Rulon Gardner to enter Alan & Gloria Rice Greco-Roman Hall of Champions
Morgan Family also will be honored
September 8, 2011
WATERLOO – The National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum is proud to announce that Rulon Gardner,
the most decorated American Greco-Roman wrestler, will be inducted into
the Alan & Gloria Rice Greco-Roman Hall of Champions on Saturday,
October 9, 2010. The event will take place at the Christensen Center
Commons on the campus of Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn.
The Jim and Olive Morgan family will be given the first
Greco-Roman Legacy Award for their tremendous accomplishments in
wrestling, specifically in the Greco-Roman discipline. A family of 12
kids, six boys and six girls, Jim passed along his boxing and wrestling
skills to his boys.
John, Gordy and Marty – sons of Jim and Olive - won a combined 10
national Greco-Roman titles and competed in two Olympics and two World
championships.
Alan and Gloria Rice, namesakes of the hall of champions, have
been instrumental to the success of Greco-Roman wrestling in the United
States. Alan Rice was a Big Ten champion and All-American for the
University of Minnesota. In 1956 he won national titles in Greco-Roman
and freestyle. He also placed 7th at the 1956 Olympics and coached the
1972 Greco-Roman Olympic team.
He and his wife, Gloria, helped form the Minnesota Wrestling Club. The
club enjoys the unique distinction of placing a wrestler on every World
and Olympic team since 1964, a record unequalled in wrestling history.
The Alan & Gloria Rice Greco-Roman Hall of Champions occupies a
significant wing in the Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo.
“Inducting Rulon into the Greco-Roman Hall of Champions is a great
recognition for a great champion and his five peers. Many people
thought that no American could ever triumph in this style of wrestling.
Now the world recognizes the capacities of our great country to produce
great champions,” Rice stated.
Gardner shocked the world in the finals of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney,
Australia, when he defeated legendary Russian Alexander Karelin in the
finals of the superheavyweight division. Karelin had won 12 World and
Olympic titles up to that point. Gardner won the World Championships in
2001 and also captured the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens,
Greece.
Gardner joins last year’s inaugural class in this elite Hall. The 2009
class included Olympic champions Steve Fraser and Jeff Blatnick and
World champions Mike Houck, Dennis Hall and Joe Warren.
Gardner was inducted as a Distinguished Member into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., on June 5, 2010.
Festivities begin at 5:00 p.m. with a reception. Dinner, awards presentation and autograph session will follow.
Tickets are $40 and can be purchased online at ticketleap.com or by calling the Dan Gable Museum at 319-233-0745.
