I was first introduced to the sport of high school wrestling in1958 while I was a student at Whitehaven High School in Shelby County.  Wrestling made me a better football player.  Then the coach moved back to Ohio and the wrestling program was not continued. Then, ten years later, in 1969, I was able to rekindle high school wrestling in Memphis and go way beyond.

I graduated from Memphis State University in 1966.  During my time there, a bunch of guys, who had wrestled in high school, started a "Club Team". We were under the direction of a Physical Education Professor by the name of Dr. Scott who had been a high school and college wrestler.  

1966-1967

My first year out of college, there were no high school coaching positions available in West TN.  I took a Teaching/Coaching job at Worth County High School in South Georgia.  I was hired to be an Assistant Football Coach and Head Baseball Coach.  In addition, part of my job was to run the off-season program.  I started a Wrestling Team, which was an instant success.  We had a Funeral Director's son on the team & he provided us plenty of his needles & heavy thread to sew tumbling mats together.  A business in town gave us a large canvas tarp.  We wrapped it around the tumbling mats and sewed it down.  Then we painted a starting line in the middle.  It worked great!  Several other schools in South Georgia had Wrestling Teams so I was able to work up a schedule in short order. 

Ray Dalton of Franklin, TN, was a 2nd year coach at nearby Tifton County High School (GA) and later coached at Brentwood Academy and became a member of the Tennessee Wrestling Hall of Fame.  Our first home match was against his team.  We did a good job of advertising and the gym was packed.  I realized the towns’ people thought they were going to see a Pro-style wrestling match because that week many asked me where I was going to get the ring and ropes, etc.  Therefore, I assembled the first of many brochures/programs during my career.  Before the matches, team members passed out the programs throughout the stands.  I spoke to the crowd, and had members of the team demonstrate wrestling stances, positions, and scoring.  We lost every match that night except the last two and the crowd went wild.  We had two wrestlers who won all their matches that year.  Their undefeated streak continued when they won the South Georgia Region Tournament held in Macon, but ended when they got to the State Tournament, held in Atlanta.

1968-1969

At Milan High School I was Defensive Line Coach and in charge of the off-season program.  Once again, I started up a wrestling program, however there were no other nearby schools with teams. Therefore, I called most schools in West Tennessee and tried to talk their Football Coaches into having their players wrestle against us.  I was able to talk Obion Central High School and Catholic High in Memphis into wrestling us.  We wrestled a home-and-home with Obion.  Catholic did not have any kind of mat, so they came to us.  Our mat was a bunch of tumbling mats tied together at the strap handles and covered with a large sheet of Naugahyde given to us by a company in town who manufactured it.  This off-season program was the boost Milan needed to become an outstanding football program.  

1969-1970

I became Offensive and Defensive Line Coach at Oakhaven High School and was given permission, to start a Wrestling Program because I had convinced the Principal, Coaching Staff, and players that Wrestling would make better Football Players. This job was very appealing to me since I lived in that area while I was in high school but before OHS was built. During the Fall, I contacted every head football coach and/or principal in Memphis, telling them about the merits of having a Wrestling Team. They all declined, except Bishop Byrne High School.  I then contacted Gill Gideon of the TSSAA and explained what we were doing and he told me to register the sport with his office, wrestle six matches and he would have us included in the Region Tournament in Nashville to be held at the end of the season.  Therefore, we wrestled against Bishop Byrne six times on a horse hair wrestling mat. 

Both teams went to the Region Tournament, which was held at Donelson High School.  By this time, the Memphis Commercial Appeal Newspaper had gotten interested and wanted to do an article on us.  At the end of the first day of wrestling, we had won most of our matches on sheer strength against weaker competition and led the tournament in team score. I notified the Commercial Appeal and they wrote a big article.  I did not have a clue about what was going to happen the next day.  Many of our fans drove to Nashville the second day. We lost every match and did not score another point in the tournament.

1970-1971

The Memphis City Board of Education purchased Oakhaven the first "real wrestling mat" I had used.  The only stipulation was that I would take it and my team to any school in the system that invited us, to put on programs for booster clubs, PTA's, school assemblies, coaches’ meetings, etc.  

I eagerly accepted because this is what I planned to do anyway.  

One invitation was to put on an exhibition at the half time of a Memphis State Basketball game. Two wrestlers in uniform, one from Oakhaven and the other from Bishop Byrne stepped to the mat with a wrestling official.  While they wrestled, I described the action over the P A system, including the scoring of the match.  The packed crowd got into it as they cheered for both boys.  The match ended and there was a standing ovation.  It was a fun night.

I need to mention, Oakhaven was a 7-12 school.  Therefore, we had Junior High and Varsity Teams practicing separately.  The Varsity practiced from 3PM to 5:30PM and the Junior High team from 5:30PM to 6:30PM.  We were a community school, so it worked out fine.  Me, being the only coach though, I was beat at the end of each day.

That second year Catholic High joined us and then there were three schools.  We held the first Oakhaven Invitational Wrestling Tournament.  The teams who participated were Oakhaven, Bishop Byrne, Catholic, Columbia Military Academy, Maplewood, Tupelo (MS) High School, and Arkansas School for the Blind. 

The three Memphis teams went to the Region Tournament which was held at Father Ryan High School that second year.  Oakhaven had the first wrestler from Memphis make it to the TSSAA State Wrestling Tournament that year. 

After the season was over, I conducted an In-Service Program for interested Memphis Teachers. They got credit for attendance and were paid for attending.  I emphasized the benefits of starting wrestling programs in the other schools. 

During the spring of 1971, I encouraged the Memphis Board of Education to fund a supplement for Wrestling Coaches.  So, the next year, for the first time, the Memphis City Schools offered a "Coaches Supplement" for Head Wrestling Coaches.  

1971-1972

I continued to contact coaches in other schools and put on mini-clinics for some of them.  

The Summer of 1972, Oakhaven High School hosted the United States, Columbian, and Guatemalan Olympic Wrestling Teams.  They were traveling together to different cities, to promote Olympic Wrestling.  We wrestled the team from Guatemala.  Not knowing much about free style wrestling at that time, we got beat.  We did not have any idea why the opponents kept getting points every time we did a switch. That caused us to want to learn freestyle.  

The third season started and we continued going to other schools, putting on programs wherever invited.  That year we added five more schools, Whitehaven, under the supervision of one of MY high school football coaches, Clarence Grosser, along with Westwood, Germantown, Memphis Overton, and Fayette County.

That year,  we were invited to Southwestern University/now Rhodes College, to scrimmage their team.  We handily beat them and they never invited us again.

I hosted many Coaches and Officials Clinics.  From time-to-time other teams would attend our practices, especially those with coaches without wrestling experience.  Many officials came to our practices to officiate wrestle-offs so they could improve their skills.  Some of the officials, themselves, had been wrestlers and taught us a lot.  Vick Hood had wrestled for U.T. Chattanooga, and helped us a lot while he was working on another Degree in Memphis.  We really appreciated him and another former wrestler, Gil McSpadden, for all they did to help us improve our skills. 

1972-1973

That season, we added eight more schools to the growing list of wrestling schools.  They were Raleigh Egypt, Wooddale, Sheffield, Westside, Tresvant, Kingsbury, White Station, and Christian Brothers.

A strange occurrence added Raleigh Egypt to our growing numbers.  I was called to the office one day for a phone call.  It was from a man who had just moved his family to Memphis/Raleigh Egypt not knowing they did not have a team and therefore he was going to move to Oakhaven. He had wrestled in college, I think somewhere in Oklahoma and wanted his sons to be on my team. I had been trying to get the Raleigh Football Coach to start a program but he was afraid to take that step.  Then I outsmarted myself.  I took the caller's number so I could call him back.  Then I called the Raleigh coach and asked him if he would start a program if he had someone who could help him.  He said yes.  I then called the father back and gave him the good news.  That father's name was George Waller.  His three sons went on to be some of the best wrestlers to ever come out of Memphis.  All three placed numerous times in the State Tournaments, I think they even won two titles.  I could have had them at Oakhaven.  Instead, Raleigh Egypt, along with Bishop Byrne became Oakhaven's toughest competition.  

That year Memphis and Shelby County were given its own District Tournament. Oakhaven won the tournament and sent all 12 wrestlers to the Region Tournament at McGavock High School in Nashville.  From there we took five to the State Tournament held at Brainard High School in Chattanooga.  Oakhaven's Tony Bradley won the first TSSAA Wrestling metal ever by anyone from the City of Memphis in the TSSAA State Wrestling Tournament.  Tony then went on to be the first Memphis wrestler to get a scholarship to wrestle in college.  He wrestled three years for U.T. Martin before their program was abolished.  (He graduated and in 1977 returned home to coach at Oakhaven Baptist Academy before moving on to a successful coaching career at Germantown High School.)   Tony is now a member of the Tennessee National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

1973-1974

Early in the Summer of 1973, I held a week-long wrestling clinic in the Oakhaven Gym.  The instructors for the clinic were the staff from Southeast Missouri State University.  The clinic was great.  

That year we added Treadwell, Millington, Fayette County and Frazier High to our list of Wrestling Schools & I was elected President of the Memphis & Shelby County Wrestling Coaches Association so I could speak on our behalf with the TSSAA and the Tennessee Wrestling Coaches Assn.  At the conclusion of the wrestling season the coaches’ association voted to start a Free Style Wrestling program in Memphis.  We held our first Memphis Cotton Carnival Wrestling Freestyle Tournament in one of the open pavilions on the Memphis Fair Grounds.

1974-1975

 We picked up two more West Tennessee teams that year, Jackson Central and Atwood High Schools.

I was re-elected President of the Memphis and Shelby County Wrestling Coaches Assn.  Once again, we held a Cotton Carnival Wrestling Freestyle Tournament.  All proceeds were designated to go toward sending a Memphis All-Star Wrestling team to Germany that Summer where we won all of our eight matches.

1975-1976

I was re-elected President of the Memphis and Shelby County Wrestling Coaches Assn and was elected Vice-President of the Tennessee Wrestling Coaches Association.  The Memphis area was given its own Region Wrestling Tournament.

1976-1977

I moved up to President of the Tennessee Wrestling Coaches Association.  Our meeting was held at UT Chattanooga on Saturday morning of the State Wrestling Tournament.  In addition to the coaches, in attendance were Gill Gideon and Ronnie Carter of the TSSAA.  

1977-1979

At the end of the 1977 school year, I moved my family to Middle Tennessee and accepted an Elementary Principal's position in Cheatham County.  During my time there, I helped the Cheatham County High School Wrestling Team.

1979 - 1981

I then took an Assistant Principal's/Athletic Director's position at Clarksville High School.  Clarksville had given up their wrestling program a few years earlier. I was able to restart the program and find a coach. I convinced a football player by the name of Harry Galbreth to wrestle.  I assured him he would be a better football player if he would wrestle.  He wrestled for CHS for three years, made the All-State Football Team and went on to play offensive left tackle for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he became an All-American.  He then was drafted by the NFL’s Miami Dolphins where he was a five time All Pro.  I saw him many times over the years and he always gave high school wrestling as a contributing reason for his successes in football.  (My Son, Tommy Badon, is now the head wrestling coach at Clarksville High School.) 

During 1979, 80, 81, & 82, I worked as a TSSAA Wrestling official.  Tommy did not have a team to wrestle on in the 8th grade and often went with me and wrestled exhibition matches when possible, as well as practicing with the Clarksville High School Wrestling Team while I was Assistant Principal there.

1981 - 1983   

The Superintendent of the Franklin Special School District, Don Brown, recruited me to work for them.  They were a K-9 school district and hoped to open their own high school.  I would help them get ready and be the Principal when the high school opened.  Franklin Junior High did not have a wrestling team so, again, I got permission to start one.  I was happy, I was able to coach my son, Tommy, his Freshman year.  At the end of the Wrestling season, Tommy was selected Most Valuable Freshman Wrestler at the Middle Tennessee Grand Championships.  I continued to coach the team for three years.  The second and third years we won the Middle Tennessee Grand Championship, going undefeated both years.  Those wrestlers went on to be part of the State Championship teams of Franklin High School in the late 1980's.

During my first three years, the FSSD was not able to secure permission to build its own high school, so to keep from moving my family again, I took an Elementary Principal position in Franklin.  While at Freedom Intermediate School, I purchased a regulation mat and incorporated Wrestling into our P.E. curriculum.  I retired from the FSSD in 1998 with a total of 32 years service.  I served as an elected Williamson Co. School Board Member for 4 years and Vice Chairman for 2 of those years. During that time, we built numerous middle and high schools. I made sure all had facilities to accommodate wrestling.

After a very successful high school wrestling career at Franklin High, Tommy Badon received a scholarship to wrestle for the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  After college, he became Head Wrestling Coach for Franklin High.  I assisted him in starting the Future Champions Wrestling Program in Franklin and a few years later in 1996-1997 when he wanted to have a separate 9th grade wrestling team, I was asked to coach it.  We went undefeated, ending up as the winners of the Middle TN Wrestling Grand Champions Tournament.  (FYI... In 1999, Tommy went on to Dickson Co. High where he built up a strong wrestling program and started a Future Champions Wrestling Program and now coaches at Clarksville High.)i

Our other son, Doug Badon wrestled on the 1989 TSSAA State Championship team of Franklin High School. As an adult, although not a teacher, he has assisted in coaching the Arlington High School Wrestling Team (Memphis) for three years before being transferred to the Johnson City area by his company where he helped Daniel Boone High School. In addition, our granddaughter, Isabella Badon, became a four-time Tennessee State Champion as well as two-time Outstanding Wrestler. She wrestles at Presbyterian College in South Carolina and graduates in May 2024. Doug has now moved to Clarksville and is the Head Coach of the Clarksville Lady Wildcats. Our oldest grandson, Hunter Badon, Doug's son, wrestled in Louisville, KY, Dickson Co. High School, & Arlington High School. He received a scholarship and wrestled for MTSU until an injury prevented him from continuing.  Grandson, Beau Badon, Tommy's son, wrestled for Dickson County High School, then graduated from UT Knoxville.

Incidental - Wrestling Related Experiences

I taught workers, such as Ellie Chason, & coaches, how to start up & run Invitational Wrestling Tournaments, as well as running and working many of those tournaments. 

Some of those:  Oakhaven High & other Memphis schools                  Nashville Christian,  Franklin High School throughout the 1990’s, Battle Ground Academy, Dickson High School during much of the 2000's and Page High School.                              .

Also, for four years I was the announcer for the Father Ryan Invitational Wrestling Tournament during the 2000's.

THE BADON FAMILY HAS BEEN HEAVILY INVOLVED IN AND HAS SUPPORTED WHAT IS BEST FOR TENNESSEE  HIGH  SCHOOL AND AMATEUR  WRESTLING SINCE  1968.