Pitt
‘We Would Still Be Best of Friends’: History-Making Match Stressful But Wonderful for Stout Family
In the City of Brotherly Love, Pitt wrestling’s Mac Stout and Princeton’s Luke Stout made history.
The “Stout” name is recognizable to many who follow wrestling in Pittsburgh. Bryan Stout is the only four-time All-American in the history of Clarion, a school that produced future Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle.
Bryan’s son, Kellen, was a state champion at Mt. Lebanon and then a national qualifier at Pitt. Now, two of his younger sons are in the spotlight, and they just did something that had never been done before.
Wrestling has long been a family affair.
John and Pat Smith became legends at Oklahoma State.
The Brands Brothers made themselves known at Iowa, first as wrestlers and now as coaches.
At Penn State, Cael Sanderson’s brother, Cody, is an assistant on his staff and a key part of the machine.
So one would think that at some point, two brothers who decided to wrestle at different schools would meet at the NCAA Championships.
It never happened until recently.
Mac, seeded sixth, ended up getting the best of brother Luke, seeded 11th, 4-2 in the second round.
“It’s tough,” Mac Stout said after the match. “Yeah, it stinks. I wish I never had to wrestle my brother. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him. So I finally got one back after all those years. It’s something I had in my mind, but it sucks. I wish I never had to wrestle him.”
Luke Stout (Princeton), Mac Stout (Pitt) square off in Philadelphia, Pa. Photo courtesy of Pitt Athletics.
For Bryan, the thought crept in as soon as the brackets came out.
“We knew it was a possibility,” Bryan Stout told Pittsburgh sports now, “and we all had this eerie feeling that it was going to happen. And it did, and we made the best of it.”
So how did Mac Stout handle everything?
It’s easy to say that every match is just another match.
But this one clearly wasn’t.
For starters, it was the NCAA Championships, folkstyle wrestling’s biggest stage. Then, of course, there was the 197-pound elephant in the room.
Mac Stout didn’t pretend that the lead-up to the match was normal.
“It was mostly right before and after more just emotional,” he said. “Just cause, on the bright side, it’s really cool to share a mat at this stage. So yeah, it was both. I don’t really have an answer, it was really emotional.”
Once things started, it felt a little more normal.
“During the match, it kind of, it went away a little bit, but it’s still in the back of my head, a little bit weird, pull the trigger,” he said. “Maybe in certain positions, I might give guy a harder blowback than I did there.”
For Mac Stout, the ending of the match took some pressure off for the rest of the tournament.
“I think it’ll help me wrestle more freely now,” he said. “Kind of forget about that little thing on my shoulder of the possibility I could wrestle him.”
If there was any bitterness after the bout, Luke Stout didn’t show it.
“He told me, “Go win it.” Mac said. I’m happy it’s over with and I’m sure it’ll bring us closer together.”
Mac Stout of Pitt defeats brother Luke Stout of Princeton at NCAA championships. Photo courtesy of Pitt Athletics.
For Luke Stout, Thursday night was a throwback to the family basement.
“It was super cool,” Luke Stout told PSN. “Obviously a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Our basement had mats in it so we grew up butting heads all the time as kids. And then, throughout middle school, high school, we were butting heads every single day. And to go out here on the biggest stage in college wrestling, it was awesome.”
As “awesome” as the moment was in a lot of aspects, Luke understood how difficult it was on their parents, Bryan and Jennifer.
“It was pretty grueling, to be honest with you,” Bryan Stout said. “Obviously, you can’t cheer. We want them both to do well. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. But I knew it was hard on them. I knew that it was a struggle for them being brothers.”
Luke Stout knew it was “pretty stressful” for his parents.
“Ever since the brackets came out, they came out pretty early last week,” he said. “So I think they were getting lots of calls, a lot of people reaching out, and then they had to deal with their own feelings and emotions, too. I’m sure they knew that we were in tough spots, but at the end of the day, they knew that me and Mac are best friends. So they knew we’d be alright. Regardless, it’s still super hard to watch two of your kids go at it on the national stage with all eyes on them. So, it was stressful, for sure. Super emotional.”
For Bryan, the important thing was that each of them made it out of the match healthy, which they did.
“You just want them to be ok,” he said, “and I knew in the back of my head they’d be ok.”
So how are the two brothers and best friends similar?
For Luke, there aren’t many similarities.
“I think we’re super different,” he said. “I think if you’d talk to anybody that knows us, they’d say that. Mac’s super thoughtful and outgoing. He’s never hiding what he’s thinking. He’ll always go out and say it. That’s how we’re different.”
For Bryan Stout, a similarity between the two is that they aren’t phonies.
“They’re so genuine,” he said. “There isn’t a fakeness about either one of them. Luke’s a little more rigid, and Mac’s more of a free spirit.
There’s also another similarity: They look alike.
“People come up to me all the time and think I’m him,” Luke Stout said. “People come up to him and think he’s me. I mean, we obviously look a ton alike. So I’d say it’s just appearance.”
The Stout family knew two brothers meeting would be unique but didn’t know that it had never happened before on that big of a stage.
Mac Stout (Pitt) wrestles brother Luke Stout (Princeton) at NCAA championships. Photo courtesy of Pitt Athletics.
“We weren’t aware at all,” Bryan Stout said. “Which is probably why there was some maybe little intervention in helping that happen in the second round, which we were upset about.”
But after talking it over with Jennifer, the family came to a realization.
“They’re talented kids, they’re healthy, they’re happy,” Bryan Stout said. It’s not going to war, and it’s not the blood round.”
Mac Stout, who ended up finishing seventh and still has two years of eligibility left, wasn’t too worried, either.
“I knew that regardless of the outcome, we would still be best friends.”
Next year, the Stouts will be together again.
Luke, who’s graduating from Princeton, will be a grad assistant at Pitt, where Mac will still be competing.
For Luke Stout, what he and his brother accomplished in the City of Brotherly Love won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
”I wouldn’t want to lose to anyone other than him,” he said. “It stinks, obviously, but it is what it is. I’m super happy for him. I wouldn’t change it. I think we’ll have some talks about it down the road and we’ll look back on this moment and talk about it for a really long time.”
