with his son, and we met up yesterday face to face for the first time since we were at OSU together in the late 80s.
That is awesome. Thanks for sharing.
This is me with Masaaki Hatta, three-time All-American and 1962 NCAA Champion. We had lunch today in Tokyo.
Orange to the bone...
Go Pokes!