Last winter's traditional state wrestling tournament marked a close of a historic chapter for Mediapolis' Dan Cummings, with an induction into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

A native of LeRoy, Minnesota, he finished fourth in the state tournament in 1969 and followed that with a varsity career at Mankato State University, while earning a high school teaching and coaching degree.

He built a glittering 38-year dominating reign as head coach at Mediapolis after serving as an assistant for two years.

His teams were perennial champions in the Southeast Iowa Conference and they annually swelled his career dual meet record to 477-172-3, which is fourth best all-time in Iowa and among the Top 15 nationally.

He has coached 125 state qualifiers of which 62 were medal winners, including nine champions and seven runners-up. He also developed 31 wrestlers who ended their careers with 100 or more wins, with 10 exceeding 150 victories.

At the traditional state tournament his team finished in the Top 10 eight times, including third in 2013, second in 2014 and winning the championship in 2015. His team also qualified for the State Dual Team Tournament five times with third-place efforts in 2013 and 2015 and a second-place finish in 2014.

Mr. Cummings retired after teaching 32 years, but he continued to coach the sport he loved.

He and his wife Debra raised three sons, each a three-time state meet qualifier and who combined for a 385-50 prep record. Jamey was a third- and fourth-place medalist before wrestling for the U.S. Naval Academy. Ryan was the 1992 and 1993 state champion and wrestled at the University of Northern Iowa. Brandon was a 1996 third-place medalist.