Wayne Baughman’s induction into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame on October 30 is a fitting tribute to one of America’s most accomplished wrestling athletes and coaches. He’s also carved out a unique life away from the mats that separates him from the ordinary.

The legendary Oklahoma native has lived in Colorado Springs for more than four decades, and is one of the nation’s most respected figures in collegiate and international wrestling. 

He was a three-time All-American and NCAA Champion at the University of Oklahoma. He was also a member of three U.S. Olympic teams and is the only individual to win national championships in all four styles of wrestling - collegiate, freestyle, Greco-Roman and Sombo. 

Baughman was the head coach for the 1976 U.S. Olympic Freestyle Team at the Games in Montreal that won six medals, and assistant and head coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy for 27 years as well as an Associate Professor. He was a charter member of the USOC’s Athletes Advisory Council, and a member of the USOC Board of Directors from 1976-1980, through the controversial United States boycott of the Moscow Games. He has been inducted into the Helms Wrestling Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Baughman has run the Pikes Peak Marathon five times, climbed to the top of all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains, doing Mount Elbert and Mount Massive on the same day. He has done endurance runs like the Death Valley-Mount Whitney run and took part in the 1990 International Peace Climb on Mount Everest. 

The wrestling great holds MA degrees from both the University of Colorado and the University of Denver, and has written a book and countless articles for wrestling publications.

Baughman will join Olympic figure skater and famed coach Christy Krall, International and Olympic sports leader George Killian, CU two-time All-American punter Barry Helton, who also owns two Super Bowl Championship rings with the 49ers, Indiana wrestling coach Duane Goldman, who was a two-time state champion at Cheyenne Mountain High and an NCAA Champion at 190 pounds for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and the 1986-2012 Cheyenne Mountain High Girls state championship tennis teams in the Class of 2012.

Sports Corp Special Awards will go to Frank Aires and Phil Johnson (Col. F. Don Miller Award) and Tom James (Thayer Tutt Sportsman Award)