GREEN & WHITE

Tom Minkel to retire as MSU's wrestling coach

Chris Solari
Lansing State Journal
MSU wrestling coach Tom Minkel will retire following the 2015-16 season, his 25th with the Spartans. He was a state champion wrestler at Williamston High and a three-time All-American at Central Michigan and coached the U.S. to a Greco-Roman bronze medal in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

EAST LANSING – Change is coming to the Michigan State wrestling program for the first time in a quarter of a century.

Coach Tom Minkel will step down following the 2015-16 season, which will be his 25th with the Spartans. MSU athletic director Mark Hollis announced the impending change in a release Tuesday morning.

Minkel, in that release, said the decision was about spending more time with his family.

"I absolutely love coaching and I've thoroughly enjoyed my tenure here at Michigan State," the 66-year-old Minkel said. "There's not a day I can't wait to get into the wrestling room and I certainly still have a passion for wrestling, but there comes a time when you sit with your wife and say 'what's on our list that we haven't done yet and would like to do?'

"The decision to shift your life's direction is always challenging; however, I have some things in mind that I want to do with my life besides coach. It just felt like the right time."

Hollis said associate coach Roger Chandler will take over for Minkel in 2016-17. He has been Minkel's assistant since 1997.

Minkel, a state champion in 1967 for Williamston High, was a three-time All-American at Central Michigan from 1969-71 (73-13-1 overall record) and won every dual meet match he wrestled (35-0-1). He won three national Greco-Roman titles and made the 1980 Olympic team that did not compete due to the U.S. boycotting the Games in Moscow that summer.

After 12 years as an assistant and two seasons as head coach at CMU, Minkel arrived at MSU in 1991 and brought an internationally regarded presence to the program. He coached the U.S. team to a Greco-Roman bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics and in the 1996 Games as an assistant coach, as well as leading the Americans' Pan-Am Games squad once and three World Games teams.

At MSU, Minkel has produced two NCAA champions, 38 All-Americans and 13 Big Ten champs. The Spartans have placed in the top 25 as a team at the NCAAs 13 times, a third-place finish in 1995 behind national champ Kelvin Jackson their highest finish since 1972. MSU also took seventh place at nationals in 1996.

However, that success proved fleeting.

In 1998, MSU imposed nine sanctions against Minkel's program after a combined school and NCAA investigation uncovered seven secondary violations that occurred between the summers of 1993 and 1996. The probe found 11 wrestlers were improperly employed at summer camps for several years, improper recruiting inducements were provided to five wrestlers and student-athletes received excessive reimbursement for transportation, clothing and lodging. The program went on probation for two years, Minkel was suspended without pay for 60 days in the fall of 1998 and scholarships were stripped between 1999 and 2001.

Since 1987, MSU finished in the top half of the ultra-competitive Big Ten team dual standings just five times — second in 1995, third in 1996 and 2003, and fourth in 2000 and '05. Minkel's squad went 1-8 this season in Big Ten duals and is 11-68 in conference matches since 2005-06.

Just 15 of the program's 135 All-Americans have come since 2000, the most recent being heavyweight Mike McClure in 2013-14. Franklin Gomez (2009) won MSU's lone NCAA individual title during that span.

The Spartans qualified just one wrestler for the NCAA tournament this spring and finished last out of 69 teams with minus-0.5 points, their worst showing since taking 60th in Minkel's first season (1992).

Big Ten schools have combined to win 24 Division I team championships since 1975 and nine in a row, including Ohio State in 2015. MSU's only team national championship came in 1967 under Grady Peninger. The Spartans haven't finished higher than 18th at the NCAAs since 2001.

Only Fendley Collins (32 seasons) has coached longer at MSU. Minkel's 171 wins also rank second in school history, behind Peninger's 213.

"You go through the ups and downs, the challenges and successes, the failures and struggles, and it's tough," Minkel said, "but you also get to build these great relationships through it all and have a significant impact on their lives."

Roger Chandler

Chandler, who will enter his 19th season as Minkel's assistant this fall, was promoted to associate head coach in 2011. The 40-year-old native of Sheffield Lake, Ohio, was a three-time All-American at Indiana and that school's male athlete of the year in 1997. He joined Minkel's staff that fall. Chandler's wife, Mandy, is an associate director in Student-Athlete Support Services at MSU.

"I have high expectations for Roger to lead the program for the years to come," Hollis said in the release. "He has positive relationships with our student-athletes and also with young wrestlers and the wrestling community. Perhaps most importantly, he has learned how to do things the right way. I believe in Roger and his goals for the program, but we also need the support and commitment of the Spartan wrestling community to compete in the best wrestling conference in the country."