Carlton Haselrig

As an athlete, the late Carlton Haselrig was simply a natural.

Haselrig, who died at 54 of natural causes Wednesday in his Johnstown home, had a knack for bucking the odds, and turning the unlikely into the attainable with his raw physical talent alone.

After having never played a down of college football, Haselrig became a Pro Bowl guard with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1992.

He became the only collegiate wrestler ever to win six NCAA championships — three at both the Division I and Division II levels — from 1987 through 1989 while competing at the 275-pound weight class at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Johnstown High School had no wrestling team in March 1984, so Haselrig entered the District 6 Class 3A tournament as an independent competitor with no record in his senior year, and promptly buzzsawed his way to district, regional and state heavyweight championships with 10 straight postseason victories.

It is the stuff of which athletic legends are made, and Haselrig became, indisputedly, a legend.

Greg Waltz was a senior heavyweight wrestler at Altoona in 1984, and, all these years later, vividly recalls competing against Haselrig, who went on to post a 143-2-1 collegiate record and earn a spot in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla.

Waltz, who now lives in Hollidaysburg, qualified for the PIAA Class 3A state tournament as a senior, after being pinned by Haselrig in the third period of their District 6 3A championship bout.

Waltz had trailed Haselrig in a relatively close match in the third period, before Waltz took a shot that Haselrig countered and went on to get the fall.

“He was very athletic, had good feet, and moved a lot,” said Waltz, who qualified for states at his weight class by placing in the Northwest 3A Regional Tournament as a senior. “He wasn’t necessarily bigger or stronger than anybody else, but he was very savvy on the mat. He certainly didn’t look like somebody coming into the district tournament with a 0-0 record.”

As stellar an athlete as Haselrig was, however, friends who remember him fondly cited his personal attributes the most.

Attributes like humility, compassion, and personal accountability were among the most prized intangibles that Haselrig brought to the table as a long-time assistant football and wrestling coach at Johnstown High School, and as a youth coach and mentor in the Johnstown area.

Tony Penna Jr., who is currently the head football coach at Conemaugh Township High School, had previously served nine years as Johnstown’s football coach, from 2010 to 2018, and Haselrig was a member of his staff all of those years as an offensive line coach and defensive coordinator.

“He had absolutely no ego,” Penna, Jr. said of Haselrig. “He had been coaching in our pee wee league and junior high football programs, and (because of all of his accomplishments as a college and professional athlete), I was a little bit nervous when I asked him to coach with me in the varsity program.

“His answer was something I’ll never forget,” Penna said. “He said, ‘Coach, I’ll fold the towels if you want me to.”’

That kind of humility made Haselrig a beloved coach.

“He didn’t have an ‘I’m a Pro Bowler, or a six-time (NCAA wrestling) champion’ bone in his body,” Penna said. “And he was like that with everybody.”

Haselrig was able to deliver his knowledge of football to the Johnstown athletes with a special brand of patience.

“I’ve been around sports my entire life, but I’ve never met anybody with such exceptional talent and toughness, who, as a coach, was more patient with people who didn’t have exceptional talent or toughness,” Penna said of Haselrig, who also won three matches after embarking on a Mixed Martial Arts career back in 2008. “He was at another level kind of toughness that you just don’t see, but he was so patient with everybody, including coaches like me.”

Haselrig – who is survived by his wife and nine children – was also very committed to the athletes that he coached. Whether it was on the field or in the weight room, Haselrig provided them with a very dedicated and reputable role model.

“The kids knew who he was, and it was really great for them to have him as a coach, but the really neat thing about him is that they always had access to him,” Penna said. “He was on the mats, in the weight room, in the junior high program, and in the pee wee program. He had a son who played football at the lower levels.

“He was just everywhere,” Penna said of Haselrig. “As great as he was, and as much as the kids knew that he was great, he was always accessible to them.”

Haselrig had been an assistant coach on Johnstown High head wrestling coach Will Harris’ staff for the past five seasons.

Haselrig coached Harris – a PIAA state qualifier for Johnstown during his junior year in 2007 – since Harris’ elementary school wrestling days, and the two remained lifelong friends.

“He was the most loving and caring person that I know,” said Harris, who pointed out that Haselrig also coached and mentored both his younger brother, Malcolm, and their younger sister, Mariah, who went on to forge outstanding wrestling careers of their own – with Malcolm being a state tournament qualifier at Johnstown and Mariah winning a national Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association championship this past season at Campbellsville University in Kentucky.

“Carlton was my coach in elementary school – I remember him boosting me up on the chin-up bars when I was in the second grade,” said Harris, who also wrestled collegiately at UPJ. “He has been an integral part of my wrestling and coaching career from the beginning right up to his end.”

Harris said that Haselrig brought a can-do approach to the Johnstown wrestling program.

“Carlton instilled in the kids the mindset not to take a back seat to anybody,” Harris said. “He was huge on the mental aspect of the sport. He just had a way of getting through to you.”

Haselrig fought and overcame substance abuse problems as a much younger man that abbreviated his National Football League career after the 1995 season, following four seasons with the Steelers and one with the New York Jets.

He had battled health issues for at least the past year, Harris said.

“He was going to see his doctor for a check-up (Thursday), but he passed away (Wednesday),” Harris said.

Leaving the legions of people upon whom Haselrig had made such a profoundly positive impact during his lifetime in a state of deep mourning.

“We lost our legend,” Penna said. “This hurts. It’s going to be hard for a long time. That’s the impact that he had on all of us. You don’t replace somebody like him. He was just a special guy.”