The Mount Rushmore of The Dalles wrestling is complete.
This past Saturday in Tigard, former wrestling coaches Kevin Kramer and Roger Rolen were inducted into the Oregon chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for their lifetime achievement in the sport, joining past selections Rich Rolen and Dennis Radford.
Kramer and the Rolen brothers gave all the credit to Radford, their former coach and father figure.
Without his guidance, none of this would have been possible.
“I was blessed with a lot of great coaches, and coach Radford is at the top of that list,” Roger said. “The coaching I got helped me not only as a wrestler, but as a person, and is a big part of who I am today.”
For 33 years, Kramer was both a head coach and volunteer assistant at The Dalles High School, as he coached 73 state placers and 13 individual state champions during his tenure.
Three of his wrestlers went on to achieve college All-American status.
On the mat, Kramer won all three styles of state championships (folkstyle, freestyle and Greco-Roman) in his senior year for The Dalles and was the national high school champion in both freestyle and Greco in 1973.
While at the University of Oregon, Kramer won the 1975 Pacific-8 Conference championship.
He was also the West team representative in the annual East-West collegiate all-star match.
“I was really surprised when I got the call. I am still kind of dazed by it. I am very humbled,” Kramer said.
Kramer was quick to share all the praise with fellow coaches Rich Rolen, Radford, Greg Burkart, Paul Beasley, Tim Brown and everyone involved in the program.
“This is an award for the community. A community that has supported wrestling, and athletics in general, for a number of decades,” Kramer said. “We have just had a tremendous amount of parents, teachers and coaches involved in this whole process, so it is very humbling to be singled out when there are countless others who put in a tremendous amount of work.”
Roger Rolen was a two-time All American at Western Oregon University and a four-time Evergreen Conference champion for the Monmouth college.
He returned to The Dalles, and for several years, served as coach before joining three other former TD wrestlers as a coach at Oregon City High School, where he was a six-time conference Coach of the Year and an Oregon Coach of the Year in 2013.
Among his coaching accomplishments, Roger’s teams placed in the top-10 at state 17 times with 82 state placers and 12 individual state champions.
In 1998, he coached the Oregon Cultural Exchange team, which toured Hungary.
“I don’t know if I deserve this honor, but I will cherish it forever because it makes me feel like I’ve been accepted into the greatest sports fraternity,” Roger said. “I’m truly honored to be a part of this. It’s humbling to be included with all of these other great names from our sport. Wrestling has been a big part of my life, and will continue to be for years to come.”
With the Rolen brothers and Kramer, Radford now has three of his former wrestlers inducted into the Hall of Fame, an unprecedented accomplishment in any state.
“Those guys are definitely deserving. I am so thrilled to share this with them,” Radford said. “I think the most important thing to take away from this is that these gave everything to this sport, not for the recognition, but to make a difference. When you see that amount of dedication rewarded in such a way, it is gratifying for me as their coach.”
When he was in middle school, Rich said Radford made his presence known, as he provided so many avenues for kids to enjoy the sport on a year-round basis, with the cultural exchange, which used to be the Junior Olympics, state freestyle, Greco-Roman, and all the youth programs.
Along with those programs, Radford implemented a foundation for success through teaching, character-building, constructive criticism, while fostering a family feel at all levels of the program.
“I know it all started through Dennis. He made a difference,” Rich said. “All the way through, his philosophy was that you need to give back to the programs that you are in. He was involved in wrestling and he was also involved in the agricultural part. He gave back. He told us as wrestlers that we need to give back to the sport when it is all over. That kind of stuck with us. That is why Kevin, Roger and I chose to be teachers because we wanted to give back. Dennis was such a great example.”
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