Sports Illustrated Vault: Kenny Monday
Originally Published in March 17, 1980 issue of Sports Illustrated
By Roy S. Johnson
For several years, Fred and Elizabeth Monday's home in Tulsa had no living-room furniture, only a carpet. It wasn't that the Mondays couldn't afford to furnish their home, they just had a better use for the space. Their three young sons—Michael, James and Kenny—loved to wrestle. And the living room was perfect, as long as there were no lamps to be shattered or sofas to be battered as the boys thrashed about.
Today, after years of rug-burn takedowns, the Mondays not only have a fine set of living-room furniture, but also three very talented wrestlers, the youngest of whom, Kenny, an 18-year-old high school senior, may be the best schoolboy wrestler in the nation. In four years, competing in four different weight classes—108, 115, 136 and 141 pounds—Kenny has a 140-0-1 record. Two weeks ago, after overwhelming his final opponent at the Oklahoma state championships in Jenks, Monday, a Distinguished Member inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2001, ended his high school career by becoming only the third undefeated four-time wrestling champion ever.
Ernie Jones, his coach at Booker T. Washington High who received the Lifetime Service to Wrestling award from the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1998, says, "I've never seen a wrestler like this kid. He's grown from scrawny to awesome."
The Monday family wrestling legacy is a long and winning one, and as the youngest of the three brothers, Kenny started out on the bottom. When he came of an age to go to the rug with Mike, now 23, and Jim, now 22, he was usually the pinnee. "When we were little, they used to beat me up till I cried," Kenny says. "Pretty soon I learned their moves, along with learning when to cry to make them quit."
Eventually the boys were evicted from their home arena by the arrival of new furniture. "And our new carpet," says their mother. So Mom and Dad sent them to a local YMCA, which had the only organized wrestling program on Tulsa's predominantly black northside. "Back then there was little for black kids to do during the day while their parents worked, except for getting into trouble," says Fred Monday, now a supervisor for a pipeline manufacturer. "We just sent them there so maybe they would keep on wrestling."
They did. And soon Michael was leading the way. As a high school senior, he won the 1974 state 98-pound title. Right behind him, Jim went to the state finals for two consecutive seasons. Both went on to wrestle at Arizona State before transferring back home to Oklahoma University two years ago. While his brothers were making their names, Kenny was flattening most of Tulsa's young wrestlers as a member of the Lincoln Recreation Center team. In seven trips to the Junior Olympics, Monday won five times. By that time Jones was stalking all of Monday's meets, waiting impatiently for the proper time to introduce himself.
By Roy S. Johnson
For several years, Fred and Elizabeth Monday's home in Tulsa had no living-room furniture, only a carpet. It wasn't that the Mondays couldn't afford to furnish their home, they just had a better use for the space. Their three young sons—Michael, James and Kenny—loved to wrestle. And the living room was perfect, as long as there were no lamps to be shattered or sofas to be battered as the boys thrashed about.
Today, after years of rug-burn takedowns, the Mondays not only have a fine set of living-room furniture, but also three very talented wrestlers, the youngest of whom, Kenny, an 18-year-old high school senior, may be the best schoolboy wrestler in the nation. In four years, competing in four different weight classes—108, 115, 136 and 141 pounds—Kenny has a 140-0-1 record. Two weeks ago, after overwhelming his final opponent at the Oklahoma state championships in Jenks, Monday, a Distinguished Member inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2001, ended his high school career by becoming only the third undefeated four-time wrestling champion ever.
Ernie Jones, his coach at Booker T. Washington High who received the Lifetime Service to Wrestling award from the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1998, says, "I've never seen a wrestler like this kid. He's grown from scrawny to awesome."
The Monday family wrestling legacy is a long and winning one, and as the youngest of the three brothers, Kenny started out on the bottom. When he came of an age to go to the rug with Mike, now 23, and Jim, now 22, he was usually the pinnee. "When we were little, they used to beat me up till I cried," Kenny says. "Pretty soon I learned their moves, along with learning when to cry to make them quit."Eventually the boys were evicted from their home arena by the arrival of new furniture. "And our new carpet," says their mother. So Mom and Dad sent them to a local YMCA, which had the only organized wrestling program on Tulsa's predominantly black northside. "Back then there was little for black kids to do during the day while their parents worked, except for getting into trouble," says Fred Monday, now a supervisor for a pipeline manufacturer. "We just sent them there so maybe they would keep on wrestling."
They did. And soon Michael was leading the way. As a high school senior, he won the 1974 state 98-pound title. Right behind him, Jim went to the state finals for two consecutive seasons. Both went on to wrestle at Arizona State before transferring back home to Oklahoma University two years ago. While his brothers were making their names, Kenny was flattening most of Tulsa's young wrestlers as a member of the Lincoln Recreation Center team. In seven trips to the Junior Olympics, Monday won five times. By that time Jones was stalking all of Monday's meets, waiting impatiently for the proper time to introduce himself.
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