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The spirit of Lincoln College
wrestling is finding new life in downtown Lincoln. At a recent
alumni reunion, former wrestlers and coaches announced plans for a
new space: the Red Panda Wrestling Club.
On Friday, August 15, the Lincoln Arts Institute was filled with
stories of old matches, tools, and mats to wrestle on. Old teammates
met up to team up again and put together the new area for the
wrestling club. In the hot summer heat members worked to hang up
wooden boards and drag in supplies for the new room.
The owner of the building Jason Hoffman, who coached at Lincoln
College from 2005 until 2018, said the idea came gradually. “The
whole purpose was me getting back into it [wrestling] and to kind of
open the space to the community in some ways,” he said. He explained
that the room won’t be fully open to the public until next year at
the earliest, once the local high school and junior high wrestling
seasons wrap up.
The project took shape over conversations with Olympic competitor
and Hall of Fame coach Dave Klemm, who led Lincoln College wrestling
for decades. Klemm’s legacy in the sport is substantial: a four-time
NCAA All-American at Eastern Illinois, a member of the 1979 USA
World Team, and later a coach who produced 58 All-Americans and nine
national champions during his years at Lincoln College. He was
inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 2003 and received the
Lifetime Service to Wrestling award in 2012.
Klemm also safeguarded much of
Lincoln College’s wrestling history when the school closed in 2022.
“Coach Klemm already had the trophies that you saw up there when
they closed, he was able to get most of that stuff,” Hoffman
explained. “Now, the boards that we hung, they were still up on the
wall [in the college] until recently. We went back into the college
to get those down.” Those boards, listing generations of wrestlers’
names, hold special meaning for Hoffman. “There’s an attachment in
that way to those names that are up on the wall. They each have a
story,” he said.
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At first, the third floor of
the Arts Institute was discussed as a possible gallery or even a
small museum. “We talked about maybe just setting it up as a
wrestling museum of the college,” Hoffman recalled. But over the
last six months, the idea expanded into a full wrestling room,
blending history and practice.
The unusual name of the club comes from Hoffman’s interest in
conservation. He recently submitted a proposal to Miller Park
Zoo in Bloomington that tied in the story of Lincoln College
wrestling with the protection of red pandas, an endangered
species. The name is both a playful mascot and a reminder that
the club hopes to give back beyond the mat, connecting athletics
with awareness of conservation causes.
The club will remain in its early stages for now, but Hoffman
hopes it will grow into a nonprofit open to wrestlers of all
ages. “It’s going to take some time for that to evolve as far as
opening it to the public,” he said, but the foundation has been
laid.
For Lincoln College alumni, the Red Panda Wrestling Club
represents more than mats and memorabilia. “Wrestling is a very
important sport and group. It’s like a family,” Klemm said.
[Sophia Larimore]
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