Two national publications are recognizing Colby Community College head wrestling Coach Steve Lampe as the inventor of a well-known wrestling move. Amateur Wrestling has an article in this month’s magazine detailing Lampe’s involvement. Wrestling USA has also indicated they will be publishing a similar article.
Lampe invented the Peterson Granby while wrestling for Iowa State University in 1969.
“Immediately after the 1969 NCAA Championships at Brigham Young University, I returned to Ames, Iowa, determined to figure out a way to secure a Granby cradle position without going over the shoulders in route as is with the original Granby Roll,” said Lampe. “Officials, then and now, many times award a two-point near fall as the wrestler who is doing the Granby roll proceeds through the maneuver.”
With the help of his partner Billy Nichols in about two one-hour sessions, Lampe came up with a great way to achieve the Granby cradle without rolling over the shoulders.
“In 1973 at the Junior World Freestyle Training Camp at Tuscaloosa, Ala., I showed the series to Lanny Bryant who documented the move and later featured it in a technique article in USA Wrestling. Lanny later sent me a letter saying, ‘I can’t tell you how many state championships we’ve won with your Granby.’”
After the 1976 Olympics, the move suddenly became know as “The Peterson.”
“Ben Peterson was my teammate–one class behind me–two classes behind Dan Gable,” said Lampe. “In a recent article, Peterson indicated that he was, ‘honored to have his family name on the move but in no way will claim to have invented it because he didn’t do so.’”
Peterson wrestled in the 1972-76 Olympics after his freestyle career (Olympic champion and Olympic silver). Lampe said Ben began working a lot of wrestling clinics and showed the “modified Granby” at these clinics and it soon became “The Peterson.” The move is also known as the “near leg Granby.
“This move is incredibly effective as it is almost always a four- or five-point move,” said Lampe. It is in every way as devastating to your opponent as the five-point takedown.. I really have nothing to do with nor do I have a qualm about the name ‘The Peterson’,” said Lampe. “I just feel after 37 years and as I’m nearing the end of a very long coaching career, that it be known that I am the real inventor of ‘The Peterson Granby.’
