Located a little less than an hour east of Des Moines, Grinnell college is said to be the toughest academic school in the state of Iowa. It's even known as a "Hidden Ivy." While the Pioneers no longer have a wrestling program, they did throughout the 50's, 60's & 70's. 1961 team champs at the Midwest Conference (MWC) I believe the program was dropped sometime in the late 70's or early 80's.
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| Don Cassidy |
After making the MWC finals as a sophomore in 1955, Cassidy went on to win two MWC titles in 1956 & 1957. He then went into the Air Force where he achieved the rank of Colonel before becoming the head coach at Aurora University in Illinois (which I covered the other day).
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| Dick Walker |
Also a member of the Football & Track teams, Walker excelled academically & athletically during his time at Grinnell. In Football he was honorable mention All MWC in both his junior & senior seasons. As a wrestler he took third place at the 1956 MWC championships.
He then taught & coached for a while at Waterloo West High School before moving to to Wartburg College & eventually coming back to Grinnell. Not only did he coach wrestling, but he also coached football, track & swimming.
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| Harold "Bud" Gregg |
Coming to Grinnell on a football scholarship where he was twice named all MWC, Gregg was the one who went to both the football & wrestling coaches with the idea of incorporating weight lifting into the training regiment. As a result of Gregg's suggestion, Grinnell invested into buying weights & became one of the first schools in the state of Iowa where athletes trained with weights.
Later in life Gregg became vice president of Stone Container Corp, a world wide company worth seven billion dollars.
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