One of Minnesota's accomplished wrestlers and most entertaining and energetic high school wrestling coaches in memory was Mound, Minnesota native Charlie Coffee. Coffee excelled at all levels of his wrestling career and brought that skill and excellence to his coaching in Bloomington, Minnesota. Charlie was a four-time Region Champion for Mound High School and a 1956 state Wrestling Champion at 133 lbs in the "old" one-class tournament. He was a 4-time State Placewinner and 3-time State finalist. He was also a Junior National Champion in freestyle and voted "Outstanding Wrestler." In addition, Charlie participated and excelled in other sports as well earning eleven Letter Awards in football, wrestling and track. He was also a State Participant in track in the pole vault event. After high school Coffee attended the University of Minnesota where his successful wrestling career continued. He became a 3-time Big 10 Placewinner and an NCAA All-American in 1959. He also served as Team Captain for the Gophers in 1960 and 1962. He was selected as Gophers "Most Valuable Wrestler," also in 1960 and 1962. Coffee then entered the United States Army and wrestled there too. He was 4th Army Champion in 1964 and second in the "All Army" Tournament that same year. He went on to be 1964 "All-Service" Tournament Runner-up. Charlie wrestled in Olympic qualifiers in 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972 in Freestyle. He was a National Runner-up in Greco Roman Style in 1968 and 1972. He also placed second in the Pan American Games trials in 1967 and served as a team member of the World Team in 1966 and 1967. As Greco Roman style wrestler Coffee in the USA National Tournament in 1966, 1967 and 1968. He finished fourth, runner-up and champion respectively. He was also a member of the 1968 Greco Roman National Championship team. What was really amazing though about Coffee's post-college wrestling career is that he did most of this while teaching and coaching at the high school level too. He got his start as an assistant coach at Marshall High School in Minneapolis in 1964-65. He moved to Hopkins High School in 1965-66 before talking on his first Head Coaching position at Bloomington-Lincoln High School from 1966 to 1969. He then took over as Head Coach at the new Bloomington-Jefferson High School from 1969-70 to 1998. Even after retirement in'98 Coffee has volunteered some time coaching at The Villages Charter School in the Villages, Florida. Coach Coffee's teams captured Region titles at Lincoln High School in 1969 and then at Jefferson High School in 1973. His 1987 Jefferson team captured a Section (formerly Region) Team Title. His teams won over 300 dual meets in an era where far fewer meets were wrestled than today. Those teams produced 35 individual State Tournament qualifiers and a State Champion in heavyweight Gary Pederson in 1973. A longtime wrestling enthusiast and supporter, Charlie has been a member of the Gopher Takedown Club. In addition to this support and his coaching, Coffee officiated for many years. He began in 1956 at the high school level and officiated all the way through the Division l, ll and lll levels to youth wrestling, retiring his whistle in 2007. For Coffee's success as a coach he has been honored with Section "Coach of the Year" honors. His overall success as both a participant and coach have had him honored with induction to the Dave Bartelma-Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Bloomington-Jefferson High School and Mound High School Athletic Hall of Fames, and now his present induction into the Minnesota Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. The Coffee family includes wife, Bonnie, and their adult children Jill Marble and Jesse Thomas. The Coffees have four grandchildren. Charlie Coffee is a well deserving honoree, and a name that will always be remembered in the history of Minnesota Wrestling. He excelled as a wrestler and coach!