The Barometer Online

Issue date: 3/3/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Barometer Photo File Then-heavyweight wrestler Jess Lewis wrestles an opponent from UCLA. Lewis won two national championships while at Oregon State. The Aumsville, Ore. native is the director of athletic maintenance at OSU.

Once a small-town kid, Jess Lewis is now an Oregon State legend. Lewis is still roaming the Oregon State campus-39 years after winning his second-consecutive NCAA national wrestling championship.

Lewis was born in Aumsville, Ore. on July 28, 1947 as the fourth son to a farming family in a small town about forty miles north of Corvallis. He grew up working hard on the farm, an attribute that Lewis credits his parents for instilling in him at a young age.

Lewis was a three-sport athlete in high school, playing both ways on the football field (defensive end and fullback), winning three state championships on the wrestling mat and competing in the track and field state championships in the discus and shot put.

The athletic dominance continued after his high school career when Lewis became a Beaver in 1965. He was a rare two-sport collegiate athlete in his years at Oregon State. Not only did Lewis chase down opposing quarterbacks on the football field, but he dominated his foes on the wrestling mat as well.

Small for his weight class, Lewis was consistently around the 215-pound mark throughout college, much smaller than many of his heavyweight opponents. He had to rely on his speed and quickness to defeat his opponents.

"I was smaller than a lot of the guys, so I had to outsmart them," Lewis recalled.

Lewis never let his size hold him back from achieving his goals - winning three conference championships (1968-1970) and two national titles (1969-1970).

The international wrestling community got the opportunity to see Lewis' talents in 1968 when he competed in the Olympics games that took place in Mexico City. He took sixth place with his loss coming to the gold-medal winner. Lewis recalls the experience as being one of a lifetime and something that he would never forget.

"It was a thrill to be around so many great athletes from all over the world" Lewis said.

Lewis' size was no handicap on the gridiron. He was selected First-Team All Conference as a defensive end on two separate occasions and was an All-American in 1967. After three seasons as a starter for OSU, Lewis was drafted in the 13th round of the 1970 NFL draft by the Houston Oilers. Lewis made the switch to linebacker in his only season with the NFL.

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