In August, Donald Knauf was inducted into the Florida chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his work to grow the sport of wrestling in the Sunshine State.

He coached at Martin County High in Stuart, Florida for 20 seasons and ran the Martin County USA Wrestling Club from 1996 through 2016. At the age of 82, he stepped in and coached for a year at South Fork High in Stuart to keep that program alive until a qualified candidate could be hired.

Knauf, now 88, has been sharing his knowledge and passion about wrestling for more than 60 years to athletes in Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine.

“Wrestling has been pervasive in my life,” Knauf said in a video interview for his 2023 induction into the Florida Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. “I just fell in love with the sport and what it was doing for me and the guys around me. Wrestling has been the core of my life and my being.”

In Connecticut, he was a volunteer coach at the University of Hartford for two years and at The Taft School in Watertown for another two years.

He was the first coach of the Southern Connecticut State wrestling program and spent 21 seasons coaching the Owls. Under Knauf’s leadership, Southern won more than 200 matches and won three New England championships. Nine times his Owls finished in the top 20 at the NCAA Division II national championships and he coached 26 All-American wrestlers, including seven two-time All-Americans.

Read more about Knauf’s extensive, six-decade career in wrestling at Connecticut Wrestling Online.