(January 20, 1945 – October 18, 1972) Rick Sanders put Portland and Oregon on the international wrestling map, winning national titles and a pair of Olympic silver medals before dying tragically at a young age.
Sanders finished with a high school record of 80-1 and three state titles at Lincoln High in Portland. He won championships at 98 pounds in 1961, 108 pounds in ‘62 and 115 pounds in ‘63. After graduating from Lincoln, Sanders trained for the 1964 Olympics at a camp that included wrestling legend Dan Gable. Gable credits Sanders for teaching him specific moves that helped him finish his college career with just one loss.
After that intensive training, Sanders enrolled at Portland State and won national titles at the NAIA, NCAA Div. II and Div. I championship meets, earning the outstanding wrestler at each level.
Sanders qualified for both the 1968 and ’72 Olympic Games and won silver in each. In between those Olympics, Sanders became the first American to win a title at the World Championships, taking the 52kg title in 1969. He won five U.S. freestyle titles, six international medals and is credited with having once beaten Gable 6-0 – the lone shutout Gable suffered in his career. Following the 1972 Games in Munich, Germany, he was killed in an auto accident in Yugoslavia at the age of 27.
Sanders was inducted into the Portland State Athletics Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class in 1997 – along with the ’67 national championship wrestling team. He is a distinguished member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.