University of Oklahoma Athletics
Black History Month: Melvin Douglas
February 24, 2022 | Athletics, Wrestling
At 13 years old, he had never even stepped on a wrestling mat.
By 22, he was a two-time national champion, Big Eight champion and All-American for Oklahoma.
By 37, he was a two-time Olympian, a member of 11 U.S. national teams and a world champion.
Melvin Douglas' meteoric rise to the heights of both collegiate and international wrestling gave him status as one of the greatest Americans to ever put on a singlet.
The story of his Hall of Fame career is fascinating right from the beginning. Having gotten a late start in the sport, very few college programs initially knocked on his door.
"Kansas," Douglas began. "You know, it's just one of those places where I was good but didn't know how good I was. When I was wrestling in high school, I didn't even know that there was wrestling in college much less that they would give you a scholarship. When I found out how good I was, I had Nebraska-Omaha and some junior colleges looking at me and I was ready to go to Omaha. They almost had me."
"My junior year something just clicked. I realized I was just as tough as any of these guys out here. And from that day on I became a threat. I became a threat to anyone in that room. I became a threat to anyone in the world."
Melvin Douglas
Good was an understatement, even back then. Douglas claimed three individual state championships for Highland Park High School in Topeka and knew more extraordinary things were to come.
"Wrestling was something I did, just because it was easy for me. I got medals. But when I found out that I could actually get a scholarship I trained hard and then found out where I needed to go."
After earning his third state title in a row, Douglas and his high school coach began to make his case to colleges around the country, including Oklahoma. The response he got from then-head coach and Hall of Famer Stan Abel was that there were 100 wrestlers better than him that were dying to be at OU.
"I, of course, asked where those students were," Douglas said in his induction speech for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. "They were at junior nationals. So I ended up going to junior nationals and I ended up destroying them. When I got to the finals, I faced someone that Oklahoma was recruiting; they were ready to give him a full ride. Well, I ended up winning, just destroying all those 100 kids they said were better than me. I went up to the stands and next thing you know here comes Mr. Stan Abel."
With the championship at the 1981 Junior National freestyle tournament came a scholarship offer from Oklahoma. Abel still had work to do to convince Douglas and his family to overlook the late nature of the offer, but they eventually came around, and Douglas was a Sooner.
Abel's supposed "100 wrestlers" comment nearly cost him the chance to sign the future Olympian. But Douglas wouldn't find out until years later that his high school coach had made the whole thing up to light a fire in a young man yet to reach his full potential.
"That motivated me. Motivated me to go prove (Abel) wrong," Douglas laughed. "My coach knew I had the talent. If it wasn't for him, no telling what I would have done."
Once he got to Norman, it was no leisurely stroll into the starting lineup. The Sooners had just won the Big Eight title the year before and returned six All-Americans, two reigning national champions and a squad chock-full of program legends.
One of those stars, the late, great Dave Schultz, made sure to give the Topeka native a warm welcome to college wrestling.
"The first person I wrestled when I got to college was Dave Schultz. At that time, you looked at him and he looked like some little skinny old guy," Douglas chuckled. "All I could think was, 'Oh, I'm going to destroy him.' And then he took me down and whooped up on me for a good hour. Didn't give me one point. Afterward he said to me, 'This is what college is like,' and I knew if that's what it's like, I needed to learn from him."
Douglas credited Schultz for teaching him the mental side of the game – how to treat each match as a game of chess, a game of strategy rather than just the physical test it seemed to be. Dave "The Professor" Schultz, as Douglas called him, helped Douglas elevate his skills and gave him the belief that he could be not only the strongest on the mat, but also the smartest.
The fruits of his labor finally came during the 1984-85 season when he went 38-2 at 177 pounds for the Sooners, claiming his first individual national championship, defeating Syracuse's Wayne Catan in the title match by a 4-3 score.
Douglas became the third African American to win a national title for the Oklahoma wrestling program, following in the footsteps of Cleo McGlory and Shawn Garel. He said he never felt like a trailblazer in his time at OU and expressed gratitude for those who paved the way for him and for the treatment he received while in Norman.
"You hear the stories of people like Bobby Douglas who wrestled in different times. Guys who wrestled before me, who went through those times, it was really already paid for by them," Douglas said. "So being a Black athlete, you know, I really never experienced it; or if it was, I never paid attention to it. I had a great time in Oklahoma, because I tell you, they know how to take care of their people. It was one of the greatest parts of my life."
In 1986, Douglas defeated Catan again to repeat as national champion, becoming one of only 14 Oklahoma wrestlers all-time to be an undefeated national title winner. Douglas' wins over Catan were the only losses the Syracuse legend suffered in his collegiate career.
"My junior year something just clicked. I realized I was just as tough as any of these guys out here," Douglas said. "And from that day on I became a threat. I became a threat to anyone in that room. I became a threat to anyone in the world."
Dominant in his final two years in Crimson and Cream, Douglas compiled two Big Eight titles and two All-America honors in addition to his two national championships. He also helped OU to Big Eight team titles and NCAA runner-up finishes in those two seasons.
Douglas' claim to being a threat to anyone in the world was more than talk. However, those outside of Norman will remember him for his achievements on the international level. He was a significant figure in freestyle wrestling on the world stage for over 15 years, taking gold at the 1993 World Championships in Toronto and claiming three other medals at Worlds throughout his career. In addition, Douglas is the only American to medal at three different weight classes (82kg, 90kg and 97kg).
He made the U.S. Olympic team in 1996 and 2000, coming up one match short at Olympic trials on two other occasions. He was also part of 11 U.S. national teams, including the 1993 and 1995 Team USA World Championship squads – alongside former OU teammate Schultz – the first two championship teams in U.S. men's freestyle history.
"I try to stay in the sport and I try to spread the knowledge I have. I try to give them something that I didn't have when I was a kid; just getting them ready."
Melvin Douglas
Douglas was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2013 and this year was named the 30th-greatest American wrestler of all-time by FloWrestling.
Now living in Mesa, Ariz., and enjoying a more relaxed shorts-and-sandals lifestyle surrounded by his grandkids, Douglas passes on his knowledge to the next generation of wrestlers when he can. He volunteers his time at local high schools and to anyone who asks for his help.
"I try to stay in the sport and I try to spread the knowledge I have," said Douglas. "I try to give them something that I didn't have when I was a kid; just getting them ready."
Although he never considered taking up the full-time coaching mantle himself, he appreciates everything the sport of wrestling has done for his family and him.
"It was fun. I got to see the world. My parents got to see the world. I got to see things that 97% of the people in the United States will never see. You know? I don't regret any of it.
"Wrestling's been kind to me."
Kinder than Douglas was to his opponents.
