 |
Paul Cote, whose 57-7-1 wrestling career ended in the second round of the 1966 NCAA Division II National Championships, was elected to Old Dominion University's Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.
Four times the Mason-Dixon Conference champion at 157 pounds, he was named as outstanding wrestler of the Mason-Dixon Conference tournament for 1964-65. He earned similar honors from his own teammates, being voted as most valuable member of the wrestling team for the 1964-65 season and as team captain for the 1965-66 campaign.
Cote also was named as Outstanding Athlete for 1965-66 by the ODU Alumni Association.
"Pete Robinson provided some real fine coaching and a lot of inspiration," Cote said. "He also scheduled us outside the Mason-Dixon Conference against a pretty good level of competition – against such schools as Virginia, Navy and Springfield. We dominated the conference and held our own outside it."
A business administration major, Cote served three years in the Army, including with the Corps of Engineers as an advisor to the Vietnamese Public Works Service.
He later used the marketing insight he gleaned in ODU classes to become a vice president of a major advertising agency in New York City. He supervises marketing and planning services for several large companies in the United States.
Cote's outstanding success at ODU likely would have been a surprise to many of his opponents as a sophomore at Norfolk Catholic High. He lost all but two matches that year, the first wrestling campaign for that school. The next two years, however, he won most of his contests as he began a climb that reached the 1966 national tournament.
"The honor of being selected for the ODU Sports Hall of Fame has stopped me dead in my tracks," he said. "It has made me think again of my ODU days and made me realize that life after college has been going by fast."