Originally Posted by jpizar83  Yes all of the previous Carr's were brothers. In fact there were 17 kids altogether in that family. Don't know how many boys there were though. |
As former 4 year Tampa team mate of Fletcher Carr I can add that the experience wrestling with Fletch had been much more than memorable. We often spoke of Jimmy's unbelievable accomplishments but I see no mention of Joe Carr, Junior Olympic Silver Medalist.
Fletcher remembered the reigning National Champ Geoff Baum as a wrestler from his home state of Pennsylvania. "BUT", Fletch would say, "Wait till you see Na-than-ual". Well, Nate was a little guy back then and Fletcher predicted to me that he would be the best of the Carr family. Fletcher was the inspiration of the Carr wrestling legend as he was the first to introduce it to his family. He actually went to try out for the swim team at his high school one afternoon and to the benefit of the wrestling world the pool was closed that day. Well, he thought he would just waste some time and roll around with someone in the wrestling gym next door knowing he had no experience. He wound up nearly beating everyone in the room that
had been wrestling for a while. The coach asked if he would consider wrestling for the school and he eventually agreed. He was pinned his first match and swore it would never happen again as it was too humiliating. He kept his promise.
Fletcher went to Tampa on a full ride as their starting center in football. The team eventually won the national title in the NAIA, but it was the wrestling team that just admired his domination of the sport. He went four years undefeated. Our wrestling schedule included Florida, Florida State, Florida A&M. Georgia, Georgia Tech, LSU, Alabama and points southeast of the United States.
May I be the first to say how I enjoyed his opponents walking onto the mat in his early years and thinking how they were going to cripple him, as they were often undefeated. PURE DELIGHT to see them go straight to their back within a minute of the match as another victim of his incredible, unstoppable bear hug-pinning combination. As his legend grew, his opponents just tryed to stay in the match. I can still feel the buzz in my head when he used it on me. You were concentrating on him one second and the next you would feel a whirl and see ceiling lights. I took Fletch down
TWICE in four years of extreme brawls. The coach, Jerry Espy, had to stop the furious wrestling one night as we were circling each other and I grabbed him in a bear hug and stepped back to throw him against the double steel wrestling gym door and show him that I was sick and tired of him. Well, you may have guessed, Fletch reversed the hug at the absolute last second of the throw and threw me through the doors , which flew off the bolted hinges, ripped the bar locks off the door and slammed me into the adjacent basketball gym double steel doors, which were locked closed in the direction I was traveling. I never thought I had Fletcher beat again. I still remember the Georgia Tech Tournament when a local high school coach, who brought his team to watch the tournament, ran up to Fletch and asked if he would show his guys this awesome takedown to pin combination, he had already named the "Tampa Takedown".
Oh, by the way, there were 16 in the Carr family.
