Former Penn State wrestler John Hanrahan has name called for Hall of Fame
For former Penn State wrestler John Hanrahan, being inducted into the Georgia Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame marks “kind of a full-circle moment.”
Hanrahan, who is a 1982 graduate, will officially be inducted into the hall as a Lifetime Service to Wrestling recipient on Saturday during a ceremony at Lanier Technical College’s Ramsey Conference Center in Gainesville, Georgia.
“I got word that I was under consideration at the end of last summer,” Hanrahan said recently. “I had to submit some information and then it got reviewed by the board. I got the word that I was in, and that was exciting.”
During his time at Penn State, Hanrahan was a two-time NCAA All-American and four-time qualifier, and was the first wrestler to eclipse 100 wins in their career. He was a two-time Eastern Wrestling League champion and four-time place winner.
After graduation, Hanrahan was a graduate assistant with the Nittany Lions for a year. He then moved to New York, where he pursued a career in personal training.
Hanrahan became the head coach of Fordham University, which no longer has a wrestling program, from 1990-1992 while in New York. But then his training business took off, which sent him to the West Coast.
Hanrahan moved to California, where he became the trainer for some well known actors and others in Hollywood, which included the likes of Patricia Heaton, Julia Roberts, Liam Neeson and Tim Burton. He’s also helped some other well-known figures like Howard Stern, John F. Kennedy Jr., Diane Sawyer and Cyndi Lauper.
Hanrahan, who grew up in Falls Church, Virginia, came back home to the East Coast in 2002 to become the head coach of American University (2002-2004) in Washington D.C. He then planted his roots down in Georgia in 2006.
Through all those moves though, he consistently stayed involved in wrestling. It’s been part of his life since second grade, and one thing has stuck with him since being in the sport: resilience to wrestle through life and its struggles.
“ I’ve had some tough struggles. I went through a phase where I had a near-death experience at age 25,” Hanrahan said. “The toughness of wrestling helped me to kind of fight through and regain my composure in life. Wrestling itself is a struggle. It hasn’t all been easy.”
Hanrahan has stayed competitive in the sport not only as a coach for Mill Springs Academy in Alpharetta, Georgia, since 2011, but as an athlete. He won the New York Athletic Club International Open, which is now known as the Bill Farrell Memorial, twice, and is a five-time USA Wrestling Masters National Champion.
In 2016, he won a United World Wrestling Veterans World Championship in Poland.
During his time coaching in Georgia, Hanrahan has coached three state champions and 38 placewinners. He has been named the Georgia Independent School Association Wrestling Coach of the Year six times. In 2017, he was the Team Georgia head coach versus the United States All Stars during the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic.
After gaining all of these accolades, Hanrahan will now get to see his name with the likes of Penn State coach Cael Sanderson, Nittany Lion Wrestling Club’s Kyle Snyder and Dan Hodge in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where the National Wrestling Hall of Fame is located.
“It’s really such an honor. It brings back great memories because our team under Rich Lorenzo went out for a special event called the Hall of Fame Classic. Penn State, Oklahoma State, Cal State Bakersfield and a couple other schools were in it,” Hanrahan reminisced. “We had like a gala weekend out there. I got to meet Dan Hodge and shake those famous hands. It just brings back those memories, and seeing that museum of all my heroes and everything.
“Just to know that I’ll be somewhere in there is quite an honor and something that I’m very proud of.”
