Larry Mollins – Perham, 2023 Lifetime Service Honoree

Larry Mollins was a 1964 graduate of Frazee High School and wrestled for Hall of Fame Coach Les Kertscher. Mollins was a two-time Conference, District, and Region Champion. As a Senior Captain, Larry was undefeated going into the State Wrestling Tournament, and in his words, “I would have been a State Champion, but………………….I lost.”

After graduating from Frazee, Mollins enrolled at NDSU and wrestled under the legendary Bucky Maughan. Bucky was a Pennsylvania State Champion and a Division I National Champion at Moorhead State. According to Larry, he was also a master technician. The new recruits were in awe of his wrestling knowledge and, at times, almost needed a pen and notepad to take it all down. That technique not only paid dividends for the NDSU wrestlers, but for those athletes who went on to coach wrestling, it was a double bonus.

Since freshmen were not allowed to wrestle, Mollins only had three years of varsity eligibility, but he was a three-year starter and a two-time National Qualifier. Larry also played three years of varsity baseball and served as a Captain his Senior Year.

Larry’s first head coaching experience came while he was finishing school at NDSU. He was hired to start a brand-new program at Glyndon, Minnesota. He had to recruit kids right out of Phy. Ed., help purchase new uniforms as well as a wrestling mat and build a wrestling schedule. That year the Glyndon Grapplers went 2-6, not too shabby for their first time out of the chute.

The following year Mollins started his teaching career at Starbuck along with Head Wrestling and Assistant Baseball positions. The Wrestling Team finished the season with an 11-1 record, winning the Conference Dual Meet Season as well as the Conference Individual Tournament. Coach Kertscher and his wife attended the final dual meet of the season with the conference title on the line. The bleachers were packed and the wrestlers were Jacked. It was a great night for Starbuck Wrestling.

Larry’s teaching and coaching career was put on hold the following year when he got drafted during the Vietnam War. He spent two years of his three-year stint in Germany manning a NATO Site with a Pershing Missile Unit.

Mollins resumed his teaching and coaching career in Perham, Minnesota, with Head Wrestling and Head Baseball coaching assignments. John McEachern was hired at the same time as Head Football and Assistant Wrestling Coach. Mollins and McEachern worked side-by-side as they started their 11-year journey together.

They did everything they could think of to build up the wrestling program and make it special for the wrestlers, their parents, and the Perham wrestling community. They went on a non-stop recruiting mission, wrote their own newspaper articles, started a Mat Club and a Mat–Maid organization, and put a handbook together for wrestlers, parents, and fans. With time and effort, the Mat Club sponsored a fan bus for every away dual meet and tournament and enabled the coaches to put on a first-class end-of-season banquet.

Perham lost their very first dual meet under Coach Mollins but then reeled off six straight wins. Larry remembers being invited to a coach’s corner before the Frazee meet, the biggest dual of the year, every year for the Perham wrestling team. They asked Coach Kertscher, Larry’s High School coach if he could predict the score of the dual meet. He acknowledged that Perham was a very worthy opponent but felt with the home crowd on their side, they could pull it out and threw out a score. Without hesitation, Larry vowed, “If Frazee wins the meet tomorrow night, I will walk back to Perham.” The following night, Coach Mollins and his loyal partner in crime, Coach McEachern, walked the eleven-mile stretch on a brisk winter night from Frazee to Perham.

The following season Perham defeated Frazee in front of the largest wrestling crowd ever assembled for a Perham Wrestling event. The overflow crowd had to wait until the heavyweight match for the outcome to be decided. The only spot without fans was the mat itself and after the Perham Heavyweight secured a pin, that space was immediately covered with Perham Wrestling fans. At the Wrestling banquet after the season, the Superintendent noted that the wrestling dual meet that night rejuvenated the entire community.

Mollins and McEachern’s Perham wrestlers went on to accumulate 115 wins against 37 losses during that eleven-year stretch producing fifteen State Medalists and six State Champions. Seven wrestlers went on to wrestle at the collegiate level, with five of those wrestlers garnering ten All-American medals.

The 1979 Perham wrestling team was the top team in the Individual State Tournament (under the old scoring system), with three wrestlers placing in the top five.

Larry finished his career in the Insurance and Financial Services business but continued to support wrestling in Perham and the surrounding area and served as a wrestling radio announcer for 37 years in Northwestern Minnesota.

Larry and his wife Cindy are both in their second marriage. Cindy is a former Frazee Elementary Teacher and continues to teach Driver’s Training. Larry and Cindy have six children – Anne and David – Melanie, Stephanie, Marcus, and Anthony. All were High School athletes. Anne and Dave’s winter activity was on the basketball court, while Melanie, Stephanie, Marcus, and Anthony all spent their winters on the Wrestling Mat. Melanie and Stephanie were wrestling cheerleaders and Marcus and Anthony were wrestlers. Anthony was a 1996 State Champion, and Marcus was on the same path, but health problems derailed his High School athletic plans.