Former UND professor Frank White part of group publishing book on North Dakota wrestling

Apr. 24—GRAND FORKS — As a senior in high school in 1974, Frank White went undefeated on his way to a North Dakota Class B state championship in wrestling for Walhalla High School.

He later spent 34 years as a sociology professor at UND. One of his popular courses was Sociology of Sport.

Those two passions have met for his latest project. White, along with Kim Knodel and Rod Volk, are publishing a book "North Dakota Mat Legends" which covers human interest stories and the history of North Dakota Class B wrestling.

White, who's a Mayville State alum along with both of his co-authors, said the hope is to publish three books, with the next two covering Class A wrestling in North Dakota and the newly formed girls division.

All profits from the books will be used to support youth wrestling around North Dakota with camps and scholarships.

"I've often thought about (this book) because I wrestled in high school, and I thought about writing a comprehensive book on the history of Class B wrestling," White said. "I thought with my networking I could do it, but it was always on the back burner because of teaching, speaking and everything else I was doing.

"During one of my classes at UND, we talked about culture, leadership and program building. What I noticed is that was one of the most popular units. Like we see football is kind of religion in Texas, basketball in Kentucky and Tobacco Road ... well, North Dakota, Class B, I wouldn't say it's a religion, but it's a pretty close-knit family."

White and his partners spent the last year traveling the state and collecting stories — from wrestlers, coaches, statisticians, cheerleaders and more.

"I wanted to do the human interest side," White said. "I didn't want to write just another sports book on statistics. I want to do the culture, which is my strength. I want to do human interest stories, so it's not just ex-wrestlers that would read it but maybe parents, younger wrestlers. I want to include inspiring stories that people would pick it up and read through several stories."

White, who had a background in publishing writings in academic journals, said there was a lot to learn on the fly as the group learned the ins and outs of publishing a book.

"I've given two years of my retirement to this project, as (Knodel and Volk) have as well," White said. "But it's a labor of love. It's been exciting. It's been fun to reconnect with these guys. We had to learn about writing in the type of journal. We wrestled back and forth about it. In the end, we came up with a format that we're very pleased with, and it's very, very eclectic. It's not one format but a lot of different styles. It'll be an easy read and the subjects change quite a bit."

Books can be purchased online at ndmatlegends.com.