Family.
Various sports teams will use that term when touting the special culture they feel separates them from others and it's usually overblown. But not for the Central Oklahoma wrestling program, where family means exactly that.
Since the program was reinstated in 1972 there have been more than 30 sets of brothers – including five one season in the mid-1990s -- and eight father-son pairings compete for the Bronchos. Adding a wrestler from 1947 gives UCO one incredible bloodline of three generations, a grandfather-father-son.
And these family trees have attained high levels of success on the mat. Eight sets of brothers have been All-Americans, with three sets of those siblings winning national championships. Three families have had both father and son earn All-America recognition.
It's an uncanny phenomenon, yet not surprising to those who are part of the Broncho family. Former UCO head coach David James – who led the Bronchos to 12 national championships during a legendary 34-year career from 1982-2016 – knows this all too well.
"We just have a strong history and tradition," said James, who finished with a 396-144-5 dual record as head coach and is a member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. "If you were a younger brother, this is where you needed to be. It was probably expected of the brothers because they were around it so much."
David knew that all too well. He was a four-time All-American and two-time national champion from 1976-80 with a 116-16 career record, then took over as head coach in 1982 at age 24.
David coached his younger brother, Ronnie, during his final two seasons. Ronnie came to UCO in 1980 and was a four-time All-American in his own right, capturing three national titles and going 122-16-1.
"He (Ronnie) didn't have a choice or I would have beat him up," David said, half joking. "Dad (Danny) took him (Ronnie) to the national tournament when we won it in 1979 and it was just meant to be for him to come here. Kind of like the Cunninghams and other guys like that. I expected us to get those brothers."
And he did that, with six of UCO's brother All-America combinations coming during James' tenure.
Keith and Mark Cunningham lead that group, ranking just behind the James duo in regard to brother success with the Bronchos. Keith was a three-time national finalist and two-time champion who won a school-record 141 matches, while Mark was a four-time All-American with one title and 113 wins to his credit.
And – adding even more to the Broncho family legend -- Keith's path to UCO came courtesy of Ronnie James, who had a distinguished career as the long-time head coach at Del City High School.
"I had one opportunity to wrestle anywhere after high school and that's because Ronnie told D.J. about me," said Keith, who never won a state title at Mustang High School but who impressed Ronnie while competing against Del City. "Once I got established at UCO, it was fun for my family to watch my success."
Mark, three years younger, was soon roped into becoming a Broncho.
"We thought Mark's potential was more than mine with what he had done in high school and he had opportunities to go other places," Keith said. "Once D.J. got to talk to him, we kind of corralled him as a group and it was a pretty easy sell.
"I was proud to see my brother come through the program. It was cool to compete two weights apart from him that one season we were together (Mark at 150, Keith at 167 in 1993-94). When he made All-American as a freshman, I was a senior and that was a lot of fun. I probably paid more attention to his matches than my own. It was really cool."
UCO's other sibling All-Americans are the Allens (Will, 1980-81 and Mark, 1983-84), the Dodgens (Mark, 2000-01-03 and Matt, 2002), the Hennings (Jeff, 2002-03 and Jared, 2005-07), the Finns (Chris, 2006 and Dustin, 2008-09-10), the Rowells (Cody, 2010 and Casy, 20012-13-14) and the Dauphins (Cory, 2011-13-14 and Cody, 2013).
The James, Cunningham and Dodgen brothers all won national championships along with Casy Rowell and Cory Dauphin.
UCO has one brother duo on the 2022-23 squad looking to join that All-America brother parade. Ty Lucas at 165 pounds is a five-year starter and two-time All-American, while brother Dylan is the starter at 133.
And then there are the father-sons.
UCO head coach Todd Steidley, a two-time All-American and 1988 national champion for the Bronchos, knows all about that.
"It was important to my son to come here," Todd said of his son, redshirt freshman 125-pounder Garrett. "He wanted to wrestle here, to be a part of the tradition, to be father-son All-Americans and maybe national champions.
"When I recruited Brik (Filippo) and Nate (Keim), it was important to them to come where their dads had wrestled. They wanted to continue that legacy and be an All-American. They grow up hearing about it all their lives."
Brik's dad, Jimmy, was an All-American at UCO in 1990. Brik is in his fourth year as the starting 149-pounder, earned All-America honors himself last season and recently passed Jimmy in career wins at Central (90-89).
"All through high school I knew my dad wrestled at UCO and I always loved this place," Brik said. "I was recruited by a couple of D1 schools, but UCO is just different in a way. I feel like a lot of schools were talking to me, but UCO wanted me and that was a huge deal. It means something to be a Broncho."
Nate's dad, Mike, was a two-time national finalist for the Bronchos and won a school-record 47 matches (47-3) in winning the 1995 national title. Nate is in his fifth year as UCO's starting 141-pounder – thanks to an extra season earned due to CoVID in 2020-21 – and is a four-time regional place with 86 career wins.
"It's kinda weird because the last national championship we (UCO) won was in 2007 and my dad got inducted in the NCAAs (Division II Wrestling Hall of Fame) so I was actually there," Nate said. "I was in fourth grade. That's something I've never forgotten.
"We went to the banquet after and I remember talking to some of the guys; it was like talking to professional athletes. It was something that definitely turned me on to UCO."
Nate is looking to join his dad on the All-America wall in the UCO wrestling room and become the fourth father-son combination to earn that distinction with the Bronchos.
Leading that list is the Finn family. John was an NAIA All-American on Central's first-ever national championship team in 1979, while sons Chris (2006) and Dustin (2008-09-10) were both NCAA Division II All-Americans – John at 158 pounds and his sons both at heavyweight. John had two other sons also wrestle at UCO (John, Jr. and Patrick).
The other father-son All-American duo is Eddie Sullivan (1974) and son Gable (1998-00-01).
Which leads us to the lone three-generation member of the Broncho wrestling family.
Irl Henry was a letterman on the 1946-47 team in the last year UCO fielded a team before a long layoff. The program came back in 1972 and Irl's son, Terry, was a two-time national champion in 1974-75. Then Mickey, Irl's grandson and Terry's son, was a two-year letterman in the early 2000s.
Family. It's the UCO way.
