A last hurrah for longtime Drexel wrestling coach Childs at NCAA championships

It would have been a storybook ending, the wrestling legend saying goodbye to the sport he loved in the town where he's coached for more than half his life.

But Drexel's Jack Childs, the winningest active Division I coach in the country with 421 victories, would need a wrestler in the NCAA Tournament this morning in order to coach in Philadelphia one last time.

Drexel's best shot at an NCAA finals entry, 165-pound sophomore Joe Booth, finished a disappointing fourth at the Colonial Athletic Conference Championships at Rider University last month, though, and it appeared the Hall of Fame coach's career would end amid a standing ovation inside the Lawrenceville, N.J., school's gymnasium.

But the math worked out for Booth and he received an at-large bid into a pigtail match that will take him into the main 165-pound bracket if he wins. The Long Island native will wrestle the first match of the tournament this morning with the legend in his corner.

"I'll be honest, I'm probably more well known outside of Philly than in it, but yes, I'm excited,'' Childs, 66, said yesterday at the Wells Fargo Center. "I just wanted to be able to coach one more day."

Most of the wrestlers and coaches drilling and chatting on the sea of mats yesterday knew Childs and went out of their way to shake his hand.

"He's the mayor of college wrestling," said Booth, 21.

Booth, 23-9 this year for the Dragons, said he was just as excited to get his coach on the mats as he was to compete.

"This is the guy who gave me the opportunity to continue my career in wrestling," Booth said. "Now I can do the same for him, hopefully for a couple of matches."

Childs, a native of northeastern Pennsylvania, has been coaching for approximately 44 years, enamored with the sport's focus on individual performance as a vehicle toward a team's success. This is his 35th season as Drexel's coach.

"I do it because I really love the sport," he said. "It's all about one-on-one."

Mike Moyer, a former wrestler at West Chester and the current executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, said Childs could possibly be the longest-tenured collegiate coach in the country.

"Anybody that puts in that much time, that much dedication to the sport, is special in my eyes," Moyer said.

Childs' name might not be known among most sports fans in Philly, but there's a fundraising effort under way at Drexel to name the school's locker room after him.

"He's a walking legend," said Drexel athletic director Eric Zillmer.

It would be impressive for Booth to advance into tomorrow's matches, and a real shocker if he went deeper. If and when Booth's second loss comes, and his year is over, no one would be shocked if the NCAA and close to 20,000 cheering fans acknowledged Childs at home as he walked off the mat for the last time.

"Jack Childs is Drexel wrestling," said Lehigh coach Pat Santoro. "He's dedicated his life to the sport."