The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/916614
JANUARY 2018 ■ 63 WHEREARETHEYNOW? BY RYAN TICE G reg Hicks' name isn't plastered all over the NC State wrestling record books, but he was a trail- blazer for the program and one of its most successful international com- petitors ever. Hicks' wrestling career was extremely fruitful, but also one driven by disappoint- ment. And even after his competitive days ended, he has seen the life that followed shaped by the sport. It began at Page High School in Greens- boro. Hicks never won a state title — plac- ing second as a junior and then falling back to third as a senior. However, he didn't let those results deter his dreams of wrestling in college. He can still recall details of his first workout at NC State like it was weeks, not decades, ago. During a voluntary practice a new teammate a little bigger than him offered to roll around. They started grap- pling, and Hicks remembers being pinned "literally four or five times in two minutes." Welcome to college wrestling, Hicks thought to himself. Later, another teammate informed Hicks that his partner that day was the reigning ACC Tournament Most Outstanding Wres- tler, rising-junior Robert Brawley. "That made me feel a little bit better," Hicks recalled with a laugh. Yet, being "embarrassed" on day one "was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me," he explained. "It really made me realize I'm wrestling men now, not kids. So despite that first 2-3 min- utes of my college experience, I decided I was all-in after that." Hicks quickly rose to the top of the po- dium in the ACC. He won his first confer- ence title as a sophomore in 1966 and was sent to the NCAA Championships. He tasted immediate success on the big stage and was actually the first from NC State to ever wrestle in and win a match at NCAAs. However, after his initial triumph, the 152-pounder lost his next bout to the eventual third-place finisher Jim Kamman. In that version of the NCAA Champion- ships (now a double-elimination tourna- ment), the winning wrestler had to make the finals in order for the opponents he beat to be put into the consolation bracket. Kamman, an NCAA champ the following year, beat Hicks 10-2 in the round of 16 but lost in the semifinals to the eventual cham- pion. With Kamman's loss, Hicks' first chance to make national noise was over. The following year, Hicks moved up to 160 pounds and won his second straight ACC title — becoming the second in school history to win two conference crowns, after Brawley, and the first to do so in consecutive seasons — but again lost to the eventual third-place finisher. This time, though, the defeat came in round one, to the weight's fifth seed. In his senior year, Hicks lost in the ACC finals — "and I was supposed to win and be the outstanding wrestler and all of that," he said — and then fell in his first match at NCAAs. "All three years, I never had the chance to go back through the consolations, and I definitely have thought of that over the years," he admitted. "What could have hap- pened? We'll never know." The first wrestler in NC State history to win a bout at the national tournament only won that one match at the event. A familiar feeling set in. Just like after high school, Hicks was confident he was better than his final showing at that level — he just needed the chance to prove it. "It's funny how disappointments can fac- tor into your motivation in life," he said. "Losing that last ACC Tournament moti- vated me, and I kept thinking, 'I could be better than I am.'" Through head coach Jerry Daniels, Hicks was presented the opportunity to compete across the country, and eventually internationally, with the sports ministry Athletes in Action, which was starting a full-time wrestling team. Despite already accepting a job the sum- mer before his senior year began, which would've used his chemical engineering degree, Hicks really wanted to continue on the mat. He talked his late wife, Sue — his childhood sweetheart whom he wed that summer — into the opportunity. "I can always be an engineer, I can't always be an athlete," he remembered tell- ing her. A 12-year adventure with the program ensued, with Hicks traveling around col- lege campuses and then the world, wres- tling and sharing his faith. "Within three or four years, I was the na- tional freestyle champ," Hicks recalled. "It was after graduation that I started to really gain more national prominence. I guess I was a slow-maturing guy. "NC State laid the groundwork. It made me a better and tougher guy and all the things you've got to have in wrestling." Hicks thrived in his post-college career. After he became one of the best wrestlers in the country at his weight class, he ascended to world acclaim. He was on a pair of U.S. National Teams and won a Pan-American Games gold medal, but still experienced the close calls and tough breaks — he calls them his "Murphy's laws" — that defined his high school and college careers. In 1972 and 1976, he lost out on his bid to make the U.S. Olympic team to the eventual gold medalist. In 1974 and 1975 — non-Olympic years — he won the na- tional tournament and represented the USA at the world championships, placing fifth in 1975. But a top-three finish and the accom- panying hardware eluded him. "I never medaled — that was one of my disappointments," he said. Greg Hicks Wrestling (1965-1968) Age: 71 Living: Raleigh Occupation: Owner and President of Financial Resource Management Did You Know? Hicks and his late wife Sue both graduated from and worked at NC State for 20-plus years, he as a volunteer assistant wrestling coach and she as an assistant for the football coaches. Both of their kids, Cari and Nathan, attended NC State, and his daughter met her husband there. His parents are also both NC State graduates, so Hicks joked his two granddaughters, Finley and Murphy, "have no choice but to attend NCSU one day!" Hicks was a two-time ACC champion at NC State, but he went on to bigger wrestling heights after college. He represented the U.S. at two world championships, placing fifth in 1975. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS In 1966, Hicks became the first wrestler at NC State to both wrestle and win a match at the NCAA Championships. He returned to the NCAAs each of the next two seasons. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS