• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Hull to receive service award

Mitch Hull, an Evansville native, will be one of six honorees to receive a Lifetime Service Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame on Aug. 16 at the Chula Vista Resort in the Wisconsin Dells.

Hull will be honored along with Lee Ecklund of Wisconsin Rapids, Don, Dale and Steve Evans of DeForest and Jim Stephenson of Waunakee.

Hull was Evansville High School’s first wrestling state champion in 1975. He went on that year to win both the freestyle and the Greco junior national titles.

After high school, Hull attended Kansas State to play football, but transferred to the University of Wisconsin and wrestled for three years.

Hull wrestled internationally, and is one of only two U.S. wrestlers in the past 40 years to compete in the World Championships in both freestyle and Greco. In 1984, Hull finished second in the Olympic Trials.

Moving on in his career, Hull assisted Wisconsin wrestling coach Russ Hellickson from 1980 to ’86. He served as an assistant coach at Purdue from 1986 and became Boilermakers’ head coach two years later.

In 1992, Hull became the National Teams Director for USA Wrestling where he has overseen the preparation and organization of the USA Olympic team for the past five Olympic Games.

Recently, Hull headed a wrestling camp to raise funds for Jake Janes, a former Evansville High wrestler who lost both his legs in the war in Afghanistan.

Hull and his wife, Peggy, live in Colorado Springs.