Tom Beyer grew up in Morris, MN. He is the oldest of eight siblings and has four sisters; Julie, Jan, Beth and Bonnie and three brothers; Ed, Joel and Jerry. They all lived in a small three-bedroom home with the four boys sharing one bedroom while all the girls were in another. Tom's competitive nature started with roughhousing in those tiny rooms and around the kitchen table as they competed over the last serving of his mother's bread pudding! Tom was introduced to the sport of wrestling by his 5th grade classroom teacher, Mr. Gosman. Then, as a jr. high student, Tom began to develop a strong interest in the sport when another teacher, George Graff, a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, became his coach. During the two years of working with George, Tom generated a passion for the sport that drove him to spend over 30 years contributing to the sport of wrestling. As a freshman, Tom moved on to the high school and met his next teacher/coach that influenced and increased desire to wrestle; Al Hendrickson, another Wrestling National Hall of Fame member. At about the same time, George Graff became the assistant coach alongside Al. Al was a quiet but inspiring leader, and by observing his actions and the friendships he developed with his young men, Tom began to realize that he, too, may someday wish to coach. During his high school career, Tom was a three-year starter for the Tigers. A cherished memory of that period was that of winning a heavyweight match against a 280lb student athlete, Tom weighed in at 190lb! The following day the match was told in similar fashion to the story of Samson and Goliath, with Samson, (Tom) charging in to defeat the giant, (280lb wrestler.) Numerous times during the following school day the speech teacher called Tom into his classroom to do an oral "play-by-play" of the match while watching the video. Not of any academic value, but the students sure got a chuckle out of it! Tom's most memorable high school experience, however, was winning the region and then advancing to the state tournament as a senior. His disappointing loss in the semi-finals fueled him to work harder to nurture his passion and follow his dream of becoming a college athlete. Following graduation in the spring of 1976, Tom went to basic training and infantry training in Georgia. These four months helped him grow into a disciplined young man and taught him a great deal about mental training and what the human body can do with the correct mindset. After completing military training in early September, Tom enrolled at the UMM hoping he could manage the academics and wrestle for the Cougars. After completing the first week of freshman science, he realized he was entering another challenging adventure, obtaining a college education. During his first year at UMM Tom kept his head above water and worked at becoming a better student. He also began his redshirt wrestling season. The highlight of that season was an exhibition match with Wade Schalless, the NCCA 1972 and 1973 National Champion. Tom described the defeat as, "The first time in my life I wrestled an opponent who knew what I was going to do before I did!" He realized then he had a long way to go before the next season. When Tom returned to UMM the next fall, he felt comfortable academically and was looking forward to wrestling as a Cougar. Coach, Doug Dufty, the third of Tom's coaches who was also a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, had another challenge for Tom. That was in the form of two small town wrestlers out of South Dakota-Dennis and Duane Koslowski. These two wrestlers became one of many outstanding wrestling partners throughout Tom's wrestling career at UMM. Dennis won two national titles and Duane won one. Tom won one title and was runner up once. Over the years of wrestling for Doug at UMM, the team won three NIC conference titles, produced fifteen All-Americans, four of which were national titles. The team placed in the top ten in four NCAA Division III national tournaments placing; 10th, 4th, 6th and 3rd. Tom recalls the years at UMM as a college athlete with fondness for his teammates and their collective accomplishments. During the spring of 1981, Tom took a job as a fourth-grade elementary teacher in Willmar, MN. He was also assigned the head wrestling coaching job, and later served in many other coaching capacities. He stepped up and took over as head baseball coach that first year for a teacher who was released due to budget cuts. In his second year, Tom was asked to take a position with the varsity football team. Though these were great opportunities for the young coach to learn from experienced coaches, they were not where his heart for coaching was. During those first years as the high school wrestling coach, Tom was very lucky to have yet another "Hall of Farmer," as a mentor and friend, Coach Roy Minter, who was the then head wrestling coach at Willmar Community College. Tom's first years of coaching were rather humbling as he worked to get more wrestlers on the bus than cheerleaders and Mat Maids! Roy was there to keep Tom focused on building the program and not worrying about winning. "It will happen, stay focused," was something Tom heard from Roy more than once. As the weeks became months, the months became seasons, and the seasons became years, the Cardinals began winning matches, tournaments, and competing for conference titles. Finally, in 1989, the team had a couple major breakthroughs. Coach Beyer congratulated his first state champion, which was also Willmar's only second state champion in school history. The next year Willmar made another milestone for the wrestling program, the Cardinals produced two state champions at the same time! Coach Beyer remembers talking with then assistant coach, Paul Donner, as they were about to watch the two go at it in the wrestling room. "We may never be lucky enough to work with this kind of dedication and ability in our coaching careers again." Chad Carlson, one of the two, went on to wrestler for the Gophers and participate in four national tournaments. Troy Haglund, the other, choose to stay close to home and wrestled for Roy Minter at Ridgewater Community College. He became an NJCAA All-American. He then transferred to Duluth and was a NCAA Division II All-American. After the strong showing in 1991, the Cardinals began producing more competitive teams and athletes. In 1992, the Cardinals again had two state champions, Carl Carlson and Andy Rigstad. Carl went on to wrestle at the University of Minnesota and Andy went to St Cloud State, where he was a two-time NCAA Division II National Finalist. Two years later, in 1994, Nate Villinow won a state title for the Cardinals. That would be Willmar's sixth state title in a six-year span. Willmar had two other wrestlers make it to the state finals, Leo Ballesteros in 2001 and Drew Larson in 2007. The final big accomplishment for the Cardinals during Coach Beyer's reign was winning the regional dual titles in 1998 and 2005, which allowed the Cardinal's to enter the dual team state tournament. The 1998 team was Willmar's first team to ever qualify for the state dual tournament. The 2005 team entered the region tournament as an underdog, seeded 5th. They upset every team on their route to winning the regional tournament. They made a proud showing, placing 5th in the state AAA tournament, which was Willmar's first time placing in the dual tournament. The seniors on this team included, not only Tom's son, but other young men that each hold a special place in Tom's heart. In Coach Beyer's twenty-six years as head coach, his teams won 248 matches and had sixty state entries, eight of which were state finalists. He thought he was ready to step aside and was optimistic that there were former Cardinal wrestlers who would commit to keeping the wrestling program growing and successful. In fact, two former Cardinal wrestlers were hired as educators in the school system and are part of the high school coaching staff today. After stepping down as the high school wrestling coach in the spring of 2007, Tom looked forward to pursuing other interests. However, as fate would have it, in the late summer of that year, Tom was approached and accepted the opportunity to coach at the collegiate level, something he had once envisioned himself doing. While coaching at Ridgewater Community College, Tom spent a great deal of time recruiting and building the program. He recruited wrestlers from not only the Willmar area, but from as far away as Alaska. Tom could be seen out in area restaurants with these boys and their parents who had, perhaps, never been to the lower 48. Tom had success in building the program while coaching at Ridgewater, as he was able to recruit 20-30 wrestlers to the campus each of the six years that he coached there. This afforded the campus to have full competitive teams each year. During his time at Ridgewater, the team won five state junior college championships and competed successfully in the regional tournament against scholarship programs from Iowa. In addition, fifty individuals advanced to the national junior college tournament, four of which became Junior College All-Americans. The 2011-12 team earned the recognition of being the NJCAA Academic All-American Team. Currently, Tom continues to contribute to the wrestling realm as he can often be found in the local wrestling room among young boys that include his grandsons.