The Cliff Keen Wrestling Club, named after the legendary coach Cliff Keen, has a rich history and continues to be a significant force in the world of wrestling.
As the landscape of college wrestling continues to evolve and grow, so does the daily impact and importance of a world-class senior level club and regional training center (RTC). Michigan’s Cliff Keen Wrestling Club was established in 1987 and named after legendary Coach Cliff Keen.
The Wolverine Gold Medal Fund was established to provide essential support for the Cliff Keen Wrestling Club, the Michigan Wrestling program, and the Michigan Regional Training Center (RTC). Through this fund you will play a pivotal role in our future success.
Supporters listed contributed from July 2024 to September 2025.
The Early Years and Collegiate Career
Cliff Keen grew up on a farm in Oklahoma. In college, he was an undefeated wrestler, a football player and a track athlete for Oklahoma A&M, which is now Oklahoma State. His wrestling coach at Oklahoma A&M was Edward C. Gallagher.
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Keen was also a lineman for the Oklahoma A&M football team coached by Michigan All-American John Maulbetsch, and a sprinter on the track team also coached by Gallagher. 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.
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.
Keen was undefeated as a collegiate wrestler at 158 lbs, but was defeated by Leon Gorman of Texas at 175 lbs when Gallagher asked him to wrestle a second bout in a dual meet after winning his previous bout. At that time, there was no scoring, wrestlers won bouts on riding time or by pin; each of the three periods wrestled was 7 minutes per period, and some bouts went 30 minutes.
In 1924, Keen made the Olympic team but didn't compete because of a broken rib. His substitute ultimately lost in the Olympic finals at Paris.
Keen started work in Frederick, Okla., teaching high school and coaching various sports. He wanted to become a lawyer, and when Fielding Yost was looking for a wrestling coach and an assistant football coach, Maulbetsch suggested Keen, who was sold on the idea of coaching and pursing his law degree at U-M.
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He came to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan Law School, from which he earned his law degree in 1933. He then stayed in the community, working at a small law firm in Ann Arbor while coaching the wrestling team. Just a few years after he became the head varsity wrestling coach, he left his law job to focus on coaching full-time.
A Legendary Coaching Tenure at Michigan
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As the wrestling coach at the University of Michigan from 1925 to 1970, Coach Keen led the teams to a record of 268 wins, 91 losses, 9 ties and 13 Big Ten Conference wrestling championships. His 42-year tenure, according to U-M, is the longest of any college wrestling coach. He produced a 272-91-10 record and won 12 Big Ten titles.
During his time as the wrestling coach, Keen was also part of the football coaching staff for 33 years and was an assistant coach under the helm of Michigan greats: Fritz Crisler, Fielding Yost and Bennie Oosterbaan. Keen was also the head coach of Michigan’s 150-pound football team during the 1947 and 1948 seasons - the only two seasons in which the team existed.
During his tenure as the head coach for Michigan, Keen led many teams to outstanding success. His accomplishments include 12 Big Ten Conference Championships, 11 individual NCAA champion wrestlers, 68 All-Americans and 81 Big Ten Champions.
His teams placed in the top three in the Big Ten 40 times. His wrestlers captured 19 National titles (NCAA and AAU) and 81 conference crowns. In his 45 years at Michigan, he coached 68 All-Americans as well as 81 Big Ten champions.
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In 1977, Keen was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. A few years later in 1980, he was inducted into the University of Michigan Hall of Honor. In 1981, he was inducted into the State of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Keen's Coaching Philosophy and Impact
Statistically speaking, Keen is one of the greatest coaches of all-time at Michigan in any sport. But what makes him truly a legend is his value in building the character of his wrestlers and those around him by setting a positive example with his coaching style.
“You know he was quite a task master, but he had a unique style that he used to motivate people,” Rick Bay, a former Michigan wrestler and Keen’s assistant coach from 1970-1974 and successor, said. “His way was really to always let you know that he thought you could do better, but at the end of the day, his philosophy was even if he had been getting on somebody during practice for one reason or another, at the end of each practice if that had been the case he would take that person aside and say something positive.
“He was inspirational in a way that was sort of quiet and philosophical … he wasn’t much into chewing anybody out, especially in front of the team,” Bay said. “He would say, ‘You know, it takes a long time to build up someone’s confidence, but a person with authority can tear it down pretty quickly,’ and so he coached in a positive way. You know there are coaches who coach negatively that works too for some but not for him.”
Keen believed in coaching the fundamentals and he often taught wrestlers by stepping on to the mat and giving demonstrations himself - even at the end of his career, when he was in his late 60s.
“Even though at that moment he’d be in coat and tie and I would too because we were the coaches, we would take our team out and heck, he’d take off his suit coat if it popped into his mind, he’d get down on the mat (and say), ‘Rick jump on top of me I wanna show this,’ ” Bay said. “He was wearing a coat and tie and he was demonstrating on me for the sake of the wrestlers trying to make a point, and of course he’d mess up my shirt and he elbowed me in the ribs while he was demonstrating all this, but that was kind of the way he did it. It was sort of off the top of his head, but he had a lot of experience.”
Keen also believed strongly that being a student came before being an athlete.
Hoddy spoke about the importance of academics to Keen.
“He took great pride in his rate of graduation, of the people that went through the wrestling program there at the University of Michigan.” Hoddy said. “He was always talking about (how it’s) not so much what you do while you’re here in Ann Arbor, it’s what you do after you leave.”
Keen also believed that lessons learned on the mat could be used in the athletes’ lives outside of sports as well.
Keen cared about his athletes very much and still had strong connections with his wrestlers after they graduated.
Legacy and Lasting Impact
Even after his retirement, Keen continued to influence Michigan wrestling. In his career as a wrestling coach, Bay incorporated many coaching techniques that he learned from Keen when he became Michigan’s next head coach.
“I used everything I learned from him,” Bay said. “I mean I talked about positive reinforcement, I was not a screamer, I did not swear at my team or individuals on the team, I always tried to treat everybody with respect.
That team dynamic not only led Keen’s wrestlers to want to win for themselves, but also win for Keen and the University. “You wanted him to be proud of you,” Bay said.
Keen’s legacy lives on through the University and the sport of wrestling. The wrestling supply company he founded in 1958, Cliff Keen Athletic, is one of the premiere companies in the business and wrestlers across the country use the signature Cliff Keen headgear designed by the coach.
Keen positively impacted many people’s lives during his coaching career and his legacy will live on. “You gotta say he is one of the great Michigan coaches of all time in any sport,” Bay said. “He was a unique individual. Nothing one dimensional about him. He was dignified. He was a gentleman coach. He coached the way I always felt you should coach. I think the principles he stood for are still important today.”
Even now, Keen commands a high degree of respect in wrestlers of all ages, including those too young to remember his time at Michigan. “Last year at a shopping mall in Livonia, we saw a teenager wearing a Cliff Keen Wrestling Club shirt.” Stone said. “We asked him about it. He was a high-school wrestler. I told him that I had wrestled for Cliff Keen. He said, with an expression of awe, you wrestled for Cliff Keen? “I realized, (as) if I didn’t already know, that his influence spanned generations.
Innovations and Contributions to Wrestling
Keen also changed the shape of the sport forever when he pushed for the square boundary of a wrestling mat to be changed to a circle. Keen thought it was too easy for wrestlers to go out of bounds in a square.
But the most lasting mark Keen made on wrestling was the markings he removed from wrestlers when he invented, patented and sold the headgear that protects wrestlers from developing cauliflower ear.
“The biggest thing he wanted to enforce is kids wearing headgear, because he knew in order for the sport to grow, we had to do something about the cauliflower ear,” Tom said. “Moms didn't want their boys coming home with disfigured ears.”
According to Tom Keen, his company sells 90-95% of all wrestling headgear. The company, which Keen started in his basement by paying U-M wrestlers $1 an hour to assemble headgear, operates out of a 20,000-square-foot facility.
| Accomplishment | Details |
|---|---|
| Big Ten Conference Championships | 13 |
| NCAA Champion Wrestlers | 11 |
| All-Americans | 68 |
| Big Ten Champions | 81 |