STILLWATER, Okla. – Seven contributors to the sport of wrestling will be honored Sunday, Oct. 13, by the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Dr. Gary Breece, Richard Dabbs, Tom Frohnapfel, Charlie Gomez, Thomas Holland, Lee Roy Smith, Jr., and Robert Zweiacher will be honored at a banquet and induction ceremony in Oklahoma City at the Jim Thorpe Museum. A reception hour will begin at 3 p.m. with dinner and the ceremony to follow at 4 p.m.

Reservations are $50 per person and are available online at www.ok-nwhof.ticketleap.com and are being accepted at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater.

Six of this year’s honorees will be inducted with Lifetime Service to Wrestling Awards, an honor given annually to those coaches, officials and contributors who have given a minimum of 20 years of service to the sport of wrestling, to their communities, and, most importantly, to the young people they have coached, taught and inspired. Dr. Gary Breece will receive the Outstanding American Award, an honor given to those who have succeeded outside of wrestling but attribute part of that success to the values they learned in wrestling.

To register for the banquet go to www.ok-nwhof.ticketleap.com or call (405) 377-5243.

Dr. Gary Breece was one of the most successful wrestlers to put on a singlet at the University of Oklahoma. A two-time state champion, for Edmond Memorial in 1968 and Tulsa Memorial in 1969, and a National Junior Freestyle champion, he matriculated to college soon after the NCAA lifted its ban on freshmen competing. He was the first wrestler in Sooner history and the first from any school in the modern era to earn All-America honors four times (1971-74). Breece placed third, second and sixth at the NCAA tournament, before winning the 1974 NCAA championship at 118 pounds and helping OU to its sixth all-time NCAA team title. He represented the USA in the World Championships later that year. The former Sooner standout earned his dental degree from the University of North Carolina, his Master’s and certificate in orthodontics from the University of Nebraska and became Board certified in orthodontics in 1993. He currently practices in Enid, Okla., where he coached YMCA wrestling for almost 20 years. His is also member of the Enid Chamber of Commerce and of the American Dental Association and the American Association of Orthodontics. He is past president of the Oklahoma Orthodontic Society.

Richard Dabbs was the head wrestling coach at Anadarko High School from 1983-2001, at Sulphur High School from 2004-2008 and at Ardmore High School from 2008-2013. Highlights of his career include a 277-121 high school varsity dual meet record, a state dual team championship and one runner-up finish and 11 district dual championships. His teams finished in the top 10 at the state championships 10 times. He also coached 11 individual state champions, 55 state place winners, three high school All-Americans and five individuals who were All-Americans in USA Wrestling freestyle and Greco-Roman competition. Included in Dabbs’s list of champion wrestlers is his son, Eric, a four-time state finalist, who won the state tournament as a junior and as a senior (2000-2001). Eric went undefeated both seasons and was named 3A Wrestler-of-the-Year. In 1993, Coach Dabbs was named 3A Wrestling-Coach-of-the-Year and was selected to coach in the All-State meet .

Tom Frohnapfel coached for two years at Geary and Tecumseh before finding his coaching home at Broken Arrow High School for 31 years, from 1974-2005. During his stint at Geary, Frohnapfel coached Tom and David Brack to individual state championships. Both went on to coach state championship teams of their own. During his tenure at Broken Arrow, Frohnapfel helped guide the Tigers to five straight state championships, from 1998-2002 and three consecutive dual state championships from 1998-2000. Among the many Broken Arrow athletes that he coached, state champions Bobby Crawford and Skyler Holman both earned NCAA Division I All-America honors, Crawford at Missouri and Holman for Oklahoma State. Frohnapfel also coached Steve Allen, who won an NAIA title at Missouri Valley, to a runner-up finish at the state tournament. Frohnapfel was selected to coach the 1993 Oklahoma all-state team.

Charlie Gomez won two individual state championships at Ulysses S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City. He was a two-time junior college All-American (2^nd in 1973 and 5^th in 1974) before transferring to the University of Oklahoma. In 1980, Gomez was named the head wrestling coach at Midwest City High School. He led his first team to a state wrestling championship with three individual state champions. The next season, however, would be his most successful. The 1981 Midwest City wrestling team won the state wrestling tournament with seven individual champions—a record for the state of Oklahoma. Amateur Wrestling News ranked the team as the best in the country. From 1982 through 1990, Gomez coached at Ponca City High School. Overall, in addition to his state team titles, he coached 19 individual state champions, won nine regional tournaments and compiled a record of 149-15-1. He was honored as Oklahoma Coach-of-the-Year three times.

Thomas Holland had been coaching youth wrestling for 10 years when he received his OSSAA officiating credentials in 1979 and began a 34-year career as a high school wrestling referee. He has officiated high school wrestling tournaments in Oklahoma, Colorado, Delaware, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Nevada, and Texas. Included in these tournaments are state championships, state dual meet tournaments, and All-State events in Oklahoma, as well as top national tournaments like the Beast of the East, the Reno Tournament of Champions, the Super 32 in North Carolina, and the Disney Duals in Florida. For 25 years, Holland has served as the director of officials for World of Wrestling events throughout the country. In 2008, he was inducted as a charter member of the Tulsa Nationals Hall of Fame. Although he did not wrestle in college, Holland wrestled in for McLain High School in Tulsa from 1961 through 1964.

Lee Roy Smith, Jr. is best known for fathering four of the greatest wrestlers ever in the state of Oklahoma, but his contributions extend far beyond that. When fourth grader Lee Roy Smith III came home from school in 1967 and told his dad he wanted to wrestle, “Big Lee” as he is affectionately known, jumped right in to help. For the next 30-plus years, as his sons Lee Roy, John, Pat and Mark moved through the Mid-Del School System and on to Oklahoma State University, Big Lee helped plan and organize numerous scholastic and Olympic-style events at virtually every competitive level. He moved mats, drew brackets, assisted at weigh-ins and kept score. He opened his home not just to wrestlers from across the country but also from around the world. He served as Floor Manager for two Division I and one Division II NCAA tournaments held in Oklahoma and was a volunteer member of the event staff at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Since 1977, he has missed only two NCAA Division I Championships.

Bob Zweiacher has a unique place in the history of Oklahoma wrestling. He started the wrestling program at Northern Oklahoma College in 1968 and was the only wrestling coach in school history. Between 1968 and 1983 when the program was dropped, his teams finished in the top 10 of the NJCAA seven times, including four top-five finishes. Five of his wrestlers won individual national titles, including Karl Lynes, a two-time junior college national champion who went on to become an All-American for Zweiacher’s alma mater, Oklahoma State. Zweiacher placed second at the NCAA Division I wrestling tournament for the Cowboys in 1964. He was also a two-time Big 8 champion. Zweiacher started his coaching career at Geary High School where from 1964-68, he coached five state champions. He was the 1968 Class A Coach-of-the-Year. Zweiacher was inducted into the National Junior College Hall of Fame in 1983.