Wrestling

A lot of people are convinced they're not athletic when they simply have not discovered their sport. I was, and am, mediocre at best at "ball" sports—football, baseball, basketball, tennis—but found an outlet in wrestling.

Not that it came easily. As I attended a small prep school, I was thrust onto the varsity team as an eighth grader, and floundered. Literally. (Slang for a weak wrestler: "a fish.") I was 2-6 that season.

As a senior in high school I won the The National Prep Wrestling Championships.

"On Being Written In," my memoir in Sports Shorts, tells it all. Willy the Scrub is also wrestling based.

At Yale I was the Outstanding Freshman, Outstanding Sophomore, and Captain of the team my senior year. Yes, that's me on the old Yale brochure, with the hair as long as regulations allowed at the time, and tape on my forearm.