A writer's story

'Gentle Giant' of Canadian wrestling competed at three Olympics

TOM HAWTHORN
Monday, August 25, 2008
Page S15
Special to The Globe and Mail, with news services

VICTORIA -- Those who wrestle as amateurs wear singlets, not costumes; seek medals, not riches; battle under their real names, not a promoter's colourful moniker.

They train and sweat and sacrifice in anonymity, all the while enduring quips about their eye-gouging, hair-pulling professional counterparts.

Harry Geris spent his entire adult life in gymnasiums with few spectators, first mastering and then teaching an ancient art.

A bear of a man, Mr. Geris became a legend in the tight, close-knit world of amateur wrestling. He was nicknamed Big Harry and the Gentle Giant, though some defeated opponents might quibble with the modifier on the latter.

Born in the Netherlands, he immigrated to Canada with his family as a baby. He grew up in London, Ont., graduating from H.B. Beal Secondary, where he was Ontario high school wrestling champion.

He first stepped into the wrestling circle as a representative of his adopted homeland at 18 at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966. He had the misfortune of drawing in the first round Bhim Singh of India, who defeated the teenager on his way to claiming the gold medal.

Mr. Geris would represent Canada at three Olympic Games and two World Cups, as well as at the Pan American Games. He was a 10-time national champion.

He first gained attention in The Globe and Mail at a wrestling exhibition held in front of Toronto's city hall in 1967. The 215-pound (97.5-kg.) youth surprised a heavier and older foreign wrestler by pinning him in the second round, giving the undefeated visitor his first loss during a tour of Canada. The headline read: French wrestler beaten by high-school student.

Mr. Geris won his weight division at the U.S. national junior college championship in 1968 as a student at the Joliet Junior College in Illinois.

Later that same year, while still a teenager, he made his Olympic debut at the Insurgentes Ice Rink in Mexico City, which had been converted into a wrestling arena. He had a limp from a build-up of water in his right knee.

Mr. Geris fought in the heavyweight category of both the freestyle and Greco-Roman disciplines. (The latter forbids holds below the hips and restricts the use of the legs.) One of those to whom he lost was Bob Roop of Carbondale, Ill., who later turned pro as a "heel" (bad guy) as a pro wrestler of limited success.

Mr. Geris competed as a super-heavyweight freestyler in the following two Olympics.

A scholarship to Oklahoma State University led to a successful collegiate career in the United States. He placed fourth at the Amateur Athletic Union's national freestyle championship in 1972 behind Greg Wojciechowski. (He, too, later turned pro as The Great Wojo.) At a 1975 meet at Montreal, Mr. Geris finished in third place after being pinned by the eventual winner, Salman Hasinikov of the Soviet Union. The event was held at the University of Montreal before a sparse crowd. Even with the approach of the Olympics, amateur wrestling remained a sport with a small following. Meanwhile, a pro-wrestling card that same weekend sold out Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

At the Montreal Olympics in 1976, Mr. Geris's opening bout pitted him against Jim Jackson, a U.S. journalism student who tipped the scales at 340-pounds, 100 pounds heavier than the Canadian. Mr. Geris called on his experience to survive a mismatch before his opponent brought him down with a leg hold, applying his weight for a second-round pin.

Despite the loss, Mr. Geris advanced to the third round by defeating Yorihide Isogai of Japan. The prize for his victory was a showdown with world champion Soslan Andiev of the Soviet Union.

The giant of the Caucasus was taller, heavier and five years younger. He ended the Canadian's Olympic career by pinning him to the mat just 44 seconds into their match.

Mr. Geris felt he and his teammates lacked the experience to cope with the world's best. "We haven't had enough of this calibre of competition," he said after his match.

He announced his retirement from the ring as a competitor in favour of becoming a coach.

In 1984, Mr. Geris was inducted into the Wrestling Canada Hall of Fame, a shrine for the nation's best amateurs. He had been named to the U.S. National Junior College Athletic Association's wrestling hall of fame in 1981.

He taught at wrestling clinics in the United States, including at his alma mater.

Over the years, the towering, bullet-headed presence of Mr. Geris became familiar at wrestling tournaments throughout southwestern Ontario. He was a mainstay of what is now known as the London-Western Wrestling Club and, for the past five years, he served as a volunteer coach at the University of Western Ontario, whose head coach, Ray Takahashi, was a teammate at the Montreal Olympics.

Early one morning this spring, a construction worker found a body behind a London elementary school. Mr. Geris had died suddenly while delivering wrestling mats for a student tournament.

HARRY GERIS

Harry Geris was born on Nov. 22, 1947, at Deurne, the Netherlands. He died April 24, 2008, in London, Ont. He was 60. He leaves his wife, Jo-Anne, and three sons.