Today, Olympic athletes, family, friends and fans will assemble at Schultz's memorial service at 3 p.m. at the Palestra, 33d and Walnut Streets, on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The service - only three days before what would have been Schultz's 15th wedding anniversary - will recall a life cut short by bullets police say du Pont fired last month into the wrestler as his wife, Nancy, watched in horror.
As loved ones looked back over Schultz's life last week, they recalled an unpretentious world-class competitor who wore a fierce ``game face'' only on the mat, who greeted the rest of life with unbounded enthusiasm and generosity.
``He was like the sunshine,'' said Pauline Gostigian, a family friend. ``He always had a smile on his face.''
The oldest sport known to man is one of the most addictive. Athletes clad only in old-fashioned singlets square off on the mat for barehanded combat. They say that if you you walk away a winner, it's the best feeling on earth.
``When you beat a guy by holding him into submission, you know you are the better guy,'' said Greenhall, the wrestling coach of the New York Athletic Club. ``It is better than . . . having millions.''
Schultz was known for saying wrestling was the secret to his self-confidence growing up, shuttling between divorced parents in California and Oregon.
From Palo Alto, where he still coaches wrestling, Ed Hart recalled Schultz as a stocky kid who wore his uniform under his school clothes, and his wrestling shoes on a string around his neck.
His life cleaved to wrestling, which came before girls and every teenager's dream: learning to drive.
``He didn't get his driver's license until he was 18,'' Hart said. ``I didn't mind driving him to meets. I knew he was sacrificing a lot of childhood stuff.''
