During the 1940s, while collegiate wrestling and the sports world reeled from the devastation of World War II, Doug Lee of the Baltimore YMCA emerged as the nation's dominant wrestler.

Over that decade, he won five National AAU freestyle championships and placed second four times. He achieved these honors in five different weight classes, from 134 pounds to 165, and in his last year of competition, 1949, placed fourth at heavyweight.

He was voted outstanding wrestler of the national tournament twice, in 1945 and 1946. Over the years his victims included such stars as NCAA champs Merle Jennings and Jim Gregson, Olympian Dale Brand, and the ageless Dr. M. A. Northrup, who won four titles of his own.

Lee also won five National YMCA crowns when that event was of major stature. In his only international competition, he pinned the Canadian champion. He was one of the first wrestlers to use the "cradle" as an effective hold, and one of the first to apply it from a standing position.

Lee's high school did not have a wrestling team, and he did not attend college. He learned wrestling at night at the YMCA while farming his land on the outskirts of Baltimore, paying his own expenses. The Baltimore YMCA team was a unique mixture of kids, high school students, college wrestlers and some beyond those years. Lee worked out with everyone, young or old, sharing his experience and knowledge and gearing his coaching to the ability of each individual. He wrestled wherever the team needed him. Baltimore won the national team trophy in 1944.

Lee was a success in the cattle business, an adult leader of the 4-H program. As a young man, he was a member of a three-man Maryland team that placed second in the nation in cattle judging. He became a trustee of his church and its Sunday school superintendent.

For his incredible athletic achievements and his role in the motivation of young athletes, Douglas H. Lee is honored as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.