Staff Reports
PENDLETON — Pendleton High School added wrestling to its roster of boys sports teams during the 1961-62 school year, and the school yearbook featured the wrestling team and a short wrapup of its inaugural season.
It also featured golf, which had recently re-started at the school.
“Two recently new sports at P.H.S., wrestling and golf, have become increasingly popular,” the yearbook states.
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“Coached by Dick McCory, the wrestling squad began building a solid foundation for the future. Sixteen boys matched their strength and endurance against such experienced schools as Ben Davis, Madison Heights, Decatur and Hancock Central. Although they were unable to pull out a victory, they are looking forward to next year when their added experience and know-how will aid them tremendously.”
McCory was inducted into the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1981, representing Decatur Central High School.
David Cloud, the current coach at Pendleton Heights, has led the Arabians for 36 years and was inducted into the IHSWCA Hall of Fame in 2019.
During the course of the program’s history, the Arabians have won 27 sectional titles, the 21st most in state history. The first title came in the 1973-74 season. They have currently won four straight.
The Arabians have had two individual state champions. In 1997, Donny Sands won the 145-pound title. In 2011, Mason Todd completed a perfect 32-0 season by winning the 112-pound championship.
In the 1961-62 yearbook regarding golf, it states, “Last season Dick Keithley’s newly added golf team came out on top with an excellent record of four wins and three losses. This year, the team had 10 matches with such schools as Marion, Noblesville, Highland, Elwood and Broad Ripple. They finished the season with a sectional at Anderson.”
The Pendleton Heights program has won two sectionals in its history, winning titles during the 2010-11 and 2012-13 school years.
The early 1960s was a renewal of the Pendleton High School program that previously had great success in the initial years of the tournament in the 1930s.
The Pendleton/Pendleton Heights program has gone to the state tournament five times, including school years of 1931-32 (the first for the IHSAA), 1932-33, 1934-35, 2012-13 and 2013-14.
In fact, the state’s second individual champion was a senior from Pendleton High School. In the 1932-33 season, Leon Pettigrew shot a score of 74 at the Speedway Golf Course in Indianapolis and beat Fred Gronauer of Indianapolis Arsenal Technical by one stroke.