
Honoring Athletes, Coaches and
Benefactors whose outstanding performance has earned them the right to be enshrined in the Sussex County Sports Hall of Fame!
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The Sussex County Sports Hall of Fame
2007 Inductee
CRAIG BLACKMAN

Graduated Sparta High School 1977; graduated Franklin & Marshall College
1981 and Penn State University 1989; inducted for his accomplishments in
wrestling
A four year starter in high school with over sixty-five victories, he
won the 1977 NJSIAA State Championship at 188 pounds; he was only the
third wrestler in the history of Sparta High School to attain such an
honor
He was a two time NJ State Freestyle Champion and, as a member of the NJ
team, toured Turkey in 1976; he advanced to the National AAU Elite
Freestyle Wrestling Championships in 1977 and won the gold medal in the
220 pound weight class and the silver medal in the Greco-Roman division;
touring Iran with the National Team, he finished with a 4-0 record; in
college, he placed sixth in the 1979 Junior World Freestyle Wrestling
Championships at 198 pounds
In college, he amassed 117 victories and currently holds the school
record for career victories; he was a three-time Eastern Intercollegiate
Wrestling Association place winner and gained the 190 pound crown in
1981, one of only seven F&M wrestlers to do so; participating in his
third NCAA Division I Tournament, he placed fifth, upsetting many highly
touted wrestlers along the way; he was voted the most underrated
wrestler in the United States by the Amateur Wrestling News for his
exploits; he was inducted into the Franklin and Marshall Sports Hall of
Fame in 1989
Assisting George McGuire at Sparta High School, the Spartans beat
Delaware Valley for the Group II Dual Meet Championship in 1983; he was
a graduate assistant for the nationally ranked Penn State Nittany Lions
from 1983-1985; he took over the wrestling program at Indian River High
School in Chesapeake, VA in 1987 and compiled a record of 48-21 and
finished fifth in the 1991 state meet; he coached three collegiate style
state champions and two freestyle state champions while at Indian River
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