Jim Richardson – Hayfield

Jim Richardson, son of Willy and Susan (Nelson) Richardson, was born in West Waterloo, Iowa (Gable Country) and moved to Hayfield, Minnesota, when Jim was five years old. Uncles Jim, Richard, and Jerry Nelson taught little Jimmy how to hunt, fish, and trap growing up. Uncle Jerry was tasked with babysitting little Jimmy on Saturday mornings and took him along to Youth Wrestling Practices. This is where Jim first met Dave Erickson, not realizing the impact this man would have on his life.

By the time Jim was seven, he was hooked on wrestling and one of the many kids Coach Erickson stuffed into the back of his 1972 Chevy Pickup Truck with a topper on it, going to wrestling tournaments all over the countryside in the Spring.

In the summer after his Sophomore year, after getting pinned by just about every kid in Southern Minnesota, Richardson went to a Summer Wrestling Camp under the direction of J Robinson and a little guy by the name of Dan Gable. After a month with Robinson and Gable, Jim returned to Hayfield with a whole different perspective on wrestling and life, setting him on a course that shaped him into the person he is today.

Richardson qualified for the State Tournament the next two seasons, placing fourth as a Senior. Jim planned on playing Football at the college level but went to a wrestling tournament in the Spring and ran into a guy by the name of Jim Short. Short talked Richardson into wrestling in the State Freestyle Tournament and then attending a training camp put on by the Minnesota Wrestling Club, where he met a few more fellas like Jim and Steve Martinez, Dan Chandler, Mike Houck, and John Morgan. Richardson will forever be indebted to the Morgans, his second family, who took him into their home and treated him like a brother. And once in a while, they gave him a few jabs and an occasional left hook when he got too big for his britches.

After getting pinned every time he turned around as a Sophomore in High School, Richardson was loving life, going 24-3 in his Senior Year in High School and wrestling every weekend in the Spring and Summer, sporting a sixty-match win streak, for an overall record of 90-6 as well as a second-place finish at Fargo, losing an 8-8 overtime match in the Finals. It was an eye-opening as well as a door-opening year for Richardson, allowing him to travel the world and meet even more tremendous athletes, coaches, and mentors.

Jim enrolled at NDSU, red-shirting his first year while going 10-10 in open tournaments, but got a little homesick as he was a self-proclaimed “Momma’s Boy.” Jim returned to Southern Minnesota and enrolled at Rochester Community College, qualifying for nationals twice and earning 4th place honors his second year. Richardson continued to train with the Minnesota Storm that Spring and Summer, winning the University World Greco-Roman Tournament, now called U23, at the age of 18 and then winning an Olympic Qualifier in Waterloo, Iowa, and going on to take 5th place at the 1988 Greco Trials in Pensacola, Florida.

While finishing his degree in Law Enforcement, Richardson was invited to move to the Twin Cities and train with the Kozlowski Twins at the University of Minnesota—another Mountaintop Experience.

During that time, Richardson was afforded the opportunity to coach under JRob, Jim’s childhood hero, at the U of M, as well as Gordy Morgan at St. Thomas and later under Paul Thein at Rochester Community College, where Jim had the privilege of coaching a National Runner-up Team. Jim also had the thrill of defeating NCAA Champion Dan Severn on his way to winning the 1992 Olympic Qualifier, but in spite of being a six-time U.S. Open All-American in Greco and defeating several Olympic Medalists over the years, Jim fell short of his goal of making the 1992 Olympic Greco-Roman Team.

Then, one February night in 1999, while investigating a burglary in progress, Jim engaged the suspect and, while taking him to the ground, felt some pain in his back that he thought may have been a pulled muscle. It turned out Jim had a tumor the size of a grapefruit in his chest. The next morning, the ”whistle blew” on a two-year, every day, intense battle with cancer. After beating the odds in what he calls his “Dance with the Devil,” Richardson developed a mindset he calls “Mental Aerobics” and hosted a Mental Aerobics Wrestling Tournament in Rochester, helping to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Jim was the founder of Mental Aerobics Charities and served as President from 1999 until 2016.

Richardson founded and ran the “Big Jim Classic,” a golf tournament that was recently retired after 18 years. The tournament supported the Hope Lodge in Rochester. Jim also started “Muddin’ in the Meadow,” a Mud Bog Racing event to help area children in need.

Richardson continued to coach and train with the Minnesota Storm and the U of M wrestlers, as well as two-time Div. II Champ Nick Severson from Hayfield, working out two to three times a day went on to win the FILA World Greco Title in Quebec as well as a silver medal at the Police and Fire World Games in 2003. In 2004, Richardson won the US Open in Freestyle and Greco in the veteran’s division. In 2005, Jim was a Police and Fire Olympic Gold Medalist in Freestyle and Greco. Richardson also gave back to his hometown, serving as assistant wrestling coach where he was honored as Assistant Coach of the Year at GMLOS in 2002 and 2007. Jim also served as Head Coach at GMLOS from 2014-2017. Richardson was inducted into the Dave Erickson Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002, and Jim went into the Region One Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2017.

Jim married Darcy, his prom date from Brownsdale, Minnesota, and has two children, Sydney and Wyatt. Darcy has a Master’s Degree and works as an Instructional Designer for Mayo. Sydney enlisted in the Marine Corps after High School and is currently earning her Master’s Degree in Project Design Management while working at the Mayo Clinic (like her mother). Wyatt was an All-State Football Player and Wrestler at Grand Meadow, went on to wrestle at Augsburg, and currently serves as a Mower County Deputy, following in his dad’s footsteps. Richardson has served as the Grand Meadow Chief of Police going on 30 years. Jim is also one of the founding fathers of the Rochester Regional Greco-Roman Training Center which was started in 1992 and continues to flourish. Richardson still has a current USA Wrestling card and trains area wrestlers in his TEAM UNIT Wrestling Club at a facility he built in his backyard in 2007 called the “Lean2”

When Jim looks back on his wrestling career, he remembers how disappointing it was to fall short of his Olympic goal and was feeling like a failure, but his bout with cancer cleared his mind and soul. Richardson’s recipe for life that has allowed him to keep teaching and coaching goes like this: “THERE IS NO BETTER REMINDER THAN FAILURE” – “FOCUS ON THE GOOD, CRUSH THE BAD, and SPREAD THE LOVE” by THE UNIT.