Photo courtesy of Joe Baranik
By John Hartsock
It was probably fate that Joe Baranik made wrestling his life’s passion.
Baranik, who won the District 6 Class 3A wrestling championship as a 1978 senior at Altoona Area High School, grew up in a large family with four other brothers who also competed in wrestling competitions.
“People in my family always said I had wrestling on my mind, but that was a good sign,” said Baranik, who said with a chuckle that he was enrolled in a fifth-grader basketball class as a youngster but was immediately relegated to his school’s elementary school wrestling class after tackling a basketball player during a game.
“I love the sport of wrestling – it’s my passion,” added Baranik, 64, who has coached the sport for the past 42 years – including seven years as head coach at Hollidaysburg Area High School in the late 1990s. “I’ve been involved in other sports, but what I’ve always liked about wrestling is that you control your own destiny.”
Baranik’s fate has earned him a special place in the sport. He was recently informed by officials at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma, that he will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the development of the sport and will be inducted into the Hall’s Pennsylvania Division for high school and college wrestling.
Baranik, who is also a middle school science teacher and recently accepted a position as head wrestling coach at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, Virginia, will receive Hall’s Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony to be held on April 25, 2025, at the Hershey Convention Center.
He will be one of six Pennsylvania residents to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in various categories. Baranik was nominated by a committee of individuals from across the state of Pennsylvania who have a connection to the sport of wrestling and sent relevant information about Baranik to the Hall of Fame headquarters three years ago.
“I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m honored,” Baranik said of his recognition. “There are certainly many other deserving people besides me who were never nominated for induction. I was surprised when I was notified this year.”
“I was nominated three years ago and when I wasn’t accepted for a couple of years, I thought I wouldn’t make it, that I would be passed over,” Baranik said. “Then suddenly this year I got a call.”
Baranik’s credentials certainly make the recognition a well-deserved one. He has held several coaching stints over the past four decades, including building the NCAA Division II wrestling program at St. Andrews University of Laurinburg, NC, from the ground up and leading that program for 13 seasons.
He also spent three years as an assistant coach under the legendary Gray Simons at Division I Old Dominion University in Virginia. Baranik will join his former coach at Altoona Area High School, the late Marty Rusnak, in the Pennsylvania Division of the National Hall of Fame, located near Oklahoma State University.
“There will be plaques there now with my name and Marty’s name,” said Baranik, who also wrestled at the collegiate level in the NCAA Division I at Lock Haven State University. “That’s pretty nice.”
Baranik also founded Pennsylvania Wrestling Magazine, which has been published for three decades and has subscribers in 23 states. The publication began as a humble newsletter but has since grown into a major glossy magazine that features monthly reports from every high school district in the state of Pennsylvania, as well as news about various college programs.
“I started the magazine to promote the sport and educate people about the history of the sport,” said Baranik, who pointed out that several U.S. presidents and other celebrities competed in wrestling as young athletes. “When I started the magazine, I thought we would get a few subscribers from out of state, but now we have them from Maine, Florida … all over.”
One of the state’s other ambassadors for the sport, Lock Haven resident Tom Elling, has known Baranik for nearly five decades and has witnessed his impact on the sport firsthand. Elling, a former head wrestling coach at the old Lock Haven High School and former longtime director of the Northwest Class 3A Regional Wrestling Tournament held annually at Altoona High School, also received the Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
“I got to know Joe when he wrestled for Lock Haven State University,” said Elling, who now edits the Pennsylvania Wrestling Handbook – an exemplary encyclopedic source on the sport in that state. “Joe was nominated and selected for his lifelong commitment to wrestling, and Joe was a leader in wrestling throughout his career as a competitor, coach and contributor.”
Baranik and his wife Roberta are parents of a grown son and daughter and became grandparents for the first time last year.
“Fortunately, I have a wife who also loves the sport and that helps,” said Baranik, who pointed out that his wife has supported him throughout his many career moves.
“But she said we are now taking a step back and this will be our last step,” he added with a chuckle.
