MJWL Beginnings

     Throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s several athletic clubs around the Baltimore area were competing in the sport of wrestling. One of the most dominate was the Baltimore Central YMCA who had 1956 Olympian Ernie Fischer as a member. These athletic clubs wrestled in a lot of AAU events and often produced dual meet matches with each other as well as with out of state clubs and military teams. The Baltimore Sun and the News American covered these club teams quite extensively. Besides the Central YMCA, other clubs were Washington Blvd Lions, which was located at the time around where Oriole Park at Camden Yards is at today. Another was the Jewish Community Center, also in downtown Baltimore. Dundalk YMCA was another. All these teams were primarily for high school and young adult athletes. However, from these clubs came the idea of beginning youth programs. Bob Marsheck from the Dundalk YMCA was the most instrumental in beginning the youth clubs and tournaments in the mid to late 1950’s. Other early youth club coaches were Bill Kraus from the Jewish Community Center, Ken Harvey with the Washington Blvd Lions Athletic Club. Royce Enns of the McKim Youth Center brought in a team after being challenged by Bob Marsheck to compete with the other clubs. Bo Eibner created the Sparrows Point club team in the fall of 1958 to compete with this group and to help develop the Sparrows Point High School program. In February 1959 this group held a tournament that was won by the Washington Blvd Lions Club.  From that tournament began the discussions of having dual meets and further growth of other youth programs.

     It was in November of 1959 that these five teams met to officially create what today is referred to as the Maryland Junior Wrestling League (MJWL).  Bo Eibner, the head coach of the Sparrows Point program was selected as the first president. After that first meeting they also attempted to speak to other people from the wrestling community about starting junior league programs for additional league teams. They were successful in bringing two additional programs in for that inaugural season. Bob Marsheck again stepped forward to help The Red Shield Boys Club from the Highlandtown area bring aboard a team for the new league. The other was the Middle River program. Middle River Jr High had just opened for its first school year and George McKelvie, a math teacher assigned to the new school, decided to bring into the league a school club team. That made seven teams for that first season ---- Dundalk YMCA, Jewish Community Center, McKim, Sparrows Point, Washington Blvd Lions Athletic Club, Red Shields Boys Club, & Middle River. Sparrows Point won both the dual meet and tournament championships that first season.

 Moving forward ---- We’re now in our 64th season. Throughout the past 64 years we have had many programs. Some have long histories, while others have come and gone.  

     *Our records go back as far as we can find continuous years. 

 Bill Hendrix  

Source – 1964 Baltimore News American Newspaper