Amateur Career
Robert Roop began wrestling in the eighth grade in East Lansing, Michigan. In High School, Roop was varsity heavyweight as a freshman, with an inauspicious 0-22-1 record. With the guidance of coach Joe Dibello, his record improved in ensuing years, with a 27-0-0 record his senior year, in which he also took State Championship.
He entered Michigan State University on a football scholarship. After a year and a half, he left school to join the Army. He received paratrooper training, and signed on to become a Special Forces medic. He competed on the All-Army wrestling team and, later, the All-Services wrestling team. There was one other heavyweight on the All-Services team, Jim Rasher, who had won a bronze medal as the U.S. Greco-Roman Heavyweight at the World Games prior to entering the Army. Rasher was influential in Roop's decision to pursue an amateur wrestling.
After his three-year stint in the service, he entered Southern Illinois University, and began pursuing amateur wrestling. He attended from 1965 through 1969, majoring in political science, and was a collegiate wrestling standout with a win-loss record of 66-18, including a 16-3 record during his senior year.
While in college he won four National Amateur Athletic Union All-American rankings, earned by placing in the top four spots in the national tournament, and an NAAU Championship as a light-heavyweight. During his last year of college, his coach at Southern Illinois convinced him to train down to a lighter weight of 220 pounds. "That spring, I entered my last national tournament before turning pro, the national AAU at Greco-Roman at 220, and I won that one. It was the first one I even won. I had taken second and third a couple of times," Roop said. In 1968, Roop won a position on the U.S. Olympic team as Greco-Roman heavyweight.
Roop was 25 years old, 6'2" tall, and weighed 270 pounds entering the Games in Mexico City in 1968. The team was coached by legendary wrestling coach Henry Wittenberg. Roop finished in seventh place in Mexico City, losing to Anatoli Roschin, who went on to win the silver medal.
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