LETTER FROM CHRIS HORPEL, STANFORD COACH, CONCERNING TOD SURMON 
 January 13, 2000 
 To all of you who offered your condolences: 
 It's been almost two weeks since Tod's death and I'm finally starting to feel a little better. I thought I would take a minute to let you know what has happened since New Year's Eve (for the record, Tod died 15 seconds before midnight). 
 Because Tod lived with three of my current athletes - Zach Zimmerer (133), Warren McPherson (157) and Clay Hackerman (165) - it's been especially hard on them. All three are our team leaders this year. 
 We were supposed to take our 10 starters to the "Lone Star Duals" on January 8 just outside Dallas, Texas, where we were to wrestle Brown, Wisconsin and Lock Haven. However, it became clear that my team and I weren't emotionally ready for that.  We therefore cancelled our competition and instead chartered a 52-passenger bus that took most of the team up to Albany, OR for Tod's funeral services. Our group of 36 joined another 20 of my former athletes in a workout Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. at West Albany High School, Tod's old high school. It was a great way to renew friendships and vent some of our emotion. 
 Almost in honor of Tod's chronic tardiness, our bus was about 20 minutes late for Tod's service, which was held at United Methodist Church in Lebanon, OR. The church was overflowing with close to 500 people in attendance. There was a formal speaker and then an open microphone. It was interesting to see who spoke on Tod's behalf. They came from Tod's many different sides... his teammates, athletes, computer friends, freshman roommate, dance friends, etc. It was clear that Tod had lots of different types of friends who felt very strongly about him. Many of Tod's best friends didn't know his other best friends. 
 There were several themes that kept repeating themselves regarding Tod. He challenged people to do things. He was fun-loving and lived life to its fullest. He was never in a bad mood. He was a gifted athlete. He was a computer wiz. He loved life and was always ready to try different things. He loved doing one-handed hand stands wherever he went (and usually had someone photograph it). 
 For me, Tod was someone who made me feel like a great coach... and he could also infuriate me. While at Stanford he was a Pac-10 champion and an All-American. He always missed at least six weeks of each collegiate season due to serious injury. I could especially help him with his technique because we had similar body types. He was hard-headed and mentally tough. He designed and maintained our first wrestling web page when he was a student here, when there were just a handful of web sites out there (and our's was by far the best!). In short, Tod was a lot of things to many people. I will miss him for the rest of my life. 
 -- Chris Horpel 
 PS  Some of you who were unable to attend the services in Oregon last weekend were interested to know if Stanford was going to have a second service.  At this point, no. But I may have the emotional energy to have a second service for Tod in the early spring if there is sufficient interest. Please let me know. Thanks.