‘Y’ Is For Yesteryear – And It Arrived For
By Reed Madsen
On his 74th birthday Mr. Ogden received a jacket with a large block letter “Y” in the mail. He had won it for gaining a gold medal award in the first Intermountain College Championship wrestling meet in 1910.
Thus a wrestling career, which started when a coach saw a youngster (then 21 years of age) chinning himself and encourage him to compete, climaxed 52 years later.
Never Arrived
Mr. Ogden explained that athletic award sweaters were to be given the next year after the championships. The sweater never arrived and he had forgotten about it although he has cherished the attractive gold medal he won for pinning four tough competitors in the 125-lb weight division in 15 ½ minutes.
Two years ago he was introduced to the BYU wrestling coach. This apparently lit the spark of interest which finally resulted in Mr. Ogden’s receiving the jacket. Since the “sweater days” the University has changed to awarding of jackets to athletes.
Mr. Ogden is as proud of the new jacket as he was of his wrestling career and for may years encouraged youngsters in the area to participate in wrestling. He refereed a number of bouts here in his younger days.
Chinning Self
He began his interest in wrestling unintentionally. “I was chinning myself in the gymnasium one day and when I got through the coach walked over and asked me how many times I had chinned myself”, he recalled.
He had no way of knowing for he hadn’t kept count, but he could do it with either arm. “Then I’ll tell you,” the coach remarked, “it was 52 times.” That was enough to place the coach’s eye on him and begin the training sessions.
After college he offered further training in a professional line but marriage and the beginning of a family, coupled with the necessity of making a living, created other interests.
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