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The following card. Is set for one flaw. It produces a purse from Lithuania. He weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kola.
Now, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Welcome back, part two with world champion gold medalist Mike Houck. And I just want to thank you for tuning in. Hopefully, you enjoyed part one and it brought you back to part two.
Or if you missed part two, make sure you go back and listen to part one. And so, Mike, let's just roll right into on part two here. We have, so we're at junior college, we're at Golden Valley Lutheran College. I go on to play football up at Moorhead State University, as I mentioned, get reunited with some of our Robbinsdale classmates up there at Moorhead State. And just continue.
You know, I had stellar years at Golden Valley in terms of wins and losses. And the same is true with Moorhead State University up there. You know, play with some incredible athletes up there and nationally ranked teams. In fact, the four years I was able to play, We didn't really dive into it, but I'm sure you remember. I think you told me we were reminiscing about that freshman year where I fractured my leg and you had mentioned and said, You actually, did you tell me you actually heard it?
Like you heard the break? Yeah, I heard the snap. I heard the snap. I was in really in close proximity to where it happened. I heard the snap.
I saw you go down. I ran right over, and it's like, you know, when you see a person's body not put together the way it's supposed to be put together, it's freakish. And that's what it looked like. You know, you had this bone that wasn't straight anymore. It was very crooked because both of them were clean break, didn't penetrate the skin, but it was, it was, it was protruding like with the skin over it.
You know, it was awful. It was awful. Yeah. And I had never, I didn't realize that you had actually witnessed that firsthand. And so the good news is I came back and you may or may not know this.
It was actually our former high school coach, Dwayne Strait, who actually became my motivation for coming back. Did you know that? No.
So I'm at Robinsville High School that following spring, and I run into Coach Strait. And Mike, he says this to me. He goes, Yeah, I heard about, and I was still in a cast at the time. I mean, I was in a cast that long, like over four months in a cast back in the day. And he goes, I heard, I'll never forget it.
He goes, I heard about your injury. Too bad. You know, nobody ever comes back from an injury like that. Like, that's the quote. Like, that's what he said to me.
And I remember thinking, Mike, to myself, you know, I didn't say it to him, but I thought, really? I go, well, buddy, I'm going to prove to you and the whole world I could come back from this thing, right? And don't tell me what I can't do. Don't tell me what I can't do. That's exactly right.
And so I do. I rehabilitate.
Now, I tried to play the following fall, but it just wasn't going to happen. It was just too soon.
So I redshirted. And really, all of you guys, the team had actually voted me, even though I couldn't play that year, voted me captain, captain of the team. And I don't know if you remember that or not. I do, Nikita, but that speaks to your leadership. You know, because my recollection is you were still around all the time on crutches and the cast, and you were, you were, that's it's because of who you are as a person.
Yeah, no, I was like, because the minute I could get back out to the playing field, you know, even the practice field, you know, I was going to be there every single day. And in fact, you know, that championship game against Normandale, it's kind of ironic. I was on the sidelines on crutches, and Kurt Henning, who would later go on to be Mr. Perfect Kurt Henning, was on the sidelines for the state championship game for Normandale that year. And so I really rehabilitate, I redshift the next year.
I play a third year at Golden Valley under a new coach and a new coaching staff. And again, you know, we're in the top 10 and nationwide and had a stellar team. And then four years, the four years I played, all four teams and two of those, my freshman year, my senior year, were number one in the nation for our divisions, right?
So I had a pretty, pretty awesome. Awesome, you know, football memories of my college career. What I didn't know, Mike, is I guess I kind of really, when I went on to Moorhead and you went in your direction, we kind of lost touch with each other.
So, at what point, because I want to shift gears and talk about your, so what point did you get into amateur?
Now, you've been wrestling for how long, all the way back into junior high, or how long? When did you start wrestling? No, I started in fifth grade.
So, I started playing football and I started wrestling in fifth grade. Randy Hansen was our fifth grade coach, and Randy is. Bill Burke was to you, Randy Hanson is to me. And we're lifelong friends to this day. And Randy kind of followed the kids up from grade school all the way through high school.
He was assistant coach in high school, ended up second in the state of junior year. But, but yeah, so I've been wrestling since I was 10.
So I, yeah, I had a long history of it. Um Yeah. And I didn't even realize I guess I should have that Golden Valley, the Golden Valley Lutheran had a had a did you wrestle for Golden Valley or just play football for them? I did not.
So I ended up, I, you know, and this is part of my story. You know, I was. I was a terrible student. I could barely read when we graduated from high school. I got by on my charm and my good nature.
You know, people liked me, teachers liked me, you know, a broad range of students liked me. I was a pretty popular guy in high school, and I excelled at sport, I excelled at music, I kind of was high profile. I don't remember me singing at PepFests and at talent shows and things like that. But I just, I just, I just, I, that part of high school to me was just incredible, but I was a terrible student. And so when I went to Golden Valley Lutheran, I ended up having a great football season, but I don't know that I even attended a class.
I mean, that's my shame, right? But but I but I came to faith in June of that year. And I came to faith after I think a pretty traumatic I made some bad choices. I was a good kid. I lived clean.
I made good choices. Stayed out of trouble. But I got to the place after wrestling season, my senior year, when I didn't hit the goals and dreams that I'd hoped for. You know, I was going to be a two-time state high school wrestling champion. And the truth was, is I went three times to the Minnesota State High School tournament.
And I had seven matches, and I won zero of those matches. I was 0-7. And so, you know, I was voted spring sports king and I was voted best athlete our senior year. And so how our classmates saw me and how I saw myself were just complete opposites. And I realized that, you know, towards the end of our senior year, I realized that whatever I thought wrestling and football and whatever my goals and aspirations were, whatever I thought that was going to give me, it wasn't what I really needed.
And I really, I questioned life. I questioned like, what's the purpose in life? What's it all about? And I kind of went to the dark side because everything I'd been living for had come to an end. And I'm like, what am I going to do?
And I made some really, really bad choices. And I, you know, without going into detail, I was at a really bad place. And I ended up, well, I'll just say it. I mean, I'm not, I mean, it's, I'm ashamed of it, but it's my life, right? I experimented with drugs and was given a psychotic drug called Angel Dust and had an otherworldly experience that was horrifying.
Ended up in a psych ward for two weeks of a hospital. And the result was, the end result was, it's just this. This awful delusion about life, and nothing was the same after that. Like the power and the destructiveness, the evilness of those psychotic drugs is just. Nasty.
And I was at the brink in the hospital. When I was in the hospital, and this would have been just after we graduated, before we played football at Golden Valley Lutheran, I remember, you know, they wanted to put me on more drugs. I'm like, no, drugs aren't the answer. But I remember coming to the conclusion that no man can help me. And it was at that point in time I remembered a guy that I had met We both worked at the Ambassador Motor Hotel.
I was washing dishes, and there was a guy that was a few years older than us who was a Christian. He was a Jesus guy. And we became friends, and he shared the gospel with me, and just very, very point blank. And I wasn't ready. I thought I was a good guy, and I couldn't see my need of sin, right?
But then I end up in the hospital after these bad choices, and there's this emptiness inside of me. And I'm like, I call this guy. I'm thinking, there's only one hope. And he comes and shares the gospel with me again, and I came to faith. And then it was a long journey back coming out of some of the garbage.
You know, you get into the weeds with some of the stuff, the repercussions of some of the bad choices we make. But God started rebuilding my mind and my spirit and my heart. And it was incredible. And so then by the end of that summer, I'm thinking, okay, you know. I'm going to go play football and try to give college, you know, a shot.
And football was really good for me. You know, I I would read you know, I would read the Bible on a long bus trips continuously. I had this incredible thirst for the Bible. I was really I was I was I was being transformed in my spirit and my heart, but my academics were terrible.
So I end up going out of school. And then, you know, I was like, okay, I'm done with sports. It's not for me. I'm going to this church. I'm learning.
I'm growing. And I'm like, Lord, I think I want to go to Bible studies, Bible college.
So I start praying, you know, and I give my life to the Lord. I'm like, okay, thank you, God. I'm healing. What's next in my life? What do you want from my life?
And this would have been probably November, December of 1977, right? Just after football season. And I just get, I'm praying this prayer. I'm having like a come to Jesus prayer meeting, quiet solitude. And I'm like, Lord, what do you want from my life?
And overwhelmingly, like immediately, it's like pursuing an Olympic gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. And I'm like, that's just weird. And it's even weird to say it. You know, how can that be something God wants us to do? But within days, Mike Pirro, who's the high school wrestling coach, introduces me to the Minnesota Wrestling Club.
And I get excited about it, right? Because this is, I'd given all that stuff up, and God's giving me back something that I love, right? And the difference, you know, Nikita, because I know we don't have a lot of time, but I think about my life before and how driven and motivated, like I was a great athlete. I was disciplined, but my purpose and reason in it was for personal glory, was for, you know, for me, it was like I love the admiration of others. I love the idea of achievement, you know, and I think that's our American culture.
And in and of themselves, like those things aren't bad, right? Like we can enjoy those things, but that's all I had, you know.
Now, all of a sudden, God gives me back something that I loved and puts me on this quest to do something at the highest level of the sport, which seems absurd because in my mind, I was a failed high school athlete, right? I was 0-7 at the, you know, but God puts me on this quest and I'm convinced God's going to give me a little bit of. Cole metal. And within days, I end up at the University of Minnesota, stepping into the room of the Minnesota Wrestling Club, and six. Of the 10 Olympians, this was 1977, December of 77, six of the Olympians from the 1976 Olympics were in that room.
Six of the 10 weight class Olympians were in that room. And I was sandwiched between the two very, very best America had. One guy's name was Dan Chandler at 180 pounds. The other guy's name, I don't know if you know this guy or not. 220 Brad Ryans.
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In fact, it's Iraq, you know, he went on to be a pro wrestler. I literally look as you say that because I was going to ask, I'm like, you had to have known Brad Reggins because, you know, two gold medals in the Pan Am Games and World Championship.
So keep going. Keep going. Up man. This is a good thing. Yep.
So I knew all these guys because they did, they were the best Greco-Roman wrestling club in the United States.
So for people that don't know, there's two Olympic styles of wrestling. There's freestyle, there's Greco, which are both different from American style, right? But freestyle is a leg attack sport. Greco-Roman wrestling is all upper body. And so the fundamentals of the sport are completely different.
Freestyle or folk style, our American style wrestling is a leg attack sport.
So we've had a lot of success over the years in freestyle in the Olympics. We compete with the best in the world and we beat them. Greco-Roman wrestling, completely foreign. We're clueless, right? Eastern Europeans dominated it.
The Soviet Union was king. When you look at the stats and the medals, well, I'll give you the stats, right?
So from 1952 to 1991, which was the Cold War era when the Soviet Union competed, right, in the sport of Greco-Roman wrestling. They had, and this is just gold medals. The Soviets won 166. World and Olympic gold medals. That was their total between 1952 and 1991 when they disbanded.
The USA. In greco and resting, we had three. Two of those came in 1984 when the Eastern Bloc boycotted. Right. My World Championship in 1985, and now I'm getting ahead of it.
Getting ahead of it was a full-fledged world championships, and the focus was on it. Focus was on all the sports. in 1985 World Championships. that because we outperformed everybody, the US did. And like in 1980, the Soviets outperformed everybody when we didn't show up, right?
So the wrestling or the sporting world's looking at all those sports and they're comparing, right?
So UPI followed it. And it's cool to go back and to look at the things.
So anyway, so then so then I ended up, you know, ironically or story wise, I ended up wrestling the Soviet in the finals and beat them. In eighty-five, in eighty nineteen eighty-five. 1985, the year right after the Olympics. And so we won two medals in 85, which again was really a stretch. My gold was the first and turns out the only in the Cold War era.
We've won a few more since then. But Jim Martinez, who was from OSIO, who was our grade, our age, he was a bronze medalist in 84. He repeated his bronze medal in 85.
So I entered the sport of recovery wrestling in this country as a result of the Minnesota Wrestling Club and the gains that they had made. And there were some other factors involved at kind of the peak time. We broke the barriers in the mid-1980s. My understanding is that's about the time when Nikita and Ivan stepped into the scene because that was the height of the Cold War. There was so much going on.
And then the Berlin Wall comes down in 89, 91, and then everything falls apart. 91, the Soviet Union, they disband. And then the Cold War. Over. It was just spectacular.
But the tensions, and this was like, people don't, I talk about the Cold War and the Soviets, and like, who are the Soviets?
Well, the Russians, kind of, but bigger, you know? Right. But it was an incredible era.
So you and I, like, our parallel journeys, like, it's just interesting to me because I've been reading your book and it's really cool, you know? Yeah. And, but, but, but when. when when when Nikita came into existence with Ivan, right, that it was it was all the same kinds of world politics and and and and world like 'cause 'cause we you know, There was a lot of patriotism in the 80s, as I recall. Oh, there was big time.
Yeah, Mike, it was not hard to get people chant USA in any arena that Ivan and I stepped into. I mean, not hard at all, man. A lot of patriotism, yes. For real. And then the irony, Mike, so the irony to me is: so you go on to beat a Russian in the 1985 World Games for that gold medal.
And I'm like, in 85, I'm wrestling for the World Heavyweight title against Rick Flair, the man in that day for the World Heavyweight title. And once again, the American beats the Russian.
So Flair, the American, beats the Russian. Mike, how the American beats the Russian in the World Games in 1985. You're wrestling a real Russian. I'm pretending to be a Russian. How ironic is that, right?
That's crazy. And it was a reflection of the time. It was so.
So, you know, okay, this is just a sidetrack, but I remember picking up a wrestling magazine sometime in the mid-80s. And you were on the cover of it, or you were featured in one of the articles. And it was so funny 'cause I'm reading. I'm going on and on. And I'm just, I didn't know I didn't know how to process it.
I didn't know what to think. Wait, I know this guy. Wait, what? But but I know I you know, you know, you know, Brad ended up becoming the trainer of a lot of pro wrestlers. Yes.
And he was a pro wrestler himself. And I love Brad. Brad, Brad and Dan, those the two Two guys I mentioned, they uh I stepped in that room just raw, not knowing anything, but really, really scrappy. And they beat me up every day, and then they taught me, and then they beat me up, and then they taught me. And I just started incrementally, you know, like I got to redefine success for myself because I'm just getting pounded on every day.
So, you know, first it's like I can go 30 seconds without getting scored on, and then a minute, and then a minute and a half, and then, oh, I almost scored on Dan. And then it's like, I never almost scored on Brad. Brad was a beast. But, but those guys, I owe so much to them. You know, they were just fantastic.
But I knew enough pro wrestlers. And then, like, okay, and I've said this: Robbinsdale, Minnesota, I think, should something official should happen because, in my mind, I think we are the pro wrestling capital of the world. Yeah, I mean, by far, people ask me all that. How many, like the closest thing to it is West Texas State University, where guys came in from all over the place. But for one city, one town, one high school, some days somebody's gonna do a movie, somebody needs to do a movie one day.
You know, I'm saying you need to do a movie, all but they're and they're all homegrown. That's the thing.
Well, I'll say this too, because that was really old school. Because even with so Robbinsdale Wrestling, I don't know if you knew this or not, but they had more state champions than any other high school in the state of Minnesota, right? That lasted up and into the mid to late 90s. Maybe even a little bit longer. And they've been closed since 1983.
Apple Valley was a phenomenal nationally. Ranked program, but they would have people come in all over the country, right? These blue-chip athletes.
So they weren't developing guys in their hometown. It was rare to see, you know, and they were a who's who of wrestlers, right? And it became this manufacturing machine. But you compare that to Robbinsdale, every guy was homegrown, and it was like this scrappy. Blue-collar, tough, old-school, you know, musclehead, hard-nosed, you know, group of guys.
You know, they were the fighters. They were the battlers. Unbelievable. And here's a little side story, too, just quick side story. Pete Grigelco.
I know you know that name. I do. I knew Pete. You know, he's the PE teacher in high school. He wanted me to go out for wrestling, right?
And I would watch you guys, and I'm like, man, I don't want to, uh-uh, here's the irony. Here's God's sense of humor. I'm like, oh, let me be grabbing some other sweaty guy and his little leotard thing, you know? No, give me a helmet and shoulder pads. Let me lock somebody's.
Because my vision, my dream was pro football, right? And God's sense of humor. Mike, what do I end up doing for a living? Grabbing sweaty guys, not for a small family audience in a gym with a few cheerleaders for a worldwide audience. And my daughters call it a onesie, my single.
It's right, they call it a onesie, but uh, so how's the irony behind that?
Well, before we run out of time, and and uh, you know, you said before we came on air, we could probably do 10 shows, and you're right. Uh, I'm gonna have to have you back, and and we're gonna talk some more, um, especially about your faith journey and your beautiful bride, Bonnie, right? Your beautiful bride, yeah. And uh, and and but Mike, touch on just real quick, uh, touch on, uh, I know the Olympics, right?
So you won the World Games in 85, but you went out for the Olympics, right, a couple times, right? I was an alternate on three Olympic teams, and this is this is part of my faith journey. And, you know, I actually just have a book I'm signing with the publisher in the next few days and moving forward to get it published. And it really, it's called Beyond the Breaking Point. And it's, it's really my faith journey, and it's a journey of a, you know, I coined it a failed high school athlete disillusion with.
Life, finds redemption through faith in Jesus Christ, returns to the sporting world with a quest, and does what no American had done before. But what he finds is something far greater than gold. And that's the message is what God has given me in salvation. And so part of that story is, and even I shared that prayer, my quest that God put me on. And I believe, because he opened doors to, you know, that was the proof of that.
This is God putting me on this journey, right? And I thought I was going to become an Olympic champion. I was number one ranked in 1984 going into it. When the Soviets got out, you know, I was undefeated in the U.S. for a year and a half, and I was the guy that everyone was counting on.
And the Soviets and Eastern Bloc pulled out, I think, okay, now it makes sense because it's really hard to beat the Soviets. How is this still going to happen, right? I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to be an Olympic champion and God's going to give me that platform. I'm going to be able to speak.
Well, God had a different plan. He had a different message for my life because I, you know, and then in 1988, I was ranked number one again, and I just, I fell short. I lost the 1984 Olympic trials. It was a final two out of three match. In the third match, I was ahead three zero.
Against the guy had beaten many, many, many times. And he came from behind, scored three points. He won it on a criteria tiebreaker. His name was Steve Frazier. I went to training camp.
I was his alternate. I got him ready. Steve became our very first ever Olympic gold medal in Greco-Roman Wrestling.
So 90 kilos, Steve Frazier, first Olympic gold in 84, me in 19 or yeah, me in 1985. It's a storybook the way it all fell into place, right? And it was like it's God's story, but God had a message and a purpose in every single piece of that for me that had something far greater than what it was that I was doing in life and trying to accomplish in life. It went far beyond that, which is our purpose in life to honor and glorify God in all that we do. Man, that's amazing.
The title of the book's going to be. Beyond the breaking points. beyond the breaking point. And so here's what we're gonna do, Mike. We're we're gonna when that book is is ready to so do you have a a tentative launch date of when people k will be able to get a copy of that?
So I'm meeting with the publisher. We've got with proposal contract next week. And I'm thinking, you know, the book's in pretty good shape, but it needs, you know, there's some processes that we'll go through. I mean, you publish the book.
So I'm thinking probably six to nine months is what I'm guessing.
So we'll see.
Well, here's what we're going to do. And I don't know that we'll wait that long, but at very least, once we're going to have you back on, I want to talk about the book, more about your faith journey. Got the opportunity to meet your lovely bride there at the, we didn't even get a chance to really talk about the Golden Valley football reunion we were recently at together as well and uniting and uniting at the men's breakfast at up there at the Roseville Baptist Church when you came over. And we got to spend some quality time after the breakfast together and really begin to catch up.
So I want to have you back on, talk more about that faith journey, more about the The book, talk about your wife, share with me the wonderful story, the amazing story of how you two met and eventually got married. That's an incredible story. I know our listeners are going to really, really enjoy as well. And I'm going to, in fact, I'm going to tease our listeners in our last minute here. I'm going to tease our listeners because this is why they're going to want to go, okay, we can't wait for the part three.
When Mike's wife was going to set him up basically on a blind date, only later did Mike realize that she eventually realized, no, I'm going to be the blind date. I got that right, don't I? More or less. Don't I have that right? That's creepy.
Yes, you do. And so I can't wait to bring you back on to talk about that whole love story and journey together as well. And when you come back, I'm going to tee this up as well. We're going to talk about a 25-year career in teaching, right? A 25-year career in teaching.
So so much more that I'm going to talk with Mike about. And of course, I'm just kind of chuckling because I'm looking at a picture of Brad Reynolds right here, former AWA World Tag Team Champion, in addition to all of his Olympic runs and whatnot.
So, Mike. Like, man, golly, there's so much, yeah, there's so much more we're going to talk about. But thanks for being a part of both part one, part two, and uh, looking forward to bringing you back for probably part three, four, and five.
So wonderful. God bless you, brother.
Well, man, I just have such a love in my heart for you. Man, when we embraced and connected there, it was just like old times, man.
So, and to all of you out there in listening land, out there in the world of manning up, it's time to man up. You just heard just a glimpse into the story of Mike Houck.
So much more when we bring him back on. Until next time, go out. And today, just live your journey. Have a God-filled and God-blessed day. Tell them.
This podcast is made possible by the grace of God. and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to colof.net and donate. Good day.
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