Mike Stanley sadly passed away due to a heart attack, March 5, 2015, while he was visiting his son in Anchorage, Alaska. He was 70 years old. Thankfully, he has been well aware of his induction into the Hall and felt extremely honored. He, indeed, had an honored wrestling career as a wrestler and coach. Mike, who graduated from Boulder High School in 1964, is the only Colorado wrestler to win three-consecutive National Championship titles in college. He was a successful prep wrestler at Boulder High School. He was 21-1 his senior year as a Panther, but had to settle for state runner up, forfeiting his final match due to injury. He was Adams State University's first National Champion and was co-captain of the team that won the team's first National title. He won his titles in 1966, 1967 and 1968 wrestling at 130 and 137-pounds. His efforts also enabled him to be named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic All-American team. His record at Adams State was 77-12-1. He was unbeaten as a freshman, but the records for freshmen didn't count back then, because it was non-varsity competition. Mike can also be considered All-American in other categories. His post collegiate competition included winning his weight class in the 1969 Phoenix Freestyle Tournament, being named to the All-Army Wrestling Team in 1970, and was a Rocky Mountain AAU champion in 1970. His personal wrestling career came to an end in 1971. He was the Chief Administrative Assistant to the Associate Professor of Evaluation and Research Branch of the Office of Physical Education, United State Military Academy at West Point. "His organizational abilities coupled with his initiative contributed significantly to the accomplishment of our mission," wrote Michael T. Plummer, major infantry and associate professor at West Point. Halls of Fame are certainly well known to Stanley. He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1977 and the Adams State University Hall of Fame in 2002. His 1968 college team has also been inducted into the Rocky Mountain Conference Hall of Fame and the Adams State University Hall of Fame. Mike would eventually coach at Fairview, Boulder's cross town rival. He began his teaching and coaching career in 1968 at Sunnyside High School in Tucson, Arizona, coaching the first two state champions the school produced. From there it was on to the U.S. Military Academy (1969-1971). He became the coach at Boulder in 1971 and also coached cross country. In 1976 he became the coach at Baseline Junior High and Fairview and from 1981-2001, taught and coached at Fairview. He had 23 state qualifiers during his head coaching tenure and as an assistant, helped coach an additional 13 qualifiers. Eleven of his wrestlers went on to have college careers and seven went into the coaching ranks. He spent several years as the tournament director at Fairview. Among his most treasured memories was co-coaching with Jim Heun. He also was a pioneer in coaching women's wrestling. Among his most noteable was Cathi Lee Albert (now Cat Zingano), a girl who would become a four-time All-American and a two-time National Champion in Freestyle. She also finished fifth in the World in Freestyle in 1999. Yet, he also had outstanding success in the classroom as a teacher. "I always put as much or more time planning and putting my effort in to quality teaching as I did coaching," Stanley said. In 1998, Mike was selected as the Sigma XI Outstanding Science Teacher. He would later become a finalist for the Colorado Science Teacher of the Year Award and was nominated for the prestigious Amgen Award. He retired for the first time in 2003, but it didn't last as he started teaching science at Boulder Country Day Middle School, where he also founded the schools wrestling program. In 2011, he officially retired. He is survived by his wife, Susan, son, Scott, and daughter, Cynthia.