Connell named IRONMAN

National Wrestling Hall of Famer earns premier Global Eco Adventures toughness award

By Alex Junes-Ward

National Wrestling Hall of Famer and Kershaw County Councilman Ben Connell received the coveted Global Eco Adventures (GEA) IRONMAN award during the annual GEA Eco Ball at Stone River on the Congaree, April 21.

“Unlike other GEA awards which recognize extraordinary environmental stewardship in its myriad forms, the Ironman award recognizes stewardship, yes, but also a very high level of demonstrated mental and physical toughness surpassing the grit demonstrated by any resilient ‘ironman’ operating in extreme environs,” said Dr. Tom Mullikin, a global expedition leader, energy-environmental attorney, and retired two-star general officer, who founded GEA in 2014. “Ben is such a man, and so this was an easy choice for the awards committee.”

The night following Connell’s IRONMAN presentation, he was inducted into the Lugoff-Elgin High School Hall of Fame. It was at LEHS where he became something of a wrestling legend becoming a standout state champion before graduating and ultimately becoming captain of the University of North Carolina Tarheel wrestling team.

Today, Connell is an accomplished attorney and councilman. He is past president of the Kershaw County Bar Association, an adjunct professor at the Charleston School of Law, a vocalist, soloist, and former member of the Charleston Men’s Chorus.

“A man’s man in every way,” said Col. (Ret.) W. Thomas Smith Jr, S.C. Military Department, a former U.S. Marine Infantry leader and IRONMAN himself who nominated Connell for the IRONMAN honor. “Ben is a hard-working father of three, committed husband and a man who loves the Lord. In fact, one of the first conversations Ben and I ever had was about God. Ben started it, and I never forgot it.”

Mullikin, who earned his IRONMAN distinction through the non-profit Ironman Outdoors, added: “Ben epitomizes what it means to be an Ironman in the old school sense of iron virtue merging mental and spiritual toughness with physical prowess.”

GEA’s initial group of IRONMEN in May 2021 were those who, according to Mullikin, “had not only served our country with distinction in peace and in war, but the high-intensity military culture from which each of them had emerged had enabled them to continue serving with the same intellectual acumen, physical prowess, and spiritual commitment we might aptly say describes an IRONMAN.”

Since then GEA’s still-largely exclusive IRONMAN ranks have grown to include some of the world’s top SCUBA divers and diving instructors, mountaineering experts, international expedition leaders; martial artists and other athletes.

Bruce Brutschy, a fellow IRONMAN and a member-director of the S.C. Black Belt Hall of Fame says, “Ben Connell represents the best of the best, and only the best will ever hold the title, GEA IRONMAN.”

Other previously awarded IRONMEN include Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), recipient of the Medal of Honor; and Keith Vitali, world-renowned Karate fighter, S.C. Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, and inductee into the World Martial Arts Grand Masters Hall of Fame.

GEA is a non-profit adventure-education organization that directs large environmental projects and outfits and leads exploratory expeditions to some of the most remote regions around the world.

– Pictured (L-R) are Bruce Brutschy, Ben Connell, and Tom Mullikin