Bob Thorson grew up in Niesville, Minnesota where his mom was an elementary school teacher. He graduated from Halstad High School and went on to college at Moorhead State. He settled in Fertile where he raised his family. Bob taught elementary school and coached wrestling for 41 years. During Thorson's tenure as head wrestling coach, Fertile-Beltrami won four consecutive Section titles (Region 8 Champions) 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985. His teams also captured Sub-Region 8 titles six times. He coached 32 State individual entrants, seven of them placed. They won the Pine to Prairie Conference four times. His 1984-85 team won the prestigious KC Duals in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The 1982 team were State Consolation Champions, 1983 team placed 4th in State and 1984 team placed 6th in State. As an assistant in 1976 Fertile-Beltrami teams placed 6th in State and were State Runner-ups in 1977. Bob served as an assistant coach from 1969 to 1981 and served as head coach from 1981 to 2005. Many of these high school wrestlers got their start wrestling for Coach Thorson in the elementary program. In 1995, Bob was asked to coach a cultural exchange team who traveled to the Netherlands to compete. In 2003, Thorson was inducted into the Dave Bartelma-Minnesota wrestling Hall of Fame. Coaching philosophy for Bob Thorson was to have his student-athletes to "try your best, and have fun." With the fun, many long term friendships were established which boasted him a retirement party in 2006 with more than 140 wrestlers, teachers, family and friends attending. Bob opened up the "blue living room carpet" for the "if I wrestled that match again" type matches... Fortunately, the living room is still intact. Former wrestler under Coach Thorson, Steve Ricard, says, "The fact that he (Thorson) was able to obtain the success he did was due in large part to the way he knew how to handle kids. He was a second dad to many, many wrestlers." Former Roseau High School Wrestling Coach Jeff Olsen says, "This gentleman (Bob Thorson) has given his heart and soul to the sport, running one of the State's best elementary wrestling programs every spring. He gladly volunteers his time for the good of our sport, and he best exemplifies the unselfishness that goes into making wrestling the great sport that it is." Over the many years Bob employed many wrestlers during the summer months who helped him paint or cut trees. While this sounds like rigorous work, Bob enjoyed letting his workers have fun, taking them waterskiing and watching practical jokes unfold. Bob also helped many people with the hardships of life through his time, working at the St. Joseph's church dinner, providing a loan or having someone stay with him at his house, to help them get by. Even now Thorson volunteers at the Agassiz Nature Conservative when he isn't hunting, or visiting his children and grandchildren. The Thorsons include sons Chris (and Jayme) Thorson, sons Karl and Ben in Duluth, Minnesota, and Jen Thorson and husband Ted Kleedorfer and daughter Claire in Maplewood, New Jersey. Finally, I think former Fertile-Beltrami wrestler under Thorson, Darren Skanson, says it best, "If being in the Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame has anything to do with an adult's life worth of commitment to Minnesota Wrestling and being a coach who coaches more than wins and losses, Bob Thorson of Fertile-Beltrami is as deserving as anyone."