Class of 2007

Clem Crow was a star wrestler for Mont Pleasant under Coach Mulvaney from 1955 to 1957. Clem became interested in wrestling as a sophomore and lost his first match but then went undefeated the rest of his high school career. He graduated in 1957 which was two years before the first official section 2 Class tournament of 1959.

Clem was born in the Philippines during a war torn World War II era and would regularly be taking shelter with his family to escape bombings and bullets. He and his family escaped and came to the United States where they settled down in the Schenectady area. He and his brothers would excel in local athletics in wrestling, swimming and track.

After Clem's much publicized wrestling success at Mont Pleasant he was accepted to Union College where he would become a member of their wrestling team under coach Bruce Allison and also a pole vaulter on the track team. Wrestling varsity his sophomore year of 1959 Clem would go undefeated at the college level and qualify for the 4-1 Tournament at 123 Lbs. He ended up losing a closely contested match 3-2 in the first round of the tournament. It was his first loss since 1954.

After the 1959 season Clem decided to leave Union and go to the Teachers College in Albany where he would wrestle for coach Joe Garcia. Because of eligibility rules Clem would not be able to wrestle a match again until February of 1961.

Wrestling now for the Albany State Peds, he would reel off another undefeated season. Qualifying again for the 4-1 tournament in 1961 at 130 Lbs., this time Crow would win his first Championship for Albany defeating previously undefeated Bill Kohrig of Lycoming College, 4-2 in the finals.

Clem's senior season would start out on a scary note as he would fracture his leg during Thanksgiving and would not be able to hit the mats again until January of 1962. But he picked up where he left off and had another undefeated season for the Peds. Clem successfully defended his championship crown in the 4-1 at 130 lbs. by defeated previously undefeated Pat McCormick of Washington and Jefferson University by a 3-1 overtime decision. Although Clem only wrestled two seasons for Albany State he was inducted into the Albany State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.

Graduated from college and working as a teacher in Long Island, wrestling was still not out of Clem Crow's blood. He joined the prestigious New York Athletic Club wrestling team and began wrestling for them. In 1963 Clem won the AAU NE tournament by defeating two time champion and National Wrestling Hall of Famer Hiroaki Aoki of Japan in the finals. Then in 1964 he competed in the Olympic Trials where only the top two wrestlers would qualify for the Olympics in Japan that year. Clem tied for second place in his weight class even though he had limited Greco Roman experience at that time but because of the tie breaker rules Crow was awarded a third place finish and narrowly missed his chance to be an Olympic Wrestler. Clem would continue to wrestle into the late 1960s for the NYAC and would win and place in many AAU tournaments while competing against the highest level of competition in the area.

Today Clem is retired from teaching and lives with his wife Evelyn in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is a yoga teacher and Clem likes to paint.