Former Southern Connecticut State wrestlers reconnect with coach Knauf

It’s been more than 30 years since Don Knauf stepped away from the wrestling program he built from the ground up at Southern Connecticut State University.

His Owls won more than 200 matches and three New England championships in 21 seasons from 1974 through 1994. For 18 consecutive seasons, Southern Connecticut sent wrestlers to the NCAA Division II national championships with 16 Owls earning All-American honors.

On a warm summer evening earlier this month, Knauf, 90, was back in New Haven with some of his former wrestlers sharing memories of their days together at Southern Connecticut and catching up on their lives.

For many, it was an opportunity to thank a coach that helped shape their life and to share with Knauf, his wife, Judy, and about two dozen former teammates how wrestling has impacted their lives.

“I think the word is gratitude,” said Peter Dalaker, an All-American wrestler for the Owls in 1982. “We’re very, very grateful to you for the time you spent with us away from your family and children and all of the things you taught us.”

For the most part, the stories were not about matches won or championship trophies. It was about the lessons learned, the bonds solidified in the sweat and hard work that a team and its wrestlers do to succeed and the friendships that have endured throughout the years.

“This was one of the great days of my life,” Knauf said.

Kevin Gallagher, who wrestled at Southern from 1979-82, has been the head coach at Minisink Valley in New York for 26 years. He has more than 600 dual meet wins in his scholastic career. He was recently included in the Upstate New York chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

“I take a lot of practice the way we ran it back then (at Southern Connecticut) and I do it now. We do some of the same stuff. The discipline factor, the way coach (Knauf) had control of the room. It wasn’t in your face discipline. It was expectations and that’s the way we run our (practice) room (today).”

At Minisink Valley, Gallagher has coached exceptional wrestlers, including P.J. Duke, who beat three former NCAA champions in June, including four-time NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) at 70 kilograms (154 pounds) to secure a spot in the U.S. team heading to the world championships in September

Recently, Gallagher called Knauf to ask if he of any competitive tournaments in Florida that his team might benefit from participating in. Knauf referred Gallagher to a tournament in Jensen Beach that Minisink Valley attended for two years.

In Florida, Gallagher and his team needed a van to get to the tournament and Knauf brought a van to the airport for the team to use. Gallagher later reimbursed the Knaufs for the vehicle. “We needed a van and coach brought a van to the airport for us,” Gallagher said. “He did all this for a team he didn’t even know. That’s the kinda guy he is. The kinda guy we all know he is.”

“Skill development was not the issue,” Knauf said of his philosophy at Southern Connecticut. “What was the issue was life development, life skills. Caring for people and caring for yourself.”

“People matter more than skills. I did care about skills (on the mat) but I thought a receptive mind would develop a lot quicker than someone who didn’t feel cared for.”

Norm Forrester of Meriden had a tough time getting into the starting lineup and getting to compete on the mat. But he didn‘t feel isolated.

“You made us feel that we were part of the team,’ Forrester said. “You showed us the moves. You showed us the action and how to preserve and never give up. You told us never to quit. Learning. A lesson from you is not just about winning, it was about practice and your character.”

“I never came close to breaking into the starting lineup and you treated no different than the highly-recruited wrestlers on the team and pushed me just as hard and to be my best on the mat or in the classroom. Thank you for making me feel part of the team regardless of mat time,” said Scott Roth, who was part of the program from 1984-86.

Roth was an assistant coach in Simsbury (1989-94) before becoming a volunteer coach in South Carolina, Japan and England when he served in the Air Force. “While coaching, I tried my best to emulate your style of teaching and coaching,” Roth said.

Fred Meyers admitted he wasn’t the easiest athlete to manage in his college days. “I loved wrestling. I loved coming to practice. I loved competing. But coach straightened me out and got the best out of me,” Meyers said. Meyers earned All-American honors in 1986 with a seventh place finish at the NCAA Division II national championships.

Twenty years later, Knauf met Meyers in Las Vegas to help him through another rough patch of his life when Meyers was going through a divorce. “Twenty years after my last match at Southern, he was setting me straight again,” he said with a hearty laugh.

Tony Milner graduated in 1980 from Southern, was a long-time member of the Hartford Fire Department and coached for 16 years at Weaver High. One of Milner’s wrestlers, Jabbar Floyd, became the first Hartford wrestler to win a New England championship in 1997.

“You created a love for wrestling and it came from you,” said Rick Babbitts, who earned All-American honors at the 1983 NCAA Division II national championships at 142 pounds. “You touched everyone.

“Look at this,” Babbitts said pointing to the gathering of former Owl wrestlers. “We’re still here, working out, coaching and still involved in the sport all of these years later.”

It was a touching event. There were a few tears, plenty of hugs and a tribute or two that stalled as the speaker fought back emotions.

Knauf was touched to see how his coaching legacy has progressed over the years through his former wrestlers.

“Mission accomplished,” he said. “I wasn’t hearing what I heard today to boost my ego. I was hearing what I heard today as kind of a report of where we are. What kind of values are my guys carrying (forward). As you heard, most of them have coached, which to me, is a positive thing.”

Under Knauf, the idea was to grow on and off the mat.

“That is the nature of coaching,” he said. “It’s not half nelsons and hammerlocks. Its doing what God put you there to do and doing it well, and care for those (around) you. And I tried to do that the best of my ability.

“That is what the key to coaching is about …  developing young people to be what they can be and to carry the torch to the next level.”

Knauf, who was inducted into the Florida chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2023, wrestled in college at Ursinus. Before coming to Southern in 1971 to establish the program, Knauf coached at Williston Academy in Northampton, Mass., for eight seasons. He also was a volunteer assistant at the University of Hartford in the last 1950s and Taft School (early 60s) for two seasons each.

After Southern, he began teaching wrestling in 1996 for the summer recreational program at the local YMCA in Skowhegan, Maine where he and his wife, Judy, spent time in the summer. He did that until 2018.

In Florida, he coached Martin County High in Stuart, Florida, from 1996 through 2016 and also ran the Martin County USA Wrestling Club from 1996 to 2016. For years, including this past winter, he has been attending practice at Martin County High twice a week to offer a tutorial for anyone who is looking for a little extra guidance.