The founder of two major college wrestling programs, Dick Barker turned one over to a legend, and turned the other into a legend. An undefeated 175-pound wrestler and an All-America football guard at Iowa State, he spent a year with the Chicago Bears, then entered coaching in 1923 at Cornell College, where he introduced wrestling. A year later, he was a football assistant at Michigan, and again launched wrestling.

Cornell called him home in '25 as wrestling coach, football coach and director of athletics. He left the Michigan job in the hands of young Oklahoman Cliff Keen, who would serve with distinction for 45 years.

Without scholarships, in a day when recruiting was unheard-of, Barker enjoyed 17 years of winning teams. His athletes came from the farms and rural villages of Iowa, and his opponents from the major conferences later to be known as the Big Ten and the Big Eight. A religious man, he set high standards of training and sportsmanship for his athletes.

Barker was one of a handful of pioneers who promoted and developed wrestling during the 1920s and '30s. He helped draft the first collegiate rules and helped plan the first NCAA tournament in 1928. He was an assistant coach of the '28 Olympic team.

Among his outstanding wrestlers were two-time Olympian Lloyd Appleton, a silver medalist in 1928, and Olympians Kenneth Truckenmiller in '24, Lyle Morford in '32 and Dale Brand in '36. Brand was an NCAA champion and Morford a three-time All-American. A Barker protege, Paul Scott, coached Cornell to the NCAA team title in 1947, an astonishing feat for the small, independent college of only 600 students.

After three years as football coach at Franklin & Marshall, he joined Curtis Publishing Co., which produced youth sport publications. He often could be found training and teaching in Penn State's wrestling room.

For his impact on the development and growth of the sport, and his influence on the lives of others, Richard William Barker is honored as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.