Cliff Keen

He led the Michigan Wolverines to 13 Big Ten Conference championships, and coached 68 All-American wrestlers.

In 1976, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member.

Keen was born on a ranch at Red Moon in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, near the town of Cheyenne.

He was playing basketball one day when a wrestler asked him if he could help as a partner so he could practice his moves; after Keen was beaten by the much smaller man, he decided to go out for the wrestling team.

[5] Keen graduated from Oklahoma A&M in 1924 with a major in salesmanship; he also was business manager of "The Orange and Black, " the school newspaper where he met sports editor, Jess Hoke.

Keen met his wife, Mildred, at Oklahoma A&M; she was a High School State Champion in Tennis.

[4] Fielding Yost hired Keen for an annual salary of $3,000 on the recommendation of his football coach, John Maulbetsch.

Other pupils, Frank Bissell at The Hill School, Larry Nelson at Vacaville (CA), and Mike Rodriquez at Detroit Catholic Central all went on to be recognized as some of the greatest high school coaches in the United States.

Bissell sent over 20 of his finest wrestlers to Keen to wrestle for Michigan from late 1940s through 1970 including his own son.

The lack of financial support prevented Keen from taking at least 75 of his wrestlers to the NCAA Championships although they qualified; he was unable to field a full squad at every weight until 1963.

I never expected it to last 45 years.”[2] Asked at the time of his retirement from coaching in 1970 if he would finally open his law practice, Keen joked, “I'm going into the full practice of retiring, I think.”[2] He took three years off from coaching to serve as a Naval Commander during World War II.

The fundamental that every successful wrestler must acquire, and which has great carry-over value after his student days, is self-discipline.

More than 200 of his former wrestlers attended, including the entire 1928 team that won the Big Ten championship.

Whenever I think of that I get a lot of pride and satisfaction.”[2] Keen also spent 33 years as an assistant football coach with the Wolverines, 1926–1958, serving under head coaches Fielding H. Yost, Tad Wieman, Harry Kipke, Fritz Crisler and Bennie Oosterbaan.

[4] He is credited with developing the wrestling headgear used to protect wrestlers from head and ear injuries.

With the ropes gone from collegiate wrestling, Keen concluded it was time to free the sport of the squared ring.

Keen's influence and effect on the sport of amateur wrestling in the United States from the 1930s until present has been incredible and enduring.

Only three University of Michigan coaches (Fielding H. Yost, Fritz Crisler and Ray Fisher) were inducted into the Hall of Honor before Keen.

[5] His brother Paul V. Keen coached the University of Oklahoma wrestling team to a national championship.

Legends of Michigan: Cliff Keen ISBN 978-0-9896183-0-4 by Dave Taylor (2013) https://web.archive.org/web/20141018131532/http://www.cliffkeen.com/wrestling/accessories/ckbook-legends-of-michigan-cliff-keen # denotes interim head coach