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Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1977
- Class:
- 1950
John Graham Michael '50
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Sport: Wrestling
Year Inducted: 1977
Other Sports Played: Soccer
John Graham Michael ’50 won the New England Varsity wrestling championships at 136 pounds while still a freshman and went on to post a 28-5 record during his four varsity seasons. A star grappler and captain from The Hill School, Pottstown, Ps., Gray Michael came to Brown in 1946 when wrestling was revived as a varsity sport, with Ralph Anderton ’30 as coach. After losing only one bout that first year, Michael was 8-0 as a sophomore, a season in which he won key bouts against Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth, and 9-1 as a junior. As a climax to that 1948-49 season, Michael captured the New England AAU championships at 136 pounds. Captain of the team in his senior season, Gray Michael was 7-3 and then advanced to the quarter-finals of the New Englands. His coach termed him the “complete wrestler, a boy who combined a thorough knowledge of all the moves and holds with a mental and physical quickness on the mat.” Gray was also a three-year letterman in soccer, a center forward who had more than his share of key goals for Coach Joe Kennaway. No goal was more important, however, than the one he scored against UConn in 1949. This score gave Brown a 3-2 victory, snapped the Huskies’ 16-game, two year undefeated streak, and helped the Bruins win the New England title. A teammate on both the wrestling and soccer teams was Gray’s brother, the late Dave Michael, who was inducted into the Brown Hall of Fame a year ago as a wrestler. Gray Michael is owner and president of Brown Wholesale Co., Philadelphia.
