SUNY Cortland Athletics

One of the most accomplished wrestlers in school history, Rick Armstrong won the program’s first individual national championship before going on to a long and successful career as the wrestling coach at Walton (N.Y.) High School.

Armstrong won the NCAA Division III title at 158 pounds during his junior season in 1978. He also earned All-America honors with a fourth-place national finish in 1979 and a sixth-place effort in 1977. He won three consecutive State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) titles from 1977-79, garnered two all-state awards in 1976 and 1977, and finished with a four-year career record of 88-21-4. Armstrong also played linebacker on the junior varsity football team for one season and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1979. A Whitney Point, N.Y., native, Armstrong finished 33-0 and won Whitney Point High School’s first state wrestling title in 1974.

After starting his coaching and teaching career in the Attica (N.Y.) Central School District, Armstrong moved to the Walton Central School District in 1981 and served as the high school’s head wrestling coach from 1982-2011. He also worked at various times as an assistant football and baseball coach.

Armstrong’s Walton wrestling teams won more than 200 matches and claimed three Section Four titles. The program also won five Susquenango Association division crowns. A two-time Section Four Coach of the Year, Armstrong mentored an individual state champion, four state finalists and nine state tournament place-winners. He was inducted into the New York State Collegiate Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2005 and the NCAA Division III Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009.

From 2004-11, Armstrong served as co-coordinator for the American Heart Association’s “Jump for Heart” program. He was the Section Four Wrestling Coaches Association president from 1987-2010, the Susquenango Association Wrestling Coordinator from 1987-2001 and a Junior American Legion assistant baseball coach from 1995-2005. He also has been the Section Four Wrestling Coordinator since 1994.