Longtime Pueblo Sports Historian Retires Sports Files to the GPSA
Dave MihalickThe 2007 Greater Pueblo Sports Association (GPSA) inductee Dave Mihalick has spent the last fifty-five years compiling sports history in football, wrestling and track. GPSA historian and inductee Hoy Frakes started some of the files and Dave took over and continued to keep track of teams, coaches and athletes in Pueblo and surrounding areas.
The five files Dave compiled over the years were:
Pueblo’s Individual State Wrestling Champions- 1949 to the present.
Central versus Centennial Football- 1892 to the present.
Pueblo all-time State Track Champions and Records- 1902-2019. (Incomplete)
Pueblo Football Head Coaches (Most Wins). 1892 to the present.
Pueblo Team State Titles. 1913 to the present.
Dave would like to share some of the nuggets he has compiled through the years.
Wrestling: Pueblo has had a hundred nineteen individual state wrestling champions, Including Rye and Roncalli.
Top 5 schools with individual champions. County-27, South-24, East 24, Central-17, Centennial-9. Top five coaches who coached individual state champions. Eddie Soto-23, Jerry Sisneros-18, Pat Laughlin-14, Larry Wagner-7, Shane Cornella-5. Pueblo has produced three 4-time state champions Hunter Willits, Brendon Garcia- County and Andy Garcia- East. Two 3-time state champions Grant Willits-County and Weston Dalton-East.
Track: As of 2019 Centennial and Central were tied with forty-two Individual state champions. The Bulldogs have had 25 boys and 17 girl track champions. The Wildcats have 38 boys, 4 girl track champions, South has had 33 overall. One top track athlete that shined above the rest was Bulldog Freda Hancock with seven individual titles and two team titles. Pueblo Team State Titles: Top five, South-25, Central-25, Centennial-15, East-10, Rye-7.
Pueblo Football Head Coaches (Most Wins): Top five, Tom Brockman-144, Jeff Wilson-116, Mark Hearing-109, Jim Grieve-107, Monte Pinkerton-106.
Central Versus Centennial Football Series: (1892 to the present)
Overall series Central has 61 wins and Centennial 53 wins, there have been 9 ties for a total of 123 games played in the series. Since the start of the Bell Game, Central has won 40 games and Centennial has won 32 games, the teams have tied 3 times for a total of 75 games played.
Thanks, Dave, for compiling Pueblo sports history over the years!