Wrestling to Succeed John Bardis

by Michael Rand

Maybe John Bardis’ story starts as a young adult when, fresh out of wrestling in college at the University Wisconsin and University of Arizona and not long after finishing third in the 1976 Greco-Roman U.S. Olympic Trials, he seized upon an opportunity to go to work for American Hospital Supply.

That job would lead to many other opportunities in the health care industry and help Bardis on his way to becoming the Founder, Chairman, President and CEO in 1999 of MedAssets, a company dedicated to, in its own words, improving the quality and effectiveness of the health care industry.

“I was given opportunities as a young man that I knew, coming from a financially humble background, that I couldn’t squander,” Bardis says. “It gave me opportunities in life to do things I wouldn’t have been able to do.”

At the root of that initial fortune was the sport he loves.

“I was very lucky. Because of wrestling, being a college wrestler and having some success, I was granted job interviews,” he says. “Being a student-athlete was really critical in being even selected. Wrestling gives you instincts for opportunities to succeed. I think wrestling was a critical element in building those instincts.”

Building Blocks

Then again, if wrestling is the root of his success, maybe Bardis’ story really starts when he was in grade school. He grew up in the Chicago area, and one day a local high school coach put on a sports clinic at his elementary school.

“Once I went to the clinic, I knew wrestling is what I wanted to do,” Bardis says.

He relished the chance to compete one-on-one and prove himself. He was also motivated by a boy in his fifth-grade class who, as Bardis recalls, “said he had brother in high school who was teaching him wrestling and was going to kick my butt.”

The other boy, Jeff Shank, became his first wrestling match—and, as it turned out, a lifelong friend. The two of them, in fact, saw each other again recently when Bardis, 58, had his 40-year high school reunion.

Those early matches taught Bardis the value of competition, hard work, and overcoming obstacles.

“Without a doubt, the most important thing I learned is perseverance,” Bardis says. “You cannot succeed in wrestling without working hard. Being able to take the pain associated with it means you’re going to have your ups and downs and you have to stick with it.”

That’s why Bardis still talks about his high school coach—who required his wrestlers to run 7 miles for their conditioning work at 6 a.m. so they could focus on skill development in after-school sessions—with admiration and not a hint of complaint.

Deep Roots

If we’re talking about working hard and fighting through pain, though, it’s pretty clear that Bardis’ story starts before he was even born.

His father, Raymond, and mother, Julia, were both children of immigrants. Juliawas the last of 11 children of Russian immigrant parents.

Bardis’ grandfather on his father’s side, Anthony, fought in World War I on the U.S. side, and earned his citizenship before going to work as a carpenter. Anthony lived to be 96 and was Bardis’ best friend.

Bardis’ father fought in World War II, on some of the same soil in France where Anthony faced battle. Bardis says his parents worked hard to raise him in a middle-class environment, but he notes that the family “didn’t have excess. We didn’t have savings. We didn’t have a lot of money for college.”

But it didn’t matter because the entire family tree instilled in Bardis a work ethic and appreciation for the fruits of labor that he carries with him to this day.

“I am the byproduct of people who worked much harder and made greater sacrifices than I did,” Bardis says. “They did far greater things. The world I live in, you get credit for things that don’t effectively compare with what took for me to be here. What that took was unbelievably hard-working and courageous people.”

Repaying the Debt

The sum of all those beginnings has been a life of lessons learned, time well spent and gifts passed on. Having his own company has allowed Bardis to repay wrestling in multiple ways, both as a board member and donor for USA Wrestling and as a team leader for the U.S. Greco-Roman team.

“Not only did he make substantial financial contributions to our program, but just as good was the leadership that he provided our team,” says longtime U.S. Greco-Roman coach Steve Fraser. “He’s a down-in-the-trenches kind of guy and not afraid to get his hands dirty.”

On one particular instance during the 2007 Pan-Am Games in Rio de Janeiro, Fraser recalls, Bardis sat in a sauna dripping sweat with another wrestler who needed to shed an extra pound to make his weight class.

“He’s that kind of guy,” Fraser says. “He’d do anything to help the team.”

For his part, Bardis counts among his life highlights some of the experiences he gained from his association with the Greco-Roman team—including his role as part of the U.S. delegation at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Also among his life’s highlights, time spent with his family: wife Judy, to whom Bardis has been married 34 years, as well as sons Michael Anthony (30) and Tom (27) and daughter Kari (24). The kids were raised in the Atlanta area, where Bardis has lived for the past 20 years. But despite Bardis’ wrestling background, his children ended up following other athletic pursuits. Kari was a scholarship volleyball player at the University of Arizona, Tom lettered in hockey at the University of Wisconsin, and Michael ended up as general manager of the Bardis family’s ice arena in suburban Atlanta.

“It never really caught on with them,” he says of the sport, “And you know how it goes with wrestling: if the bug doesn’t bite you, best not get in.”

The bug got into Bardis early. And he’s sure glad it did.

“I think it’s at the top of the list of most important things,” Bardis says of the sport’s influence on his life.“Business is difficult. There’s not a straight line from A to B. It’s a lot of hard work, and you’re not going to have a positive trajectory all the time. It’s the same thing in wrestling.”