Being marshal is feather in Patton’s cap

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For Jim Patton, this is the cherry on top of the sundae.

Patton’s sparkling résumé includes four halls of fame and a 34-year career as Woodstock’s wrestling coach.

On Saturday night, Patton will receive a well-deserved and long-overdue honor: serving as one of the grand marshals in the IHSA State Wrestling Tournament’s Grand March, perhaps the greatest spectacle in Illinois high school sports.

Patton will be one of the leaders in the Grand March, in which Classes 1A, 2A and 3A championship competitors and their coaches parade into the University of Illinois’ Assembly Hall before the title matches.

Patton learned this winter that he had been picked as a grand marshal. The way Patton, one of the area’s true characters, described what would happen: “You lead one of the groups in, then you step out into the spotlight, and receive 10,000 boos.”

Patton, 74, was joking. He was nominated to be the grand marshal by Harvard wrestling coach Tim Haak and former Woodstock athletic director Doug Smith, who is athletic director at Naperville North.

“[Being a grand marshal] is quite an honor,” Patton said. “There are a lot of outstanding coaches. I was shocked [when I found out].”

Patton’s Woodstock teams were 400-176-6 in dual matches and he is a member of the Springfield High School, Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association, Illinois College and Woodstock High School halls of fame.

One story that illustrates Patton’s personality and passion for the sport came in 2000.

Blue Streaks 152-pounder Jon Murphy advanced to the championship match, but coach Jim Guttridge had only a dress shirt and tie to wear in the grand march and for the title match.

Patton grabbed Guttridge that afternoon and took him shopping. He bought Guttridge a tan sports coat so he would be appropriately dressed. It was classic Patton.

Competing for a friend: Prairie Ridge junior Brian Cullen won the 103-pound title at the Class 2A Sterling Sectional on Saturday to earn his first trip to the state tournament.

Cullen had someone else on his mind, though, after he picked up his first-place medal. He wears a yellow band around his right wrist for Hononegah’s 103-pounder Matt Rader, a junior who was diagnosed with leukemia last year.

Cullen said Rader can not wrestle this season, but hopes to return for his senior year if he has sufficiently recovered from treatments.

“He can’t wrestle this year so I dedicated this to him,” said Cullen, who became friends with Rader through competition as youth wrestlers. “I used to wrestle against him all the time. He’s on his way to recovery.”

Cullen bought the yellow bracelet the Rader family was selling for $1.

• Joe Stevenson covers high school sports for the Northwest Herald. He can be reached at 815-526-4513. He also can be reached by fax at 815-459-5640 or by e-mail at jstevenson@nwherald.com.