Cools stuff
I'd like to see this for all time but I checked Danny Hodge:
1957 - 4 matches (no bye): 173 seconds - 3 falls; 2:45, 1:05, 4:23 + 9:00 full match
1958 - 4 matches (and one bye): 118 seconds - 4 falls; 1:15, 4:05, 4:35, 1:37
1959 - 5 matches: 192 seconds - 4 falls; 5:50, 0:50, 0:28, 7:31, 4:24 + 9:00 full match
His longest match in '58 was 4:35 so if you add that to his total for that year it's still only 129 seconds
If you use the average time it's only it's only 136 seconds
Use the 5:50 first round from '59 and it's 164
Hodges averages were:
1955 - 258 seconds across four matches
1956 - 173 seconds across four matches
1957 - 283 seconds across five matches
He still falls short of Taylor. The 1955 and 1956 totals are slightly inflated due to each having a decision which lasted 9 minutes. But even if you replace them with 7 minutes (assuming he would have gotten the decision at that point) they are still higher than Taylor's 2012 number.
The other one to look at is Earl McCready. This one is tough for a few reasons. First, teams couldn't afford the travel so not many came. Not all the best were there. Second, the result is the tournaments were tiny. In 1928 McCready only had two matches. And in 1929 and 1930 he only had three.
(Heck, there is an OSU wrestler in 1929 who finished 0-2 WHICH WAS GOOD FOR THIRD because there were only three wrestlers in the bracket. I won the same number of matches, but he is an All-American.)
That said McCready was the man. His averages look like:
1928 - 77 seconds across two matches
1929 - 216 seconds across 3 matches
1930 - 126 seconds across three matches
wrestling.guru
