The Great Martins:
Family Patriarch Began Legacy as a Tumbler; Sons Followed – On the Mat
By Wayne Catan

The Flying Wallendas were a family of aerialists who brought us breath-taking high-wire acts; Evel and Robbie Knievel were a father-son team who brought us death-defying motorcycle jumps (remember Caesar’s Palace in 1968?). The Martins are a family of wrestlers who brought us (and continue to bring us) a different thrill altogether and a whole new way of wrestling—“The Granby Way.” The Martins are our thrill-seekers...the Martins are our daredevils.

THE PROGENITOR:
Like Karl Wallenda, Billy Martin Sr. is the family patriarch, a father of seven that is comprised of four boys: Billy Jr., David, Wayne, and Steve; and three girls: Carol Anne, Bonnie and Melodie. The tales of Billy Martin Sr., now 85, go way back to South Creek, North Carolina, a logging town. Billy Sr. was precocious and a risk-taker: in the 1930’s he left high school a year early to begin a wrestling program at Elon College in North Carolina. He didn’t have any problem getting in--his friend ran the small North Carolina college and helped Billy Sr. get into the school. Upon his acceptance, Sr. assembled a team for which he both coached and competed. Not good enough for this thrill seeker; he wanted more. So, when Michigan State visited Elon for a scrimmage, Billy Sr. talked Coach Fendley Collins (1927 AAU Champion, Oklahoma State) into taking him back to Lansing with the Spartan squad.

After graduating from Michigan State in 1940, the height of WWII, Billy Sr. joined the Air Force. Billy was tough enough to defend our country, but couldn’t go overseas because he was short one thumb. (He tore off his right thumb while playing with a train wheel on the railroad tracks in South Creek.) He served our nation as a physical education instructor at Lowry Field in Denver, Colo., where he met his wife, Mary Lou, the mother of their seven children.

Billy’s father, David (a logger), died suddenly forcing Billy’s mother to relocate to Virginia Beach. After serving in the Air Force, Billy made his way back to Virginia to help his mother shoulder the financial debt left by his father. Billy Sr. started his coaching dynasty at the Virginia Beach YMCA. In between YMCA practices, Billy Sr. performed acrobatics and tumbling moves on the beach. “He was a gymnast hiding in a wrestler’s body,” Steve Martin, his youngest boy, said. He then started coaching at Granby High School in 1948, the school wherein he pioneered one of the most advanced moves in the history of our sport—The Granby Roll, a move that melds tumbling with wrestling. Under Billy Martin Sr., Granby won 22 state titles (in 23 years). Individually, he produced 106 state champions and numerous state place-winners. Four of his stars went on to win NCAA Division I titles: Gray Simons (three titles), Fred Powell (one title), Ed Eichelberger (two titles), and Pete Blair of Navy (two titles). Two went on to represent the U.S. in Olympic Games: Simons (1960, 1964) and Pete Blair (1956 bronze medalist). Billy wouldn’t tip his hand as to who he thought was his best. He did tell me this much: “Gray won everything there was to win.”

Billy Sr. was also a farmer. In between wrestling seasons and his world-famous Martin Granby School of Wrestling Camps, he cultivated strawberry and peach farms. Losing was not in his vocabulary...just winning. And for his winning ways, in 1980, Billy Sr. was elected into The National Wrestling Hall of Fame. No longer a coach, Martin continues to run his Martin Granby School of Wrestling Camps and his strawberry and peach farms.

THE PROGENY:
The peach didn’t fall far from the tree!

A.) First there was Billy Jr., a two-time state champion (for his father at Granby High School) and three-time All-America for Tommy Chesbro at Oklahoma State. “Billy had the best credentials of all my sons,” Billy Sr. said. “David had the most potential.” On paper Jr. should have been a four-time All-American. He, however, sacrificed his junior season for the Cowboys by sucking down to 118 pounds from his normal 126-pound slot. Jr. was so weak he didn’t even place at the nationals as a junior; he did, however, bounce back his senior year with a sixth place finish. Billy Jr., now 51, was America’s first-ever Jr. World champion and won the Midlands as a freshman. Today, he runs a successful screen-printing business in Chesapeake.

B.) Then there was David, now 50, the talented one. David was perhaps the most talented of the Martin brothers. He won four state titles for his father at Granby High before matriculating to Indiana State, where he was a conference champion. He fell short of his potential in college, but he did manage to pick off a few NCAA champions including John Fritz of Penn State and Don Rohn of Clarion.

David passed his wrestling genes down to his son Michael, who also won four state titles. In 2002, David and Michael Martin became only the second father-son duo in history to win four state titles: Gary Wallman, a two-time All-America for Iowa State, and his three sons (including Wisconsin All-American, Cory) all won four state titles.

C.) The most didactic son is Wayne, third in line and 44 years old. He wrestled at Old Dominion and at Kempsville High School, where he won one state title. He is a career educator who revived Great Bridge’s wrestling program in the 80’s. He was the Athletic Director at Great Bridge High School before accepting a position as the Director of Athletics for the city of Chesapeake. His teams won five state titles, and for this accomplishment, this magazine (AWN) voted him High School Coach of the Year in 1991. Wayne’s star grappler was Jody Staylor, an NCAA runner-up for Old Dominion.

D.) And then there’s Steve Martin, the youngest son who has the most energy. The 37-year-old is an interesting guy: obsessed with wrestling, a father of four, a workhorse, and the new Pied Piper of Virginia prep wrestling, a title that he took over from his father and brother (Wayne). Steve was under the most pressure of any of the Martin boys coming out of high school, where he was a three-time state champion. He wrestled for Dan Gable at the University of Iowa, where he finished 7th at the 1989 NCAA meet. He stayed on for a year at Iowa as a graduate assistant before taking over the reigns from Wayne. Since 1992, Steve’s Great Bridge teams have won 11 state titles (in 12 years) and are ranked in the top-10 annually.

“My dad taught me how to slick ‘em; Gable taught me how to break ‘em,” Steve said. “My father never lets you know he taught you everything. There’s always something else to learn,” Steve continued.

Like his father and brother, Steve has had several wrestlers make the jump to college. Here’s a few who were able to make it out of Steve’s stable: Carl Perry (NCAA champion, Illinois), Michael Martin (Illinois), David Dashiell (UNC), Daniel Frishkorn (Oklahoma State), Christian Staylor (Arizona State) and Jon Sioredas (Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga by way of Missouri).

“Our main goal at Great Bridge is to be number one (in the U.S.) and to get our kids into college,” Steve said. In the past six years 27 Great Bridge Wildcats have gone on to wrestle in college. Steve’s 2003 squad finished with a final ranking of sixth by several national publications, including AWN.

A father of four (three girls one boy), Steve is always on the go. Whether he is in his Great Bridge wrestling room, on the road conducting wrestling camps or with his prep team, he’s always on the move. He has several impressive underclassmen of whom his father would be proud: Patrick Bond (Cadet national champion, freestyle runner-up) Jordan Frishkorn (Cadet All-American), Chris Brown (Cadet All-American) and Hunter Davenport.

The Martin brothers are still very much involved. Wrestling is a way of life for them. The Martin’s Granby School of Wrestling Camps attracts more than 1,500 kids annually--and has done so for 37 years.

“I am coaching more than ever now with my camps,” Billy Sr. said. It’s safe to say, none of the Martin boys will ever officially retire. Their legacy will be with us forever, just like “The Granby Roll.”