Hudson Taylor is a wrestling magician Washington Post (blog)
Before I met Hudson Taylor for the first time, I briefly chatted with the legendary Wade Schalles about one of his pupils. Schalles -- once dubbed "Plastic Man" and "the most exciting" wrestler in the world by Sports Illustrated -- still holds the record for most pins in a collegiate career, and is the namesake for the Schalles Award, given to the nation's top pinner. And he assured me that, even in the quirky wrestling landscape, Taylor stands out.
"When you interview him," Schalles promised, "you'll know you're in the presence of a different type of athlete."
Thirty minutes later, I had learned that Taylor is a gay-rights activist and political canvasser, a former theater student who created his own interactive performance arts major at Maryland, a devoted magician who spends two hours every day with a deck of cards in his hands, and a performer who once instructed teammates to blindfold him, secure him with ropes and watch him escape from bondage, and then edited Gloria Steinem quotes and music over the resulting video footage.
He also happens to be a two-time All-American wrestler who boasts the most wins in Maryland history, the most pins in Maryland history, who's leading Division I in pins this season and who is tied for the most wins in the country.
So yeah, this isn't exactly a "take-it-one-game-at-a-time" story.
Politics
If you ask teammates what makes Taylor unique, they might start with his politics. In the world of Division I male athletics, where a certain sort of language dominates, Taylor refuses to use homophobic slurs or abusive slang, saying "if we want to live a good life, how you think about things and how you talk about things is important." He donates to the Human Rights Campaign every month, engages teammates in debates on social issues, volunteered with the Obama campaign in Virginia, and caused a brief stir in the wrestling room by skipping practice to attend the inauguration last fall. His teammates and coaches weren't amused, but Taylor said he made the correct choice.
