Duane Olson set a high bar for Big Sandy wrestling

BIG SANDY – Ron Mangold was the wrestling coach at Big Sandy High School for 31 years, yet he never got the chance to coach Duane Olson. 

Fred Salmonsen got that privilege, guiding the Pioneers from 1965 to 1967, the years Olson won three straight undefeated state championships at 145 pounds. 

This was at a time where winning an individual wrestling state championship had an entirely different meaning. You didn't just go up against those in your school's Montana High School Association. You went up your weight class in the entire state, whether it was Class AA, A, B, or C. You wrestled every one of them. Like the movie 'Hoosiers,' but on a wrestling mat.

And Duane Olson set the standard by which all others who put on the Pioneer singlet would be measured.

Mangold, who coached the Pioneers from 1969 until 2000, Pioneer wrestling historian and former Montana Officials Association wrestling referee Bernie Ellingson, and this reporter met over the weekend in the foyer of the BSHS gymnasium to discuss the Pioneer wrestling Greatest of All Time list.

Inside that foyer is The Wall. The Duane Olson Memorial Pioneer Wrestling Wall of Champions, his portrait prominently displayed among 48 other wrestlers who reached the state tournament podium in a Pioneer singlet. Fifteen of them are state champions.

Mangold was a student teacher at Big Sandy before taking the coaching spot, and took the job despite having never wrestled himself.

The secret to Mangold's success isn't much of a secret: "It's having farm kids, ranch kids. They were easy to work with, that's the big thing.

"Good homes, good families."

The Pioneers started their wrestling program in the winter 0f 1961-62, under coach Doug Nelson.

"(They) asked me if back then I would become a referee, because we didn't have any in this area," Ellingson said. "So I took the clinics and took the tests, and I became an official in 1962."

Back then, the dress code for referees was totally different than the striped shirts and black pants they wear today, Ellingson added.

"The referee uniform back then was tan slacks and a white dress shirt," he said. "I refereed for 10, 11 years, and decided that was long enough.

"I worked three state tournaments during that time. Worked with a lot of great referees, and saw a lot of outstanding wrestlers over those ten years."

The names didn't come easily, but Ellingson saw all three of Olson's state championship matches.

"When Duane was a sophomore, he beat a wrestler from Billings Senior for the title," Ellingson recalled. "In his junior year, he beat one of Jug Beck's kids from Missoula Sentinel, and he beat Klemencik of Great Falls Central in his senior year."

Duane Olson, who won the Most Outstanding Wrestler at state that year, went on to wrestle at Iowa State University, joining a young 130-pounder by the name of Dan Gable. Gable won two NCAA National Championships and went on to have a successful coaching career with the Iowa Hawkeyes and as coach of Team USA in the Olympics.

Duane Olson died in a mobile home fire February 2, 1976 at age 26.

Ron and Ladene Mangold (son Mike is softball coach at Fergus High in Lewistown) celebrated 50 years of wedded bliss three weeks ago, but Ron said he would be remiss if he didn't mention her work beside him, keeping the charts, scores and stats at local and state tournaments for many years.

So many names. The names on the Pioneers' GOAT list reads like a Who's Who of High School wrestling. Ellingson said: "When you have all these state champions and 49 state placers, trying to pick 10 for your Greatest of All Time list is impossible." And we agree.

This is the Tribune's list. It is not a definitive list. It may not be an accurate list. But it is our list, meant to start conversations about not only past wrestling seasons, but the season to come in late November. You may not agree with our list. If you don't agree, feel free to let us know by emailing us as tribsports@greatfallstribune.com.

And, as always, thanks for reading the Tribune!

It's not in any particular order, and it's not definitive, but here is the Tribune's Greatest of All Time list for Big Sandy High School:

• DUANE OLSON, three-time undeated champion 1965-66-67, deceased 
• BILL ROMINE, three time champion 1975-76-77, undefeated senior year
• CHRIS FABER, two-time champion 1983 and 1984 (undefeated senior year)
• RANDY WILLIAMS, two-time champ 1971 and 1972 (undefeated in '72)
• RON FISHER, two-time champ 1977 and 1978
• GARY GULLICKSON, runner-up 1976 and 1977, 1978 champ
• LANCE NELSON, runner up 1999, third in 2000, champ in 2001
• RON RAMER, three-time placer, won championship as junior in '73, broke collarbone and did not wrestle senior year
• FRED HASHLEY, all-class undefeated heavyweight champ 1969
• BEN JENKINS, state champion 1982