Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Thursday, April 17, 2008
Yohe's lifetime of giving to wrestling lands him in Hall of Fame
Spencer Yohe will be the first to tell you he never was that great a wrestler.
Everyone else will tell you, he’s one of the best for wrestling.
For 37 years, Yohe has dedicated his time to wrestling at all levels.
He could be called the encyclopedia of Minnesota wrestling.
“I’ve been at it a long time,” Yohe said. “I don’t know anything else.”
For his dedication to the sport, through coaching, charities and everything else, because the man truly lives for wrestling, Yohe will be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., through the Minnesota chapter located in Owatonna, Minn.
Yohe will be honored with eight others beginning at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Holiday Inn.
“The Hall isn’t always about winning or great matches or wrestlers,” director of the Minnesota Coaches Association Bill Schmidt said. “It’s about people who contribute above and beyond, and there, that’s where Spencer stands alone.”
Yohe’s perspective on life is a truly positive one and it’s a life dedicated to giving back, because he’s cheated death a few times.
Yohe battled cancer on two different occasions. He went through two operations and 20 chemotherapy sessions. He said he’s been clean of cancer for 16 years.
Yohe, who runs a wrestling mat refinishing business, also was found unconscious one evening in 1997 when fumes got to him while working on mats. He was found 11 hours later.
“One person thought I was dead,” Yohe said. “They had to bring me back twice. The (paramedic) that did so says I’m a walking miracle.
“After something like that, you just want to continue to give back. I figure there is some kind of reasoning He kept me around. I just want to give back and have a positive impact on young people’s lives.”
And that’s what Yohe has done.
Yohe wasn’t much of a wrestler in his high school days at Caledonia, where he graduated in 1964, but he did develop a love for the sport.
From Caledonia, Yohe went on to graduate from Winona State, where he closely followed the wrestling team.
From there Yohe got into coaching, which took him from Houston and Hancock (Minn.) high schools to the college ranks at Minnesota-Morris and Moorhead State.
He also helped coach the NAIA national cultural exchange teams, which took him to Poland, the former Soviet Union, Germany, Austria, Egypt, Guatemala and Czechoslovakia.
While at Minnesota-Morris, Yohe recruited a Paynesville High School state champion by the name of Greg Schwartz. While Yohe was going through chemotherapy, Schwartz was there to help. In 1992, Schwartz was killed in a car accident with two friends.
That summer, Yohe started the Greg Schwartz Memorial Wrestling Camp. Over the last 17 years, the camp has given out more than 40 scholarships between $250-500.
“We need more people like Spencer Yohe in sports,” former WSU wrestling coach (1970-1977) Fran McCann said. “He’s always looking out for someone else, not himself. He’s such an ambassador for the sport. He’s always thinking positive about it. He’s been such an inspiration.”
One of Yohe’s most memorable moments was watching one of his recruits, Nate Hendrickson, win the 1997 National Championship for Moorhead State.
“That was the highlight of my coaching career,” said Yohe.
Yohe went on to talk more about Hendrickson. How he was the only one to go undefeated in Division II that year, how he was the only No. 1 seed to live up to his billing, and on and on.
Hendrickson tells a more entertaining version of that day.
“You can just put it this way,” Hendrickson, now 32, explains, “I have of picture of Spence, of all our coaches actually, after I won the match. Spencer’s feet are about two feet off the ground.
“It’s funny to watch that match from that year. It wasn’t that exciting a match. I won 9-1. It’s actually more fun to watch Spence in the corner of the screen than to watch the match. One minute he’ll be pumping his fists and the next he’s pulling his hair out. He was so excited.”
At camps, when Yohe talks of Hendrickson’s title run, he tells it in his own way.
“At one camp,” Hendrickson said, “he was introducing me, talking of my semifinal that went double overtime and he said I was the only guy that would choose up in an overtime. I interrupted and said to Spence, ‘I didn’t pick up, I picked down.’ And he says back to me, ‘Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.’”
Another highlight on Yohe’s storied list of accomplishments was, of course, watching more of his former athletes go on to greatness.
“Looking back on my coaching career, one of my proudest moments was seeing six of my athletes go on to become section coaches of the year,” Yohe said. “In 1997, three former athletes were section coaches of the year and one was the state coach of the year.”
Yohe’s induction into the hall is one of many honors he’s had in wrestling, but each one means the world to him. And everyone affiliated with Minnesota wrestling knows Yohe means the world to it, as well.
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