Interesting Facts About the History of Wrestling 

Most of the following are from a series of columns written by the late Bob Dellinger, wrestling historian and former director of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

* Wrestling, mankind’s oldest and most basic form of recreational combat, traces its origins back to the dawn of civilization. Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions.

* Wrestling was the most popular event in the ancient Greek Games, and lists of Olympic wrestling winners have been recorded since 708 BC.

* One of the most famous of the Greek wrestlers was the philosopher Plato, who won many prizes for wrestling as a young man. His real name was Aristocles, but because of his success, he was given the name Plato, meaning “broad shoulders.”

* Wrestling clearly has no single point of origin. More than 160 traditional or “folk-lore” variants are recognized by the International Amateur Wrestling Federation.

* Wrestling has been popular in the Orient for at least 20 centuries. And in Europe, during the Middle Ages, it was considered a knightly skill.

* In both North and South America, Indians included wrestling in their sport activities long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World.

* At least 13 US presidents were wrestlers, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt.

* Wrestling is one of only three sports mentioned in the Bible. (“And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” – Genesis 32:24, King James) The other two are endurance running and boxing.