Wrestling coach dies
Hall of Famer coached in four Olympics, also at Ualbany, Stanford
Joe Demeo, a former olympic wrestling coach and member of numerous Hall of Fame organizations, has died at the age of 79./
Columbia wrestling coach Anthony Servidone returned from the New York State Wrestling Championships and received a phone call the next morning from one of his volunteer assistant coaches. His name was Joe Demeo.
“He called me at 6:30 in the morning the day after the state championships. I was scared something was wrong,” Servidone said. “He said, ‘Coach, what are you doing ?’ I said, ‘Joe, I am sleeping.’ He said, ‘You need to have your plan today.’ He said, ‘Do you know what today is? It is the first day of next year. Get out of bed. Call your guys.’ I got that phone call for 10 years.”
Throughout his life, Demeo
made an indelible mark in the sport of wrestling, first as a competitor and then as a coach. Demeo, a Hall of Fame member of numerous organizations, has died at the age of 79.
A standout wrestler for legendary coach Larry Mulvaney at Mont Pleasant before competing for Cornell University, Demeo went on to become a head coach at Stanford University and the University at Albany. He also founded the Adirondack ThreeStyle Wrestling Association. He served as an assistant coach for the Olympic team in 1976, 1980, 1988 and 1992.
“I grew up in the ’80s and Joe Demeo’s ATWA club was ‘the’ club in the area,” Shenendehowa coach Rob Weeks said. “A lot of his wrestlers went on to greatness. He was a very respected coach, especially in his area of expertise in Greco-roman wrestling. He definitely made a name for himself in the world of wrestling.”
“He was passionate about the sport 365 days a year,” Servidone said. “He was an ambassador of the sport, a walking dictionary of every technique to know. I valued our conversations away from wrestling. We would go to breakfast every Sunday morning. He would break down every single thing I needed to do. ... I was very fortunate to have him around.”
When Demeo received the Alan Rice Leadership Award in 2016, the man who honored him was Dan Gable, an Olympic champion and famed coach at the University of Iowa.
In his speech, Gable praised Demeo for his honesty and dedication to the sport.
“He always treated me unbelievably well,” Gable said. “He gave me unbelievable respect.”
“Joe was pretty much married to the sport, training the likes of Jeff Blatnick, Shawn Sheldon and numerous others,” Weeks said. “His relevance in the sport has been forever. He was coaching Greco-roman before most of the people coaching it now were even born.”
Demeo won the first Section II Class A Tournament in 1959 and prevailed at the first overall sectional tournament in 1960.
“They didn’t have state championships back then, but he never lost a high school match at Mont Pleasant,” Servidone said.
Demeo went undefeated in two of his three years competing at Cornell and finished fourth at the Olympic Trials in 1964.
After serving as an assistant coach at Michigan State, Demeo took over as head coach at Stanford from 1969 through 1977. The next stop was at Ualbany, where Demeo coached from 1978-1995.
Demeo was inducted into the New York State College Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1995. What followed were inductions into the Schenectady City Schools (2005), Cornell University (2006), University at Albany (2012) and National Wrestling (2013) halls of fame.
“The stories we have talked about all day (Friday), I just can’t say enough about the guy,” Servidone said. “The amount of passion, time and effort he put into the sport was remarkable. It really was.”
Demeo spent a decade as a volunteer assistant with Columbia, helping out with the Blue Devils through the 2018 season.
“I nonchalantly asked him after his retirement if he wanted to coach again, I would love to have you on our staff and he didn’t wait a second to tell me he would be there tomorrow and he was,” Servidone said.
“His knowledge base was wide. He will definitely be missed as a coach, but also be missed by his friends,” Weeks said. “He certainly is a legend and we had him in our backyard for a lifetime.”