Check was another top-notch wrestler for Uhlans
German Township High School always had a reputation as a top-notch wrestling school. One of the former Uhlans who had a successful high school and college career was Bessemer’s Don Check.
Check started for German as a freshman at 88 pounds.
“I didn’t miss any matches as a freshman,” Check recalled. “I wrestled all of the matches at 88 pounds, and we used to have about 13 matches then. I think I was 7-6 as a freshman. I only weighed about 72 pounds when I was a freshman.
“I went up in weight every year. I went up to 95 pounds as a sophomore and then 103 to 112 as a senior.”
In 1959-60 as a sophomore, Check posted a regular-season record of 8-4, was Section 4 Champion at 95 pounds and second in the district.
During the 1960-61 season, Check finished the regular season with a 10-3 mark. He was defeated, 2-1, in overtime by Paul Kanalis of Beth-Center in the semifinals of the Section 4 Championships.
Check was defeated in the Section 4 finals in 1961-62 as he fell to James Boudreau of Waynesburg, 5-2.
“We always battled Waynesburg, they were a wrestling power,” Check said. “We almost beat them my junior year when we had Bob Dugan and Melio Sulipek, we had some good wrestlers. We had a 12-1 record that year and we came close to beating them, our only loss in dual meets during the regular season was to Waynesburg.”
German had a great wrestling tradition.
“Ray Rifenberg was the coach,” Check offered. “He was a good coach, I don’t think he ever wrestled, but he studied it quite a bit. I wrestled a little bit in eighth grade, it wasn’t a big program.
“German didn’t really have a feeder system, but we did have an eighth-grade program. Rifenberg was a big man and he would bring books in that showed different wrestling moves. He studied it and learned. He was a good coach.
“There was a family tree in German wrestling. My brother wrestled, but that seems to be anywhere in wrestling. It is a sport embraced by families. When my kids wrestled it was the same thing, brothers and more brothers. Now it’s to the point where it’s sons and grandsons. My brother was three years older and he was on the team. He would come home and he would practice his moves on me.”
When Check graduated from German Township in 1962 he was set to go to California State Teachers College, now California University of Pennsylvania.
“It’s an interesting story,” Check explained. “I wasn’t recruited by anybody. I was an above-average wrestler, but there was one state champion. The kids I lost to went on to win the state championships. I never got out of the section, but the guys I lost to were all pretty good. I was enrolled at California and I was going to be a shop teacher. My shop teacher in high school was a guy I respected and he taught me a lot. That was Mr. Moore, our Industrial Arts teacher.
“My brother was at West Virginia and he was on the wrestling team. He told WVU coach Steve Harrick that you wrestled and he said to bring you down to Morgantown. I went down with my brother and I beat their varsity guy, and Coach Harrick got me enrolled in school and of being a shop teacher I went to Engineering School and became an engineer. Going to WVU changed my whole life.”
Check had a fine wrestling career for the Mountaineers.
After wrestling on the freshmen team in 1962-63, Check got off to an 8-1 start as a sophomore in 1963-64. He dislocated his left elbow in practice and missed five matches. He came back and finished with a 9-2 record and seven pins
“I came back from the elbow injury and I wrestled in the Southern Conference Tournament,” Check said. “They taped my arm so I couldn’t hyper-extend it.”
Check lost to Virgina Tech’s Henry Seymour in the 123-pound weight class of the Southern Conference Tournament.
His practice partner at WVU, Francis Pavlovich, was also from German Township. They were WVU co-captains as seniors.
As a junior in 1964-65 Check posted a record of 13-3 and finished second at 123 pounds in the Southern Conference Tournament. He once again lost to Seymour.
As a co-captain his senior season in 1965-66, Check capped off his WVU career winning the Southern Conference Championship at 123 pounds when he defeated East Carolina’s Howard Metzgar.
“We were competitive in the Southern Conference,” Check remembered. “When we strayed out of our league and wrestled somebody like Ohio State or Penn State, we didn’t fare well. We also wrestled Pitt, and they were pretty good. The only time I was pinned in college was against Pitt.”
When Check graduated from WVU in 1966, he went to work designing ships and aircraft carriers at Newport News, Virginia, shipyard. It is know known as Huntington Ingalls. Check worked there for 38 years before he retired in 2002.
“I built nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines,” Check stated. “I enjoyed my work for 38 years. It was a good place to work and I was involved in a lot of interesting projects.”
Check, 73, has been married to his wife, Beth, a German Township grad for 50 years. They have two sons, Jonathan and Robert. Check has five grandkids.
“Wrestling meant a lot to me,” Check stated. “It opened up a lot of doors for me.”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Monday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.