James Tanniehill is a member of five Halls of fame for wrestling and has been known, predominantly for his wrestling history.

He was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1945, the third of five children born to a coal miner. He was raised during the time of segregation, remembers special water fountains and special seating in movie theaters, where he developed an early love of movies and imagination.

He was in school when the freedom riders came through, he remembers having to leave school to run home to get a radio to bring back to class so that the teachers could hear what was going on. Even though he had moved by the time of the church bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, the neighbor boy from across the street from where he lived in Birmingham, of the Ware family, was killed that same day.

His parents divorced when he was 15 years old and he moved to Minnesota with his mother, Mozel Tanniehill, and sisters, Diane and Vivian. It was here that he was introduced to wrestling.

It was also a big culture shock for him because there was no segregation in Minnesota at the time.

One of my favorite stories he tells from those days is when he first went in to the wrestling room, after trying his hand at several other sports, and thinking wrestling was "wrastling" like he would see on TV.

So when the coach said, "get out there and let's see what you have," James started slamming kids and stomping on them, and behaving generally as a WWE wrestler when the coach had to stop him and knew at that moment he had some work to do.

Coach Bergstedt said, " it's not that kind of wrestling, it is 'scientific' wrestling we do here."

James took to wrestling right away. He has a special propensity for it and by his senior year, he was completely hooked.

A small coal miner's kid from Alabama, he never had any imaginings about any college or advanced studies beyond high school. However, by senior year, he was a conference, district and regional champion and placed third in the state.

By this time, he had met and was working with Coach Alan Rice of the Minnesota Wrestling Club. James received a lot of offers to go to college and with encouragement from his coaches, he chose Winona State College. Coach Robert Gunner recruited him and sold him on that school by promising he would receive an education. James received his bachelor's degree in art, and his wresting accomplishments were amazing.

He won 52 of 56 dual meets, 48 by pin, and had an overall record of 115-13. He was the first black Northern Intercollegiate Conference champion for all four years. He was Midlands Champion, four-time NAIA place winner, and two-time NCAA Division I All-American.

Coach Gunner was with him his first two and a half years, and then Fran McCann took the helm. James still to this day uses their guidance and technique in his every day life.

James helped to introduce Black History studies at Winona State and was the first black person to teach a class about African-American artists and their contribution to the world of art.

He got married and had four children.

After college, James couldn't fathom the idea of being done with wrestling so he joined the Army.

In the Army, he was known as Abdul Raheem Ali and he continued to accumulate accomplishments, including being a nine-time Inter-Service champion in freestyle (four times) and Greco-Roman (five times). James was also a silver medalist in both Greco-Roman and freestyle and a six-time national champion, all while serving in the military.

After the military, James returned to college, this time as a graduate student at Indiana State, where his former coach McCann offered him an assistant coaching position. James continued to wrestle into his early 60s, finishing second at the World Veterans Championships when he was 63 years old. During his time at Indiana State, he worked with two-time Olympic gold medalist Bruce Baumgartner.

James was the first African American to coach wrestling at Terre Haute South High School in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he had two state champions and the team placed second in the state. He ran Top Notch Wrestling Camps for a number of years where he has touched many lives.

Most recently, he was head coach at Pike High School, then he and Laura Rader formed Take Down Crime, a youth program for at-risk youth in the inner city of Indianapolis. James then went back to Pike High School as assistant coach and is now heading up the youth program for Pike Township.

James is the first African American to win in four different weight classes in Senior Greco-Roman, and he was the first African American to win 12 national titles.

In addition to teaching moves and techniques, he highlights the history of wrestling by bringing in legendary wrestlers, including Bobby Douglas, Butch Keaser and Fran McCann.

His heart beats wrestling and he loves to instill that passion into kids every day.