Hall of Fame: Gary Casey (CdM)

Richard Dunn

For a real wrestler like Gary Casey, the stage acts of the World

Wrestling Federation are so repugnant, he can hardly talk about it.

“It’s embarrassing to me,” said Casey, a former high school and

collegiate standout who loves wrestling so much, he competed in the U.S.

national championships five times as an adult, before retiring at age 40

after a serious knee injury.

“Unlike some other countries, wrestling isn’t appreciated in the

United States. People really don’t know what it is ... it’s intense. It’s

intense mentally, too. You can’t be lazy in the mind to wrestle.”

Casey, the 1972 CIF Southern Section champion at 168 pounds for Corona

del Mar High and a former Sea King Athlete of the Year, never intended to

stop wrestling. But his last knee injury, in which doctors removed a

piece of his right patella tendon during ensuing surgery, required four

months of rehabilitation, which meant missing four months of work in the

cabinet business.

“I said, ‘I can’t afford this anymore.’ I have too many

responsibilities,” said Casey, a single parent who has two boys, one of

whom lives with him in Aptos, an unincorporated area near Santa Cruz.

Casey, the 1972 Athlete of the Year at CdM who won the honor over a

highly competitive field of candidates, grew up in a wrestling family.

His older brother, Doug, won the 1968 CIF championship at 178 pounds for

the Sea Kings.

“Since (Doug wrestled), I didn’t really feel the pressure to do it, I

just felt that I should be doing it,” Casey said. “We both had judo

backgrounds. We did that for a couple of years when we were kids. It’s

another grappling sport and it gave us an advantage. Back then, they

didn’t have too many kids’ programs in wrestling.”

Casey was a two-year starter on the varsity football team, including

his senior year on the Irvine League championship squad in the fall of

1971 as a defensive tackle.

But, as a four-year varsity wrestler at four different weights, Casey

did the majority of his pounding on the mats, winning back-to-back league

titles in 1971 and ’72.

In high school, Casey grew from a 5-foot-2 freshman (competing at 115

pounds) to a 6-1 senior, when he posted a 35-1 record, losing only to

Westminster’s Andy Lasick at 178 pounds in the finals of the Five

Counties Tournament.

Casey, who was wrestling up a weight, was also sick that weekend and

didn’t have enough energy in the finals.

But Casey, the Dan Gable of the Newport-Mesa community at the time,

finished the season with a CIF title at 168 pounds, which was as far as

he could go in the years before the state meet.

Casey wrestled for one year at Orange Coast College and placed fourth

in the state, then attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on a wrestling

scholarship and redshirted his first year (‘74).

In his first year competing at San Luis Obispo, Casey advanced to the

NCAA regional finals, after beating the top seed. But then blew out his

knee.

“I ended up getting some leg surgery, but that healed and I continued

to wrestle,” said Casey, who placed fourth at the 1977 U.S. National Open

Freestyle Championships at 180.5 pounds.

Casey said wrestling has only recently received “some respect” from

the media because of the Ultimate Fighting championship, in which those

with a grappling prowess would often beat the boxers and kick-boxers.

“Every fight’s going to end up on the ground. We’ve always known

that,” Casey said. “Anybody who can fight on the ground is going to win.

It became a popular television show and seeing (the success of wrestlers)

was pure vindication for me.”

Be careful when you even mention the make-believe WWF.

“They’re just a bunch of costumed, steroid-pumped guys acting,” he

said. “You have to have a Screen Actors Guild card to do that ... it’s

closer to chess rather than wrestling.”

Casey, the latest honorary in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, was

born in Downey, but grew up in Newport Beach. His family moved here when

he was 3 months old.

Casey’s sons are Gunnar, 13, and Austin, 10.