Gene Mills (born September 28, 1958) is an American freestyle wrestler and wrestling coach. Mills and Leroy Kemp were key members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling team. He won the gold medal at the 1980 World Super Championships in Japan, where he wrestled in the 52 kilogram weight class.
Two-time NCAA Division I Champion and voted the Outstanding Wrestler.
Three-time World Cup Champion.
1980 Tbilisi International Tournament Winner and voted the Outstanding Wrestler after pinning each of his opponents, USSR (оne American coach summed up the Tbilisi International Tournament as "probably five times as tough" as the Olympics).[8][9]
1980 World Superсhampionships Winner and voted the Outstanding Wrestler, Japan.
1979 Pan American Games Champion, Puerto Rico.
Mills posted a career record of 1,356-45-1 with 866 of his wins won by fall. He beat the strongest wrestlers in three weight categories:
men's freestyle 57 kg. Mills defeated the three-time European champion and the World Championships medalist Stefan Ivanov (USA vs Bulgaria Dual).[13]
men's freestyle 65 kg. At the 1985 Midlands Tournament, Mills defeated Kevin Dresser, the best U.S. wrestler in this weight class. Mills is the 1985 Midlands Tournament Champion and voted the Outstanding Wrestler.[14][15]
In 1980, Mills was considered one of the best wrestlers in the world, but the boycott of the 1980 Olympics by the United States deprived him of the opportunity to win an Olympic gold medal.
Coaching
After college he served as an assistant coach at Syracuse University for 16 seasons, ending with a record of 147-81-4. He also served as a head coach for the Mohawk Valley Wrestling Club and U.S. Wrestling team from 1985 to 1991. Mills went on to become camp director of the Syracuse University Big Orange Wrestling School in 1986. He also coaches at Phoenix high school.[3][16]
References
↑ "Mills, Catalfo pace Syracuse", The Record, February 2, 1981. Accessed June 16, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "Former New Jersey State wrestling champions Gene Mills of Pompton Lakes and Tim Catalfo of Montvale helped lead Syracuse to a 19-16 college wrestling victory over Navy yesterday. Mills, a former DePaul High School standout and an All-American for the Orangemen last year, pinned Doug Heinmbach in the 118-pound bout."
↑ "Kenny Monday". Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 2023-04-14. Retrieved 2023-09-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
↑ All about freestyle wrestling (in Russian). Vladikavkaz: Project-Press. 1997.
↑ "Gene Mills". Section III Wrestling Hall of Fame Member.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.