At Schurz High School in 1952, Terrence McCann was an ardent and successful wrestler. But he was an indifferent student who wanted to wrestle at University of Iowa.
When a high school secretary looked at his transcripts, she told the assistant principal the university would never accept him.
“If anybody is going to make it,” the administrator countered, “it’ll be Terry McCann.”
Mr. McCann, 72, died of a rare form of cancer Wednesday, June 7, in Dana Point, Calif.
The assistant principal was right. Mr. McCann earned three all-America honors and two NCAA individual titles while wrestling at Iowa. He also graduated with a degree in business administration in 1957.
But his biggest personal achievement may have come when Mr. McCann won a gold medal in wrestling in the 1960 Olympics. He later helped establish USA Wrestling, a national governing body for the sport; served in various posts with the U.S. Olympic Committee; and mentored dozens of people, including the current CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
“He was one of the most passionate, driven people I’ve ever met,” Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr said Friday. “He had a great deal of self-belief and a great deal of energy and passion for whatever he did. We’ll miss his strength and the example that he set for us.”
Born in 1934 in the Kelvyn Park neighborhood, Mr. McCann was the oldest of six children. He loved basketball, his wife, Lucille, said. But at 5 feet, 4 inches tall, in high school, he decided wrestling might be more suitable, she said. After enrolling at University of Iowa on academic probation, Mr. McCann focused on wrestling and his studies. His wife, whom he met at Schurz, said he boosted his grade point average to 4.0 at Iowa.
The couple married in December of 1953. By the time Mr. McCann graduated, they had two small children. When Mr. McCann won the gold in Rome, they were the parents of five. The family later grew to seven children.
After his Olympic success, Mr. McCann returned to Tulsa, Okla., where he had been training before the Olympics. He took an administrative job with the U.S. Jaycees then moved the family to Minneapolis in 1965, where he worked for the Wheaties Sports Federation.
During that time, Mr. McCann’s image appeared on a Wheaties box and in a TV commercial for the cereal, his wife said.
In about 1967, the McCanns moved to Arlington Heights, and Mr. McCann worked for the Supermarket Institute and Lions International. During that time, he helped establish a wrestling program in the Mayor Daley Youth Foundation and helped create USA Wrestling.
The family moved to Dana Point in 1975, when Mr. McCann accepted a job as executive director of Toastmasters International. When the Olympics came to Los Angeles in 1984, officials asked Mr. McCann to serve in a number of capacities. He later also served as vice president of FILA, the international governing body of wrestling.
Mr. McCann loved to surf, a sport he took up in his 40s, his wife said. He was a voracious reader and maintained a rigorous exercise regimen throughout his life.
“He was a doer,” his wife said. “His first thought was to help develop every person he ever met to be a better person.”
In addition to his wife, Mr. McCann is survived by seven children, Rose Schwinn, Deirdre Messinger, Colleen Reeker, Terry Jr., Sean, Bridgid MacPhee, Denise Beswick; 18 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; a brother and two sisters.
