Cash Stone was an accomplished wrestler who arrived at Washington State College in 1955, won a Pacific Coast conference championship at 130 pounds in 1958, and then spent nearly four decades coaching the Mead High School wrestling team to spectacular heights.
He’s also the rare wrestler with his own IMDb page, a listing of motion picture credits.
Stone (’59 Phys. Ed.) was the technical advisor and had a bit part in the 1985 movie Vision Quest, which was filmed in Spokane.
“All the wrestling world watched it,” Stone, 89, says of Vision Quest, which starred Matthew Modine as Louden Swain and featured a young Madonna in a small role.
After his brush with Hollywood, Stone continued to build up the wrestling programs at Mead and across the state. He retired with 13 Greater Spokane League championships and two state championships, and also coached 10 wrestlers to individual state titles. He is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
(WSU Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections)
All that success was a far cry from Stone’s humble origins.
He grew up on a stump farm in the Skagit Valley town of Bayview Ridge and attended Burlington-Edison High School, where he lost only one wrestling match during his prep career.
After a year at Skagit Valley Junior College, he was recruited to Washington State College by legendary wrestling coach Bill Tomaras. Tomaras was a key figure in growing the popularity of high school wrestling in Washington, as he was instrumental in creating the state championships, Stone says.
“It was Tomaras who started them,” Stone says. “In almost every respect he was the father of state wrestling in Washington.”
WSC had only about 5,000 students when Stone arrived in Pullman.
“I was so fortunate,” Stone says. “The rural atmosphere made it easier. The professors really did take an interest in you … the people made me feel important.”
Stone lived in an apartment off campus and worked in the school’s Building and Grounds Department to pay his bills. His tuition was $85 per semester.
He was undefeated as a wrestler his senior year, winning the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate title at 130 pounds.
Unfortunately, Washington State dropped its wrestling program in the mid-1980s. Stone hasn’t visited the campus much since.
After he graduated, Stone got a job teaching in Eltopia near the Tri-Cities. The next year he got a job at Mead High School, located just north of Spokane, and built a wrestling dynasty there until he retired in 1997. His wrestling meet record at Mead was 440-150-6.
When the producers of Vision Quest arrived in Spokane, they visited Stone at the school, watched a practice, and asked for his help in training the actors to make the wrestling scenes realistic.
Stone recalls that Modine had never wrestled.
“He worked his tail off,” Stone says. “He deserves a lot of credit for making it work.”
Modine, who has enjoyed a long career in movies and television, returned the compliment.
“When I met Cash Stone for the first time, the first thing he said was: ‘Hi! My name is Cash. My mom and dad named me Cash ’cause they always wanted to have a little around the house,’” Modine said in an email. “That’s an introduction that stays with you for life.
“I am forever grateful that he was my coach,” Modine wrote. “Not just to learn to wrestle for the film but to be witness to the way he lovingly conducts his life.”
Indeed. Even at 89, Stone remains energetic. He’s been married to Dorothy for 55 years and the couple raised five children.
He also continues to follow wrestling, saying the most important development in recent years was adding girls’ programs to the sport.
“The fastest-growing high school sport is girls’ wrestling,” he says. “It’s a wonderful change.”
He notes there are more than 400 high school wrestling programs in Washington.
Stone credits Washington State for his success.
“I owe Washington State so much for the life I had and the things I got to do,” Stone says. “I’m so thankful I ended up there. It changed my life forever.”