Claim to fame

King was the last team in the county to defeat Brandon — in 1972.

By JOEY KNIGHT, Times Staff Writer
Published January 4, 2008

	Peter Nenos, left, Howard Blevins, Greg Cavaliero, Billy McPhillips and Rick Rogers of King High's 1971-72 wrestling team. View slide show: snapshots of the streak
[Kathleen Flynn | Times]

TAMPA -- One owns a mom-and-pop hardware store (sorry, no credit cards) in east Tampa. Another has a propane gas company in Plant City. Their modest fraternity also includes security guards, soldiers and residential window replacers.

To observe them in the throes of middle age, they appear unassuming in nature and occupation. But collectively, they possess a distinction befitting the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

Fact is, in local wrestling circles, they are the '72 Dolphins.

And some didn't even realize it. How could they? Oh sure, that 29-21 triumph at Brandon late in the 1971-72 season featured some brutal physicality and at least one breathtaking pin for King High's wrestling team. But the victory certainly seemed like nothing of landmark proportions.

Except for the fact that no team from Hillsborough County has defeated the Eagles since.

"I'm surprised," said Howard Blevins, then a Lions junior who remembers only that he lost his match that night. "They were just another team back then. That's all they were, and they worked hard and they've become magnificent."

While the Eagles program has ascended into a nationally unprecedented stratosphere -- 456 consecutive dual-match victories and counting -- those Lions of a previous era have remained nestled in relative obscurity.

They were prototypical of the area wrestling teams back then: a lot of multisport athletes, and a coach highly unfamiliar with the fledgling sport.

"Basically I was a football coach that didn't know much about wrestling," said then-Lions coach Hank Dixon, who compensated for his sparse wrestling background with a ferocious intensity. "But no one else knew anything, so I got the job."

Among the Lions football players he recruited to wrestle: diminutive fullback Greg Cavaliero; defensive back Jimmy Nunn; and tight end Billy McPhillips, a four-sport standout who would play football at FSU.

None, however, could stay on the mat with Midwest transplant Rick Rogers, who moved to Tampa with his family in his senior year to expose his ill mother to a better climate. Rogers had gone undefeated as a freshman and sophomore in his native state.

"He was like our assistant coach, Rick Rogers was," McPhillips said.

At King, Rogers allowed four points in the regular season and reached the state finals, where he lost in a controversial triple-overtime match after being deducted a series of penalty points. Against Brandon, he pinned sophomore Gardner Box -- now a business partner with McPhillips -- in 27 seconds.

"He was the real deal," recalled Box, who faced Rogers in one of the upper-weight divisions. "He looked like death warmed over, but the guy could wrestle."

Preceding Rogers' quick pin was perhaps the night's most intense match, between Cavaliero and Eagles legend Tony Ippolito, who would become the county's first state champ two years later.

"Coach told me that if I lost the match, we'd lose," said Cavaliero, who now owns a local gas-piping business. "He just said, 'Whatever you do, don't lose.' So we tied. He had a black eye, I had two black eyes. It was a brawl."

That season, the Lions finished third in their district and fifth in the Western Conference. Brandon, under rookie coach Jim Graves, won only three times, but went 12-1 the following season, losing only to Bradenton Manatee.

The Eagles haven't lost since. While defeat to an out-of-area team is a possibility at this weekend's Beat the Streak Tournament, observers say no county team has a legitimate shot at topping Brandon in the foreseeable future.

The Lions' provincial claim to fame is intact. Dixon said no group of guys deserve it more.

"I'm telling you the honest truth," Dixon, now 63 and retired, said from his vacation home in Steinhatchee. "I got out of wrestling (two years later) kind of on account of those kids. Those kids were all good, and I didn't think I was good enough for them."

Joey Knight can be reached at (813) 226-3350 or jknight@sptimes.com.

Beat the Streak Tournament

When/where: Friday and Saturday, Brandon High

Admission: $6

Format: The dual team tournament matched up 16 seeded teams (No. 1 wrestles No. 16, No. 2-No. 15, etc.); in each dual, the teams wrestle each weight class (103 to heavyweight) like a regular dual. The team with the most points moves on to quarterfinals, then semis, etc. These are different than individual-bracketed tournaments, where individual wrestlers are seeded by weight class, regardless of team.

Times: Today: wrestling begins at 5 p.m.; Saturday: semifinals at noon, finals at 7

Top seeds: 1. Brandon, 2. Palmetto Ridge, 3. South Dade, 4. Manatee, 5. Springstead, 6. Camden County, 7. Durant, 8. Fort Lauderdale Douglas. Brandon could meet Manatee in the semifinals, if the seeds hold up.

Skinny: The Eagles put their national-record 456 consecutive dual match wins on the line against their stiffest competition in years.

[Last modified January 4, 2008, 01:55:41]