Cliff Keen

Clifford Patrick Keen (June 13, 1901 – November 4, 1991) was an American coach who served as the head coach of the University of Michigan collegiate wrestling team from 1925 to 1970. He led the Michigan Wolverines to 13 Big Ten Conference championships, and coached 68 All-American wrestlers. In 1976, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member.

Early life and college Keen was born on a ranch at Red Moon in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, near the town of Cheyenne. His high school in Weatherford, Oklahoma had no wrestling team; one of his high school classmates was Arnold "Swede" Umbach. He was playing basketball one day when a wrestler asked him if he could help as a partner so he could practice his moves; after Keen was beaten by the much smaller man, he decided to go out for the wrestling team. He got his start in wrestling as a middleweight at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University–Stillwater), where he became a three time Missouri Valley Conference Champion. His wrestling coach at Oklahoma A&M was Edward C. Gallagher.

He obtained a law degree from Michigan in 1933. Keen later said he had never intended to make a career of coaching, but wanted to go into law. He said: “I never intended to continue at coaching when I got my law degree here. But that was the depths of the depression and I needed a job. I kept saying I'd coach one more year. . . . I never expected it to last 45 years.”

When Keen retired in 1970, the Associated Press reported: “Cliff Keen could have spent a career wrestling with law books. But instead he decided that wrestling itself was his ambition. That was back in 1925. Calvin Coolidge was president. Booze was illegal. Alexander J. Groesbeck was the governor of Michigan. And Cliff Keen became the University of Michigan wrestling coach. Forty-five years? How could anyone be a wrestling coach for 45 years.”

Olympics and wrestling innovator Keen also served on the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1928 to 1952 and was manager of the 1948 Olympic team in London. The principle behind Keen's round ring was to eliminate the corners. Keen felt it was too easy for a wrestler to reach for the edge of the ring and pull himself out. The corners also restricted movement and made it difficult to maneuver from a corner, because a shift in either direction would put one or the other out of the ring. Keen was also one of the authors of Championship Wrestling, printed in 1943 while he was serving in the U.S. Navy, 1942–1945; it was a leading book on wrestling technique for several decades. Keen's influence and effect on the sport of amateur wrestling in the United States from the 1930s until present has been incredible and enduring.

Honors and accolades In 1958, Keen was named to the Helms Hall of Fame. In 1976, Keen was one of five charter members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. In 1980, he was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor as part of the third induction class. Only three University of Michigan coaches (Fielding H. Yost, Fritz Crisler and Ray Fisher) were inducted into the Hall of Honor before Keen. In 1990, Varsity Arena, home of Michigan's wrestling, men's gymnastics, and women's volleyball teams, was renamed Cliff Keen Arena in his honor. In 2011, he was named to the Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame posthumously.

Death and family Keen died at age 90 at his home in Ann Arbor. His older brother, Paul, was also named 1940 U.S. Olympic Wrestling Coach and served two terms as Mayor of Norman, OK. His oldest brother, Bill, was a district court judge in Oklahoma for over 30 years.