Tom Milkovich came south to Auburn in 1977 to build a program from the ground up.

Milkovich was an all-time wrestling great in the Midwest, hailing from the First Family of wrestling in Ohio, winning three state championships in three undefeated seasons in high school under his father, Mike Milkovich, Sr., at Maple Heights High.

In college at Michigan State, Tom Milkovich was named a three-time All-American, a national champion and four-time conference champion.

Milkovich inherited a team at Auburn that had just finished last place at the SEC tournament in 1976-77. But by the end of Milkovich's fourth season of coaching on the Plains, in 1980-81, the Tigers had finished the season ranked No. 9 in the country, becoming the first SEC team to ever crack the top ten.

"We had it going on," Tom says. "Not only did we have a good team, but we had a great following. One crowd was 6-to-7,000 people that we had at a wrestling match. It was just growing by leaps and bounds."