“Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy.”
-Dan Gable
The famous quote from the University of Iowa wrestler that was one of the greatest ever is a mantra for another Big Ten great, Clinton’s very own Tyrone Byrd.
A two-time IHSA state champion, three time all-stater and four-time NCAA qualifier, Byrd has certainly etched his name among the best wrestlers to ever come from Clinton. You may also hear his name in the discussion of Clinton’s all-time greatest athletes. A Clinton legend? Without a doubt.
The Gable quote may best describe Byrd’s life. Since he was a second grader with the Big Springs Wrestling Club in Pennsylvania in 1990, wrestling has been his passion.
“I believe in the discipline,” Byrd said. “It has been part of my life, and I have made it continue to be a part of my life. It has continued to be my passion.”
After moving from Pennsylvania at age six, Byrd began wrestling in Clinton at 89 lbs. with the Dewitt Sportsters, a program now known as the Clinton Wrestling Club.
“It was a great experience for me,” Byrd said. “A lot of the success we had in high school had to due with the fact that all of us on those teams grew up and wrestled on that club together.”
While wrestling for the Clinton Wrestling Club from 1990-1994, Byrd was a two time state qualifier. While Byrd was very proud of the accomplishments at the time, his wrestling resume would get better each year after. His time at the Clinton kids club also marked the era in which he met and began competing with his eventual high school Maroons teammates, a group that would eventually go on to form one of the greatest athletic groups in Clinton history.
“We were a tough bunch of kids, we knew each other and beat on each other for so many years,” Byrd said. “We wanted to bring the toughness out of each other.”
From 1994-1997, Byrd wrestled for the Clinton Junior High team, qualifying for the IESA state tournament all three years and twice finishing second in state. In 1996, he was second overall at 112 lbs. The following year, he was second in state at 135.
“We also had a lot of team success in junior high,” Byrd remembers. “We had a lot of state placers and came close to bringing home a team trophy one year.”
Byrd and his teammates competed in junior high for then wrestling coach John Pine, who now serves as the school’s principal.
Byrd credits Pine as one of the individuals that brought out the toughness in the group.
“He definitely did a good of that,” Byrd said. “He helped us prepare for the next level.”
It was at that next level that Byrd’s career really flourished into stardom.
In 1997, Byrd walked into Clinton High School excited to compete for coached Rob Ledin and Dan Barclay, who were in the midst of building one of Clinton’s greatest programs.
“They were great coaches and I was walking into a great situation,” Byrd said. “They knew how to get the most out of us. I’ve been very blessed to have great coaches, from the kids club all the way up thru college.”
In 2001, he walked out of the school as perhaps the greatest wrestler in the program’s history.
In 2000 and 2001, he was the individual state champion at 171 lbs. He was a four time state qualifier, three-time all state wrestler and two-time team MVP. He was awarded as the IWCOA Outstanding Wrestler of the Year and a USA Wrestling All-American in 2001. From 200-2001, Byrd compiled a rare 73-match win streak. Not to mention a career record of 105-15, with 94 career pins.
The Clinton team finished second in state in 2000 and third in 2001.
“We had so many kids that were great, so many state qualifiers,” Byrd said. “High School was a great experience. I look at my teammates and think that because I won two state titles, I get recognition as being one of the better wrestlers to come from the program. I don’t know if I agree with that. I look at guys like Jacob Fatheree, who was a phenomenal talent and Jeremy Ryerson, who was one of the hardest workers in Clinton. I don’t think I was better than either of them, I was just fortunate enough to win two state titles. They didn’t do too bad themselves, each won one.”
Byrd made his presence known in Clinton outside of the mat as well. He was a state qualifier in track (Pole Vault) and a three-year varsity starter for the Clinton football team at running back and free safety. In 2001, he rushed for over 1,000 yards and was named to the IHSA All-State team.
His accomplishments on the gridiron earned him scholarship offers from small colleges. But Byrd knew his talents, and his heart, were on the wrestling mat. Byrd would become the first Clinton athlete of the new century to play a major sport at the University of Illinois.
“It’s wrestling,” Byrd said. “It’s not a big revenue sport and I knew that going in to it. I decided that I wanted pursue a wrestling career because of my passion for the sport. I understood it was not going to have the same glam as football or basketball. The whole nation isn’t going to know your name, but the wrestling community certainly will.”
Byrd continued his success for the Fighting Illini from 2001-2006. He was a four-year starter and four-time NCAA qualifier. He was a two-year team captain and voted the Illini Co-MVP in 2006, wrapping up his wrestling career with 90 wins for the Big Ten school.
His most accomplished year was 2006, his final on the mat. That year, Byrd was the Big Ten and Midlands Runner-Up at 197 lbs.
He was a part of a team that won Big Ten Championships in 2004 and 2005 and a runner up finish in 2006. The 2005 championship sticks out as his greatest memory of college.
His accomplishments at Clinton and in Champaign earned him the honor of being named Central Illinois Athlete of the Decade for Wrestling.
Since his graduation from the University of Illinois in 2006, Byrd has been a wrestling coach. He began as a varsity assistant for Mahomet-Seymour, reuniting with Rob Ledin, who coached him in Clinton. After spending one year as an assistant at Richmond-Burton High School, Byrd accepted the head-coaching job with Lincoln-Way East High School in Mokena.
He has already seen success with the Knights, coaching three state placers in his first two years at the helm of the program. In addition to coaching wrestling, Byrd is a physical education teacher.
“We are trying to raise the bar. Our eventual goal is to win a team state title,” Byrd said of his expectations for the wrestling program. “But beyond all the wrestling, the biggest thing for me as a coach is that we are building young men. We are building moral character, great students and great citizens. I want them to walk away from this as better people.”
“If someone never wins a state title or places at state, but walks out of here a good person, I feel we have won.”
Byrd credits former Clinton coaches Ledin and Barclay as influences in pursuing a career in coaching.
“I owe it to those guys,” Byrd said. “I wanted to do the things they did for us. My goal is to have the team here at Lincoln Way-East work as hard as we did in Clinton in 2000 and 2001.”
Although he hopes to retire at Lincoln-Way East, Byrd has and always will call Clinton home. His family lives here and this is the place he first made a name for himself. Even though he coaches at another IHSA school, Byrd remains interested in the Clinton program and hopes they fare well.
“I think it’s headed in the right direction,” he said. “They have some good coaches in there. (Head Coach) Chris Little is an Illinois graduate and was actually my roommate. Bobby Hill and I grew up wrestling and I’ve known of him since kids club. I think he’s going to do a great job with the junior high.”
Byrd conducted a wrestling camp for four years this decade. With his former college roommate and teammate Little at the helm, Byrd has high hopes for his alma mater.
“I would love to see them win a state title and see them accomplish something we couldn’t,” Byrd said. “Whenever I go down state with my kids, I always look for the Clinton guys and I always root for them.”
Byrd is married to Jennifer (Vandervort) Byrd, another Clinton High School graduate. The two are the parents of two and a half year old Jalen James Byrd.
His legal guardians are Clinton residents Jerry and Lori Benedict.
“I’ve been blessed with the people that have been around me,” he said. “The great moments I have are for the people who have put time in to me, from my family, to my friends, to my coaches, and teachers who made sure I was making great choices.”
Wrestling has always been a part of Byrd’s life. Throughout life, Byrd had the sport to get him through the tough moments. And that’s why he made a point to continue with the sport through coaching.
“I had a tough childhood, and wrestling really helped me focus on something else,” he said. “It was my out. What I got out of the sport, is what I want to give back.”
As much as anyone else, Byrd is a testament to the truth of Gable’s famous quote.
“Wrestling is me. It’s my passion, I care about, I believe in what it does for you and the discipline that it forms. All the hard work, the stress, and the pressure makes everything else seem easier.”
