Editor's note: Three-time Olympic wrestler and former coach R. Wayne Baughman, who also was a three-time All-American and 1962 NCAA champion at OU, tells The Oklahoman why he loves sports.
The coaches, trainers, mentors, role models and maybe even a few administrators, officials and sports media are why I love sports. They are my sports heroes. Although sometimes I love to hate a few them. Being raised in Oklahoma, my first sports hero was Jim Thorpe, the greatest athlete of all time. He won the 1912 Olympics in the pentathlon and decathlon, played professional football and baseball and I believe also played college basketball.