James “Chico” Hernandez of Washburn, coach of the Caribou varsity wrestling team and member of the UMPI Athletic Hall of Fame and the Maine Sports Hall of Fame, was inducted into the Amateur Athletic Union National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Orlando, Fla. June 29.
He was unable to attend the ceremony, but the following is the speech that was written by Hernandez and read at the banquet.
“Thank you very much, Cindi Trombly, and all the members of the AAU National Hall of Fame selection committee that have voted me this huge and incredible honor. Last April 14 was a very special day for me as it was my birthday and what a birthday present it was when I read online that I was going to be inducted into the Class of 2012’s AAU National Wrestling Hall of Fame. As you can imagine, it was a pretty emotional day and I was jumping out of my skin.
Since that day, I’ve spent a lot of time doing what almost everybody, I’m sure, who has been inducted has done. You reflect on your career. I spent a lot of time thinking about the people I competed with and against, my memories of the first AAU event I had ever done. I had to hitchhike from the Southside of Chicago through rush hour traffic and made it in time with 15 minutes to spare before the weigh-ins were to close in the two-day event at Loyola Academy in Winnetka, Ill. at the 1972 AAU Junior Olympics Illinois State Freestyle Wrestling Championships. I placed third out of a field of 32. I want to thank my high school coach, Bob Moser, who gave me the flier to attend the event. He knew I had a very deep passion for the sport.
My next hurdle and AAU goal was a few years later when I moved to the state of Maine and won a couple of state freestyle wrestling championships in 1978 and 1979 while I was competing for the University of Maine at Presque Isle. I was selected to the Maine AAU All-Stars to compete against the Dutch Olympic Team in 1979. I would like to thank my university coach, Dr. Gordon Anderson, for giving me this opportunity and the late Gary Kent, who was the state’s AAU chairman.
In 1987 at the National AAU Greco-Roman and Sambo Championships, held at Howard University, was when I first met Josh Henson. I won my first national AAU championship and it was the first of many meetings between Josh and I that were to take place in future years. I would like to thank Josh with all of my heart! He is a first-class human being, a leader in the sport for many years and one helluva champion too as we fought in the 1989 National AAU Freestyle Championships held at Battle Creek, Mich. with Josh defeating me by a score of 5-4. The last time I saw Josh was when we were roommates at the World Cup of Sambo in Nice, France in Nov. 2001 … I can’t say enough about him!
One of my biggest AAU wrestling thrills was in 2000 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex here in Orlando when I got to work with the incredible and inspirational wrestler, Wade Schalles. I was working the National Sambo Tournament with him. I am one of his biggest fans. Wade Schalles used this one word to describe me … ‘perseverance.’ All of my life I felt I was never good enough and kept trying to make myself better through the years and the decades of wrestling. Still today, I am a huge fan and in awe of everybody that is in this AAU Hall of Fame from Josiah Henson, Jim Peckman (who officiated my NCAA bouts at MIT), Stan Dziedzic. Wade Schalles, Masaaki Hatta and Josh Henson, to the competitive warriors I have met through the years such as 1960 Rome Olympic gold medalist Doug Blubaugh, the Hazewinkle twins — Jim and Dave — who both wrestled at the 1972 Games in Munich, Dan “The Beast” Severn, who made a household name in the UFC; and, with 13 national AAU championship titles, 1984 Olympian Chris Catalfo.
There are many more I would like to name because I am such a big fan of the sport and I just wanted to be like them. I can’t think of any better honor than being grouped with some of the sport’s best people.
One of the biggest thrills in my athletic/wrestling career came in 2000, when Olympic gold medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton and Tiger Woods introduced me and welcome me to the Wheaties family, the breakfast of champions. Fifteen million boxes were sold and I was the first Sambo wrestler to be on the box.
I give a lot of credit to Josh [Henson] as he provided me with the opportunity to be on seven USA national teams, to work at major AAU National/World wrestling events in 1987, 1997, 1999 and 2000 and Josh is ‘the father of United States Sambo.’ None this could have happened if it were not for Josh.
I would like to thank the other great lineup of inductees to the AAU Wrestling Hall of Fame. I want to thank the AAU for the great memories of the last six decades that I’m going to carry my whole life.
I’d like to thank all of my friends and my family, my wife, Becky, and my two girls, Angelita and Brittany.
Lastly I would like to close with these words from the late Olympic champion Doug Blubaugh, who I met at the 1997 AAU Nationals. He autographed my participation certificate on the backside with these words: ‘Chico… dream big and work hard. You can either watch things happen or make things happen. It’s up to you, Best of luck! Doug Blubaugh, Olympic champ, Rome 1960.’
I sure did ‘make it happen,’ Doug, and thanks!”
