C. Dee Gard
 

C. Dee Gard’s honorable active career as a wrestling competitor, coach and official has been many years in the making. The call to competition came early for Mr. Gard. While yet in grade school and junior high, he was a three time League Champion. As a high school wrestler, Mr. Gard was a three time state placer; finishing 1st, 4th, and 3rd, including an undefeated sophomore season.

As a collegiate wrestler at Kansas State University, Mr. Gard won a Missouri Valley Conference Championship, placed twice in the Big Eight Conference Championships in 1959 and 1960, and competed twice at the NCAA Tournament those same years.

In 1962, Coach Gard began an extremely successful coaching career at Wichita Heights High School. During Coach Gard’s stellar tenure, the Heights Falcons were Greater Wichita Athletic League Champions 10 times, an achievement that earned him Kansas Coach of the Year in 1968. Coach Gard’s Heights Falcons compiled a 100-20-1 dual record. At the state level, Heights had nine Top 5 finishes: 1st twice, 2nd twice, 3rd one time, 4th three times, and 5th one time. Heights also captured twelve Top 5 Regional performances.

With the team success Heights achieved came many individual successes to which Coach Gard contributed. Two High School All-Americans, Doug Lunt in 1969 and John Kadel in 1971 are products of the Wichita Heights program. Heights had 17 State Champions, 13 State 2nd place finishers, 11 3rd place winners, and 18 4th place finishers. Many wrestlers from Coach Gard’s Heights program had successful collegiate careers including those who placed at the NCAA Tournament: Lunt, who wrestled at Iowa State; Kadel for Oklahoma and Kansas State; Geary Murdock for Iowa State; Larry Buckner for UNLV; and Charles Ekey, a National Champion for Fort Hays State.

Most recently, Mr. Gard has remained active as a wrestling official in Kansas. For the past 21 years, Mr. Gard has officiated 20 Kansas High School State Tournaments and was honored as the NFIOA Kansas Wrestling Official of the Year in 1996 and 1999.