By John Klein
Tulsa World
Cleveland has a Billy Vessels statue, a hometown monument to Oklahoma’s first Heisman Trophy winner.
When you get off the turnpike in Miami you drive onto Steve Owens Boulevard, a tribute to its hometown Heisman winner and NFL star.
Danny Hodge, who was inducted as a Distinguished Member into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as part of the Charter Class in 1976 and is considered by many to be the greatest collegiate wrestler in history, will be honored with a statue in his hometown of Perry this week.
Hodge is the only American athlete to be a national champion in two sports at the same time (wrestling and boxing) and the only wrestler ever featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
A statue of Hodge will be unveiled at 10 a.m. Saturday, the day after his 84th birthday, in the new Perry Wrestling Monument Park.
“I’ve wrestled in Tulsa and all over the world,” said Hodge. “I was always happy to come back home.”
The celebration will be attended by many Oklahoma wrestling stars including Oklahoma State coach John Smith, who was inducted as a Distinguished Member in 1997, Oklahoma coach Mark Cody and dozens of former wrestling champions from around the state.
Perryans hope to complete wrestling monuments in a park on the town square for the Cherokee Strip Celebration in September. A statue of Jack VanBebber, who won Oklahoma’s first gold medal in wrestling in 1932 and was also inducted as a Distinguished Member in 1976, is scheduled to be unveiled in the park in September.
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