Carr, Fletcher
(born: 1950)Fletcher Carr, a native of Erie, PA, was the first African American full-time head coach at the University of Kentucky (UK). He was also one of the first African American head wrestling coaches at the college level in the U.S.
In 1973, Carr had been hired as an assistant football coach at UK. He continued in that capacity and also became the head wrestling coach in 1973 after starting the UK wrestling program. He did both coaching jobs until 1976, after UK won the Peach Bowl, then became dedicated solely to wrestling.
Carr recruited his brothers Joe Carr and Jimmy Carr to the UK wrestling team. During Fletcher Carr's tenure, the UK wrestling team won two SEC Championships (1976 & 1977) and runners-up in 1980. Fletcher Carr was twice named SEC Coach of the Year. The first SEC Championship was won in 1976 when the UK team defeated Florida 89-82 1/2. The top performers were Kurt Mock, Tim Mousetis, and Joe Carr.
Coach Carr had also been a champion wrestler when he was a student at the University of Tampa. He was All-American and NCAA College Division Wrestling Champion in 1971 and 1972 and a two time Division II National Champion in 1972 and 1973. His college career record was 73 wins and the 1 loss, set during his senior year. He had 69 pins and set the record at the University of Tampa for the fastest pin at 0:25.
In addition to playing football and wrestling at the University of Tampa, Carr was the 1973 Southeastern Karate Champion. He graduated from the University of Tampa in 1973.
When a high school student at East High in Erie, PA, Fletcher Carr was All-City in football, earned four letters in track, and was the Erie City Wrestling Champion.
It was during the earlier part of 1973 that UK head football coach, Fran Curci, recruited Fletcher Carr to become an assistant football coach at UK [source: "Star gets coach post before finishing college," Jet, March 29, 1973, p. 53]. He was a former player for Coach Curci when Curci was head football coach at the University of Tampa from 1968-1970. Curci was also a native of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) and had played both high school and college football in Florida. He was head football coach at UK from 1973 to 1981, which was the end of his college coaching career.
Fletcher Carr left UK in 1983, the same year that he was inducted into the Tampa Spartans Hall of Fame. In 2016, Fletcher Carr was selected as an inductee to the Pennsylvania Wrestling Hall of Fame, Class of 2017.
For more about Fletcher Carr's personal career see his entry at the Tampa Spartans Hall of Fame website; "UT History Series: Dual-Sport Star Fletcher Carr" at the Tampa Spartans website; "Fletcher Carr" at the Erie Sports Hall of Fame; and Mike Cooper, "Fletcher Carr Earns Induction to Pa. Wrestling Hall," 4/9/2017 at GoErie.com.
See also Fletcher Carr in Fifty Years of the University of Kentucky African-American Legacy, 1949-1999; 100 Pioneers: African-Americans Who Broke Color Barriers in Sport by R. E. Lapchick; "Black Head Coaches: taking charge on major campuses," Ebony, May 1982, pp. 59-62 [online at Google Books]; NCAA Official ... national collegiate championships records, 2000; Black Sports, vol. 2, 1972, p. 44; and "Title IX eliminates an eleven year program and leaves the wrestling team pinned in a hold they can't escape," 1983 Kentuckian, pp. 273-274 [online at ExploreUK].
This entry was updated at the request of Fletcher Carr via phone interviews in November of 2016.
