SPORTS HALL of FAME COACH
Tom Robertson

This Windsor High graduate, class of 1952, was an all around athlete who won 14 scholastic letters in four different sports. It was wrestling that seemed an afterthought ("I was told that all wrestlers won letters so that sounded pretty good", he once said.) at Windsor, but it was wrestling that helped Sidney become one of New York States most powerful programs.

Tom has quite a senior year athletically. He was Windsor's first-ever Section IV wrestling champion, set the Susquenango League record in the low hurdles, batted .333 as the team's shortstop and rushed for 1200 to start the year with the football team

It was no surprise when he chose wrestling for his athletic career at Colgate University. A record of 25-2-2 was earned and he served as Captain of the team in the 1955-56 season. Tom also won the annual Adirondack AAU title in 1954 and after graduating in 1956, won the New York State YMCA Tournament in 1957.

Finding his way to Deposit Central School, Tom began coaching wrestling, football and track. Shortly offer, he and Jane came to Sidney, where he began an incredible run of wrestling success.

Other sports (football, track and baseball) took his coaching talents to task, including the last Susquenango Football Division championship (1971) Sidney would ever win. It was not until this past fall that the Warriors would taste another title, in the tough Division V of the Section IV Football Conference.

In Tom's 38-year tenure of being in charge of the wrestling team, mostly at Sidney, he amassed 349 victories. In six of those seasons, his teams went unbeaten. And it should be noted that many dual meets outside of the Susquenango League were challenging - counting Vestal and U-E locally and Long Island powers Brentwood and Lindenhurst.

Sidney won 35 tournament title, claimed 80 individual Sus League and 60 Section IV championships, and crowned nine NYS champions. Remember, this was during the time that all wrestlers competed together regardless of school size. In two of these magical seasons, Warrior wrestlers performed well enough collectively that Sidney won TWO State team titles!

But as everyone knew it was not magical at all, though Tom always underplayed his role in the success of the Sidney matmen.

Coach Robertson devoted a large portion of his life to wrestling, so the demand for discipline in the wrestling room was not unfair - if you wanted to be a champion you had to practice like one.

The amount of caring he put in was paid back in astronomic proportions. Many wrestlers continued on at the collegiate level, from large schools such as Oklahoma State and the three military academies, to smaller schools like Delhi and Alfred State. Three individuals placed in the National Junior Championships: Mark Payne (1967 - Champion), Randy Payne (1969 - 3rd place) and Mike Ruff (1976 - 6th place) following their high school careers.

A number of former wrestlers turned to coaching in hopes of keeping the sport alive. Tom is no doubt most proud of his son, Rob, who has taken over the Sidney program. Together, they celebrated the 10th State Champion in school history in 2002, Anthony Chamorro.

With such dedication and success come numerous honors. The list is so long these represent just some of them: Two-time National High School Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year; NYS Coach of the Year in 1967; NYS Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 1985; Section IV Hall of Fame in 1995, and on June 22, 1997, Tom was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, a most prestigious honor indeed.

A career junior high social studies teacher Tom maintained a similar disciplined teaching style for his students with the daily "Read, outline and prepare for a quiz" mantra. To this day, students remember more things about New York State from his class, and can recall the unique way he drew the shape of the Empire State on the chalkboard instead of using a real map.

In 1967, Tom co-authored a book on wrestling with pictures featuring several of his top wrestlers as demonstrators. Two years later, he opened Golden Valley Sports Camp, a 500-acre facility that provided a solid summer camp experience in a variety of sports for young boys.

All that is left to mention about Tom Robertson would be his two favorite words beginning with "F" - Fishing and Family. Perhaps it's better if we let him tell you the rest of the story....