Coach Ed Clark

[SportsFan96]

Sad to see one of Bedford's all time great coaches has passed away. Even if you didn't wrestle for Bedford, most everyone knew who Ed Clark was and there were always Ed Clark stories being told at just about every wrestling event. He was not only one of the best at Bedford, but in Bedford County and Pennsylvania as well. Thoughts and Prayers go out to his family.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/observ ... =175307082

[Stonycreek]

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

[odoyelrules]

I've been away for a while, but a few things on Ed Clark:

High School: Eddie was a 2 time district champion at Bedford, with his junior season being lost due to weather (I believe only Conemaugh Township and North Star participated that year.) His senior year he captained the squad to an undefeated season and was also a starter on the football team.

Family: His brother Robert (Bob) was on the 1st Bedford wrestling squad. Bob was later the long time coach at Everett and was the D5 Wrestling 1992 Honoree. Another brother Frank was also a district champion and also lost his repeating ability due to the 1943 weather. Frank was the 1st Bedford wrestler to win a match at the state tournament. Yet another brother Maynard was also a 2 time district champion. Son Jim was the long time coach at Chestnut Ridge with numerous accolades earned, including most D5 coaching wins with 342, Bedford County Sports HOF http://bedfordcountysportshalloffame.com/jimclark.html , PA Wrestling Coaches HOF, and the 2013 D5 Wrestling Honoree.

Golf Coaching: Eddie had 9 undefeated seasons in 17 years.

Wrestling Coaching: In Clark's 16 years that Bedford competed in D5, his squads won 11 titles. His 17th and final season he elected to have his loaded squad participate with the larger schools in district 9. His record was 149-24-1, with 5 undefeated seasons, 71 or 72 district champs (5 of which were district 5/9), 13 regional runnerups, 9 regional champions, 4 state runnerups, and 1 state champion. This while PA only had 1 division during his first 16 years. In dual meets it appears that he went 81-5 against district 5 squads - 1 loss to Everett and Chestnut Ridge, and 3 to Boswell. Eddie was the 1974 PIAA Coach of the Year, the same year that his mentor Whitey Koontz entered the PA Wrestling Coaches HOF.

1969 season - This year was particularly tough for Clark. The squad lost to Boswell when coach Policciccio had his wrestler default to obtain a win, then declined Eddie's offer of finding a doctor by stating "You know he's not hurt." The bad blood between the 2 schools was on display later in the year, as Bedford had 3 weights ruled ineligible for the district tournament...apparently an interpretation of a rule was that because no name had been entered at 3 weights that Bedford could not enter a wrestler at those weights. Eddie had not submitted names because wrestle-offs were scheduled and didn't feel that it was appropriate to list a name, but it should have been obvious to all that Bedford would have wrestlers at those weights. Boswell had 6 district champions that year...in the dual meet with Bedford those 6 wrestlers won 2 matches, lost 3 matches, and tied 1.

Eddie-isms: Eddie had a very unique vocabulary, using many terms not generally used in the English language. If he was talking to somebody unfamiliar with him these terms could easily be confusing when he used 1 of those terms. Joseph McCarthy would have been proud of how much Eddie hated communism. Additionally I'm curious as to how Eddie knew that people in Boswell ate lots of fish, let alone how that was relevant to coaching.

Some links with lots of info on coach Clark:

http://bedfordcountysportshalloffame.com/edclark.html

Eddie was 1 of the 1st 12 entries into the Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame, the unrelated (I believe) Jan Clark was the only other wrestling entrant in that initial class.

http://springintosports.blogspot.com/20 ... egend.html

Ryan Spring

http://www.tribdem.com/sports/bedford-c ... a1dd9.html

Eric Knopsnyder