GUEST BLOG: A thank you and tribute to Dick Torio
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by USA Wrestling
By Shaun W Scott
Photo of Dick Torio and Shawn Scott, provided by Shawn Scott.
I was a sickly and skinny kid of 97 pounds in the eighth grade when my father, Louis F Scott, took me to the Torio Health Club to check on buying some weights to build my muscles and health. Torio convinced my father and I that I could join the club and learn how to lift weights properly, and then buy the weights to workout at home once I learned the correct technique. This was the best thing my father ever did for me. My mother Barbara and grandmother Leah Hallinan paid for my club membership those early years.
I never bought the weights, but continued to work out as a member of the Torio Health Club during my years in Toledo. My workouts at Torio’s helped me overcome both allergies and asthma, and build a strong body out of a weak one.
The scientific and well-planned weight training workouts by Dick Torio, and the availability of wrestling workouts year round on the wrestling mats and with the throwing dummies at the club, allowed me to climb a ladder of success in wrestling.
My training at Torio’s helped me become an All-City Wrestler at Bowsher High School with coach Ron Schlievert (1964-65), the first Northwest Ohio wrestler to get a wrestling scholarship to a top three national wrestling program (Oklahoma 1966-69), and a national and international medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling (various years 1971 to 2012).
Since leaving Toledo I was able to use the lessons learned from Torio and at the Torio Health Club to recover from what was thought to be a career ending pedestrian-car accident, return to national and international wrestling competition, and found a championship wrestling club (Philadelphia Palay, a.k.a. Team Palay). I was able to compete in 12 world wrestling, sombo, or grappling championships. I also earned a black belt and international medal in judo.
Torio’s solid teaching of progressive resistance, increasing light exercise to injured muscles, and intelligent warm-up and stretching, allowed me to recover from serious kinds of injuries that ended other wrestlers’ careers. These principles learned from Dick Torio, along with intelligent diet and supplement use, have allowed me to continue to compete nationally and internationally in my 50’s and 60’s against 18 years and older athletes.
Dick Torio’s training at his health club was the basis upon which I built my wrestling career and health. It allowed me to catch up and surpass wrestlers from other cities and states who had the privilege of wrestling in junior high school and local wrestling clubs in their communities, none of which were available at that time in Toledo.
Of course, Dick Torio was so much more than weight training and wrestling. He was a successful businessman, a community servant, caring husband and father, friend to many, man of unusual humor, with great wrestling stories, among many other things. He was a unique and a good one-of-a-kind: He will be sorely missed by many.
Shawn W. Scott, who competed at Oklahoma in college, has been active in USA Wrestling’s Greco-Roman, Sombo and Grappling programs for many years.
Photo of Dick Torio and Shawn Scott, provided by Shawn Scott.
I was a sickly and skinny kid of 97 pounds in the eighth grade when my father, Louis F Scott, took me to the Torio Health Club to check on buying some weights to build my muscles and health. Torio convinced my father and I that I could join the club and learn how to lift weights properly, and then buy the weights to workout at home once I learned the correct technique. This was the best thing my father ever did for me. My mother Barbara and grandmother Leah Hallinan paid for my club membership those early years.
I never bought the weights, but continued to work out as a member of the Torio Health Club during my years in Toledo. My workouts at Torio’s helped me overcome both allergies and asthma, and build a strong body out of a weak one.
The scientific and well-planned weight training workouts by Dick Torio, and the availability of wrestling workouts year round on the wrestling mats and with the throwing dummies at the club, allowed me to climb a ladder of success in wrestling.
My training at Torio’s helped me become an All-City Wrestler at Bowsher High School with coach Ron Schlievert (1964-65), the first Northwest Ohio wrestler to get a wrestling scholarship to a top three national wrestling program (Oklahoma 1966-69), and a national and international medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling (various years 1971 to 2012).
Since leaving Toledo I was able to use the lessons learned from Torio and at the Torio Health Club to recover from what was thought to be a career ending pedestrian-car accident, return to national and international wrestling competition, and found a championship wrestling club (Philadelphia Palay, a.k.a. Team Palay). I was able to compete in 12 world wrestling, sombo, or grappling championships. I also earned a black belt and international medal in judo.
Torio’s solid teaching of progressive resistance, increasing light exercise to injured muscles, and intelligent warm-up and stretching, allowed me to recover from serious kinds of injuries that ended other wrestlers’ careers. These principles learned from Dick Torio, along with intelligent diet and supplement use, have allowed me to continue to compete nationally and internationally in my 50’s and 60’s against 18 years and older athletes.
Dick Torio’s training at his health club was the basis upon which I built my wrestling career and health. It allowed me to catch up and surpass wrestlers from other cities and states who had the privilege of wrestling in junior high school and local wrestling clubs in their communities, none of which were available at that time in Toledo.
Of course, Dick Torio was so much more than weight training and wrestling. He was a successful businessman, a community servant, caring husband and father, friend to many, man of unusual humor, with great wrestling stories, among many other things. He was a unique and a good one-of-a-kind: He will be sorely missed by many.
Shawn W. Scott, who competed at Oklahoma in college, has been active in USA Wrestling’s Greco-Roman, Sombo and Grappling programs for many years.
