2009 Lifetime Achievement for Officials Chuck Yagla

From Wrestler to Official, Chuck Yagla gave it His Best


Hey ref …
Hey Yagla …
Hey Chuck …

"By the time I retired, a lot of the fans I guess felt like they knew me, that we were on a first-name basis," said Chuck Yagla, who will be honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum with its Lifetime Achievement for Officials during Honors Weekend in Stillwater, Okla., June 5-6. "It's a tremendous honor. The National Wrestling Hall of Fame is the biggie in our sport."

For 24 years, wrestling fans became accustomed to seeing Yagla officiating at all the nation's biggest collegiate events. From 1996 until his retirement in 2007, the Waterloo, Iowa, native worked every NCAA Division I Championship Tournament and was selected as a finals official five times.

Starting his career in 1983, he also officiated six NCAA Division II Championships along with Big Ten (1995-07) and Pac-10 (1997-07) tournaments. He worked 12 National Dual Championships.

Although retiring in 2007, Yagla was appointed Coordinator of Wrestling Officials for the Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences in July of 2008.

"I have a 4-year old grandson," Yagla said. "Weekends are the only time I get to see him, but during wrestling season I was driving a couple hundred miles to get yelled at by a bunch of fans. I'd get back to a hotel, call home, and hear about my grandson bouncing around.

"I kind of wondered why I was putting myself through all this."

A two-time NCAA champion for the University of Iowa in 1975 and 1976, much like giving up wrestling, giving up officiating wasn't easy either.

"I didn't want to be that guy that people were saying 'why is he still doing it?' Sometimes athletes hang around too long and I didn't want to be that (official) who was still out there doing it when I wasn't at the top of my game."

"Chuck had a nice run," said National Wrestling Officials Association President Pat McCormick. "He was a great wrestler and a great referee. Someone who was even-tempered and understood that he was not the reason the fans were there.

"He was still doing a great job when he retired and probably had many more capable years left in him."

After compiling a 52-15-1 high school record at Columbus High in Waterloo, Yagla won a USWF Junior National Freestyle title at 154 pounds. A year later, in 1973, he won a silver medal at the Junior World Championships.

He then attended Iowa where he had three All-America seasons. During a 133-17-2 career, he won two Big Ten titles and two NCAA championships, earning the Outstanding Wrestler award in 1976. As a 149.5-pounder he was on the 1976 U.S. Olympic squad as an alternate.

A three-time AAU National champion, Yagla also earned a spot on the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team.

During a short stint as an assistant coach at Iowa, one of his duties was to ensure the mat maids knew the rules of collegiate wrestling by taking the annual high school test.

"It was just to make sure they had knowledge of the rules," he said. "I always had an interest and wanted to stay involved with wrestling. I was working at a bank and thought I'd give officiating a shot."

Yagla admits to not having the usual progression of junior high to high school to college level officiating, saying "I knew a lot of small-college coaches and my credentials were a little different than most. Those coaches hired me and I only worked three or four high school matches that first year."

Yagla certainly didn't get rich over the last two-plus decades.

"I think you ask most of the guys and they'll tell you it was never about money. Guys did it to give back to a sport that has helped them in some form or another."

While mat fans have gone from "ref" to "Chuck" the rules of collegiate wrestling have been tweaked. From the duration of a match to out-of-bounds to a new-fangled style of spaghetti-like scrambling, Yagla admits that "It's still wrestling. With all the scrambling and diving through legs on defense it can be pretty difficult at times."

"We are biased, but officiating a wrestling match is as hard as anything out there," McCormick said. "You are out there alone having to make decisions that sometimes aren't easy. Chuck performed at a high level for a number of years."