My son, Jake, wrestled all four years of high school.
He had no prior experience wrestling, but felt like it’d be a good way to lose some weight, get stronger, and be a part of a team during his high school years. To his credit, Jake was clear-eyed enough to realize he wasn’t likely destined to play basketball or baseball in high school and never really expressed any interest in football, or soccer for that matter.
As far as his goals with wrestling: Mission accomplished. He emerged from his senior season looking quite different than the kid who walked through the door in ninth grade.
He didn’t experience a lot of individual success on the mat, but was part of a District Championship team and was a pesky competitor in the ultra-competitive 138 through 150-pound weight classes.
With that as the backdrop, when my traveling partner Wayne’s buddy Todd – whose Chattanooga home we’d be staying in while in Tennessee for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision title game – mentioned the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was hosting the annual Southern Scuffle college wrestling tournament I was totally down with attending.
Furthermore, because of the connection wrestling has to my son and our family, I became increasingly more comfortable including this on my Around the World in 80 Sporting Events journey. If you know anyone who’s sat on gymnasium bleachers for hours on end every Saturday from late November through mid-March to watch your kid on the mat for a few minutes of action you know how infectious the wrestling bug can be. Plus, my great-aunt Vi and uncle Bill were longtime Chattanooga residents. My family paid them a visit in my early teenage years and it seemed appropriate to return to the city as part of the this journey.
I had not been to gym to watch wrestling of any sort since Jake’s final match until I walked through the doors of UTC’s McKenzie Arena on January 4, 2026.
What is the Southern Scuffle?
The short answer is that it’s an annual wrestling tournament dating back to 2003 that’s hosted by UTC the first weekend of the new year.
The slightly longer answer is that for this iteration there were 26 teams represented. That doesn’t necessarily mean the entire team traveled to Chattanooga for the event, it simply means at least one wrestler for those 26 schools was entered. Three of those 26 finished among the Top 10 nationally at the 2026 NCAA Championships in Cleveland, including the champion of each, Penn State.
Among the Penn State wrestlers was sophomore All-American Josh Barr. He entered the Scuffle as the No. 1 seed at 197-pounds and he did not disappoint, running roughshod through his five opponents en route to the title.
A product of Davison (MI) High School, Barr was familiar to Todd whose son was a former All-American at North Carolina State and current assistant coach for Penn State’s conference foe, Northwestern University. Barr later went on to win the 2026 NCAA Championship at 197 after finishing as runner up as a freshman.
Scuffleodians!?!
I’d not been to a college wrestling match/meet since my days at Eastern Michigan University. One of my freshman year dorm floor mates, Mark, was on the EMU wrestling team. He didn’t see much action as a freshman, but through the years when his balky shoulder allowed, he found his way onto the mat.
I recall a few of us turning out for Mark in our latter years on campus, but I’d not been to a multi-school meet such as the Southern Scuffle.
In many ways, it was not unlike my experiences through my son’s high school wrestling years. Schools carved out their spots along the concourse where they had inflatable mattresses and chairs to rest and food tables to maintain their strength and energy.
As I wandered about McKenzie Arena I saw wrestlers sleeping, grabbing bites to eat, chatting up fellow competitors, visiting with family or friends, watching video of either their previous matches or, perhaps, an upcoming opponent?
And my soundtrack as I enjoyed this walkabout? Well, it was McKenzie’s public address announcer who insisted upon referring to those of us in attendance as “scuffleodians” and, as the wrestlers prepared to square off would say “let’s scuffle.”
A Little About McKenzie Arena
Clockwise from upper left, the view from the tippy-top of McKenzie Arena (it was a long way up there!); some of the UTC athletic banners adorn the rafters’; the dedication plaque from 1982; the 1992-93 Moccasins finished 26-7 overall and 16-2 in the Southern Conference, winning both the regular-season and tournament championship before losing to fifth-seeded Wake Forest in the NCAA Tournament; the exterior of “The Roundhouse” promotes an upcoming SoCon game with Furman.
I found myself fascinated by host site of the Southern Scuffle, McKenzie Arena. Originally known as UTC Arena when it opened in 1982, it was renamed in 2000 following a donation from Toby McKenzie and Brenda Lawson from nearby Cleveland, TN.
More informally, the building is known as “The Roundhouse” for its round shape and for the railroad tradition in the city (e.g. the Chattanooga Choo-Choo or Glenn Miller’s ode). A railway roundhouse was the name of the building used to move train cars onto different tracks.
I made the climb to the top of “The Roundhouse” and – I cannot lie – felt a bit queasy near the top of the place. One, it was dimly lit upstairs, and two, the stairs ascended at quite a steep angle without the aid of handrails.
Suffice to say, I was delighted to make it back to the concourse in one piece and with my breakfast still in my tummy:-)