Larry Callair ’61
Career Record: 29-5, D11 Champ, Regional Champ, Medalist
Tournament Championships: Boiling Springs Champ
College: South Carolina State (football)
1961 – Unlimited: District Champ, Regional Champ, State Semifinals (21-1)
1960 – 185 lbs.: Lost wrestle-off to D11 runner-up Rosie Amato (8-4)
Larry Callair was a star defensive lineman for the Red Rovers who put together one of Easton’s best heavyweight seasons ever as a senior.
As a junior, Callair started the season in the lineup, taking fourth at the Boiling Springs Holiday Tournament to open the season. He posted four straight falls as the dual meet season started, and six of his eight victories came via the pin. However, he was eliminated out of the lineup by fellow football star Rosie Amato, who was the eventual District 11 runner-up.
Callair returned as a senior to be the man at heavyweight. He won the Boiling Springs Holiday Tournament with pins in the semis and finals, with the finals pin providing the bonus points to give Easton the team title, 61 to 59 winners over Bellefonte. He used that momentum to run through the regular season undefeated, capped by a 40 second fall in the final dual of the season to ice a 12-1 dual season. In the D11 tournament, Callair won by fall in the first minute of his quarterfinal, then hammered Ron Van Buskirk (William Allen) in semis. In the finals, he took down Bill Allen (Nazareth) four times in a 9-4 win that three champions and a second place finish in the team race. At Regionals, Calliar pinned Fred Buss (Wilkes-Barre GAR) in the first period of their semifinal, then knocked off returning regional champ and state qualifier Dan Fetterman (Southern Columbia), 5-1 for a berth in the state tournament. He was the first Easton heavyweight to win a Northeast Regional title, a feat only matched by Dan Kasperkoski (1979), Joey Jones (1993), and Jason Groller (2003 and 2004). At the state tournament, Callair drew future NCAA champ and AFL rushing leader and MVP “Big Jim” Nance (Indiana) in the semifinals. Nance necessitated the change to the Pennsylvania weight classes from a maximum of 185 to an unlimited cap when the state wanted the gargantuan Nance to be eligible to wrestle. Nance was the returning state champion from the first year of the unlimited class after being too heavy to wrestle in 1959. Callair fell to Nance 9-2 in the semifinals to end his season.
Callair followed former Easton teammate Bill Houston to South Carolina State, where he was an All SWAC defensive lineman for the HBCU powerhouse. He stayed in South Carolina, where he was a long-time high school teacher and football coach.
History of Easton Wrestling 