Elling Honored with Dellinger Award for Outstanding Wrestling Writer of 2015
by Joe Baranik of Pennsylvania Wrestling News Magazine
STILLWATER, OK – Tom Elling of Lock Haven has done it all, competitor, contributor, coach, official, historian, writer as well as commentator. Elling has offered his talents on-air in recent years for local wrestling coverage of both Central Mountain High School and Lock Haven University wrestling on WBPA AM 1230 and therecord-online. He has devoted over 50 years of his life to his avocation – the sport of wrestling. For his work and years of involvement, Elling is the latest recipient of the annual Dellinger Award as the nation’s top Wrestling writer.
Perhaps his signature contribution is the Pennsylvania Wrestling Handbook, not only a masterpiece of mat sport information regarding the Keystone States scholastic wrestling legacy, but also spotlights yearly team and wrestling titlist results for surrounding Eastern states.
The Handbook is a one-of-a-kind reference source for dedicated coaches, wrestlers, parents or fans, who truly want to keep on top of their game regarding mat stats of upcoming dual meets and toumaments. Should you be a Pennsylvania high school wrestling buff, the Handbook contains every wrestler who ever placed in the PIAA state championships since its inception in 1938.
Elling’s competitive days began at Moshannon Valley High School and later became a two-time NAIA All-American at 191 pounds for Lock Haven, wrestling for legendary coach Gray Simons. As a mat mentor, Elling coached at Lock Haven High School for eight seasons producing numerous state place winners and 1975 state champion, John Eichenlaub.
As a Pennsylvania mat-sport historian, Elling created, designed and published a series of sport cards dubbed “Legends of Pennsylvania Wrestling. The series highlighted nearly 300 of Pennsylvania’s greats as competitor, coaches, officials and contributors. As for honors, Elling was inducted into the PA Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall ofIFame in 2007 and is a member of the Clinton County (Pa) Hall of Fame, and the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame. He was selected as the 1991 Pennsylvania Wrestling Official of the Year.
Elling was also manager of operations at the Pennsylvania state tournament for 24 years and was a member ol the PIAA Wrestling Committee for 34 years. He also stared the first-ever high school wrestling website in 1988.
All-Time Winners: 1960-Bob Dellinger, l96l-Bob Dellinger, l962Bob Dellinger, 1963-Russ Smith, I964-Doug McDonald, 1965 Phil Parrish 1966-Bob lvloorer, 1967-Ross Nevel, 1968-Hal Brown, l969-lev Moss, 1970-Jerry Pogue, 1971 Tom Tomashek, 1972-John Dock; 1973-Wayne Bishop, 1974-Nancy & Russ Hellickson, 1975-J. Carl Guymon; 1976-Mike Chapman, 1977 Doris Dellinger, 1978- Don Sayenga, 1979-No selection, 1980-Wayne Bishop, 1981 Ron Seaman, 1982 Steve Matthies, 1983-Rob Sherrill; 1984-Norm Palovcsik & Jim Butler, 1985-Paul Schulz, 1986-Scot Davis, 1987-Doug McDonald, 1988-Mike Chapman, 1989-Ron Good; 1990 Craig Phillips, 1991-Brian Meehan, 1992-Gary Abbott, 1993 Mike Gerald; 1994-Pat Gilbancia, 1995-Dan McCool, 1996 Lisa Little, 1997-Mac Bentley, 1998-J.R. Ogden, 1999- Denny Diehl, 2000-J. Carl Guymon, 2001-Bob Preusse, 2002- Dan Fickel; 2003-Wayne Catan, 2004-Les Honig, 2005-Andy Hamilton, 2006-Jay Hammond, 2007 Jason Bryant, 2008-Kristie Stubbs, 2009-Jim Kalin, 2010-Jamie Moffatt, 201 1-Mark Palmer 2012-John Harmon, 2013-Bryce Miller. 2014-Don Sayenga, 2015-Tom Elling
