Every year at Mizzou Wrestling's season-ending banquet, awards are handed out to the team's top performers. There is the Hap Whitney Coach's Award, the Marshall Esteppe Most Outstanding Freshman Award and of course there is the team MVP and other awards given to those with the most pins. But the one award that is the program's most sought-after is the Total Tiger Award. It is given to the wrestler who best exhibits leadership qualities, both on and off the mat. Its namesake – Ed Lampitt – is the true personification of that award as the four-time letterman embodied so many of the characteristics that head coach Brian Smith has built his nationally-renowned program around.

A Mizzou Athletics Hall of Famer and the program's first-ever placer at a Big Eight Tournament, Lampitt was one of the program's most successful wrestlers during its early years. While his performance on the mat alone was enough to rank him among the program's all-time greats, it is what he did following his graduation from Mizzou that cemented his status as a recipient of the Wrestling Medal of Courage from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges. The story of this #MizzouMade legend is one for the ages.

"For student-athletes, there's a willingness to self-sacrifice in order to reach your goals," Lampitt's wife of 49 years Katie said. "Being a student-athlete created the discipline in Ed that pushed him to achieve his goals. As a Mizzou student-athlete, he also developed perseverance to get through everything that he has as an adult."

Beginnings

Lampitt came to Mizzou in the fall of 1965. After growing up in Western Illinois, Lampitt and his family moved to St. Charles, Mo., for his final two years of high school. Lampitt had a scholarship wrestling offer from Illinois, but the draw of Mizzou was too much for him to pass up. So, he walked onto the wrestling team during his first year on campus.

"Coach (Hap) Whitney used to drive the guys to meets in his family's station wagon," Katie Lampitt said. "The guys would all pile into the car and coach would put on country music. That was one of his favorite memories."

It took one year for Coach Hap Whitney to realize how important Lampitt was to the team. As a sophomore, he was put on scholarship, a moment of pride for the St. Charles native.

The rest was history for the four-year letterwinner who captained Mizzou's 1968 team that put together the first undefeated season in program history. He set school records that stood for years and was the program's first Big Eight champion and the first ever wrestler to qualify for the NCAA Championships. He chose not to go to the meet – because he didn't want to participate without his teammates.

Lampitt graduated from Mizzou with his degree in civil engineering in 1969 and married the love of his life, Katie, on July 4 the following year.

But his journey was just getting started. As many men his age did during the 1970s, Lampitt joined the United States Navy and served in the Vietnam War – first in flight training and then in Navy's Civil Engineering Crop after hearing loss forced him out of flight school. He still learned to fly, a skill he carried with him until about five years ago when he stopped flying.

Following his time in the service, Lampitt began to practice dentistry, a skill he first began practicing with the Navy before then opening his own practice. Married, out of the war and now running his own dentistry practice, Lampitt seemingly was settling into the next chapter of his life nicely. That was until his life got turned upside down by news that no one expects to hear; he had an acoustic neuroma. A brain tumor.

It's Not What Happens to You. It's How You React to What Happens.  

Lampitt was 32 years old with so many years ahead of him. He had three young children, all under the age of seven. He had a life he had always imagined. Then came a life-altering diagnosis – he had a brain tumor growing aggressively, one that would require emergency surgery to remove.  The brain tumor was discovered in 1979 while Lampitt was in the Navy as a dentist

The tumor took two 14-hour surgeries to remove and while doctors were able to remove the tumor, the surgery had rendered him completely paralyzed, unable to speak, and blind in one eye. With three young children, a promising dentistry career and years of competing as a high-level athlete, Lampitt's life as he knew it had changed forever.

But instead of letting his situation define him and settle for the hand that life dealt him, Lampitt attacked his predicament with some of the same lessons he learned as a student-athlete at Mizzou.

At first, progress was slow, but he kept working on his rehabilitation. He refused to accept his circumstances.

He began to move and speak. Moving and speaking turned into walking and talking. Walking and talking helped him get back to practicing dentistry. Practicing dentistry led to him learning how to fly again – he even earned his private pilot's license. His hard work and dedication had paid off.

Over the course of 24 months he had gone from someone who may never walk again, to living much of his life the way he had prior to the tumor. He still was paralyzed in his left arm, and blind in his left eye, but he did not let the tumor define him. It took two years of recovery before he received a medical discharge from the Navy, returned to Missouri and opened his own dental practice in Piedmont, Mo.

In 2003, Lampitt was honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame with the organization's most prestigious award: Wrestling's Medal of Courage.

The award is given annually to a wrestler or former wrestler who has overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. For Lampitt – the Total Tiger himself – no challenge was insurmountable.

Dr. Lampitt went on to work for a dental pharmaceutical company and as a motivational speaker, dealing with topics such as how to treat the handicapped, to dealing with life crises, to achieving success in athletics. He had his own dental practice in his hometown of Perryville, Mo. He has appeared on television talk shows as well as live call-in radio shows. He has entertained audiences from coast to coast with his wonderful wit and positive perspective.

Truly a Total Tiger.

Giving Back.

Since recovering, Lampitt has stayed connected with Mizzou. He helped raise the money for wrestling's new fourth-floor Hearnes training facility. The cardio stations in the facility don his name. Lampitt and his wife Katie are lifelong Mizzou fans, even after moving to California where they played the fight song so their kids could learn the traditions.

All three of Ed and Katie's children attended Mizzou—their two daughters on the swim team. He has been active in the Mizzou Letterwinner's Club as a member of the Board of Directors and has been a fixture at so many great events over the years.

When Ed and Katie moved back to Missouri, he became very involved with the wrestling program. His Total Tiger Award at the year-end banquet is his way of inspiring those around him, those following in his footsteps in the wrestling program.

So every year, when a wrestler walks across the podium to accept the award, it is easy to see why the award is held in such high regard by the recipients. It personifies what makes Lampitt so great: determination, perseverance, reverence, and pride. Those are characteristics of a Total Tiger. Those are traits of those who are #MizzouMade.