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 www.dgm-nwhof.ticketleap.com or by calling the Dan Gable Museum at 319-233-0745.
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