Thomas Gaylin and Jack Gause receive Lifetime Achievement for Officials awards from the National Wre

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(National Wrestling Hall of Fame)
02/17/2001


The National Wrestling Hall of Fame has recognized two more outstanding wrestling officials with the Lifetime Achievement for Officials award. This award recognizes outstanding service as a wrestling or pairing official or judge.     For more than 20 years, Thomas Gaylin has been an integral part of wrestling in the state of Maryland. He has been a member of the Maryland Wrestling Officials Association since 1978 and has held the offices of commissioner, secretary, president and vice-president.    Currently, Gaylin serves as the MWOA's interpreter; a position he has held since 1989. Gaylin also held the same position with the MPSSAA, conducting over 100 clinics on rule interpretations in eight years.    Gaylin has officiated numerous collegiate tournaments across the country, including seven consecutive NCAA Division I Championships and 14 NCAA Division I qualifying tournaments. Five times he has officiated the NCAA championship finals.    In 1995, Gaylin was named the Maryland Man of the Year by Wrestling USA Magazine. Gaylin has also been involved in wrestling as a coach, directing a Golden Ring Junior League team from 1971-78. Four times, he led his squads to MJWL Division crowns.    In only his first international competition, Jack Gause's officiating skills were put to the test. At the 1967 Pan American Games, Gause refereed a match between two wrestlers from countries that were at odds with each other. In the match, one athlete severely bit the other, forcing Gause to disqualify the wrestler, who later received a lifetime ban from competition. Thus began the career of Jack Gause, recipient of one of FILA's most prestigious awards, the Gold Star.    For more than two decades, Gause worked nearly every World, Pan Am and World Cup Championship, including the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.     Two years later, Gause served as the U.S. Team Leader at the World Championships. Gause has orchestrated many clinics, both nationally and internationally, to provide uniform rules and a point system to rank officials. More than 160 referees have received their international licenses with his assistance.    For more than 30 years, Gause served as a coach in Minnesota, and started the program at St. Cloud State in 1949. In 1974, Jack and his wife Dee were both inducted into the Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame.