ERIE, Pa. – Today marks the end of an era at Gannon University as the man who has been synonymous with Golden Knights wrestling for almost four decades is retiring.

Don Henry officially announced his retirement on Wednesday after 39 seasons as the Gannon men's wrestling head coach. He met with his team on Wednesday evening and will officially leave the position after June 30.

He will depart from the program after having coached 35 Regional champions, 47 All-Americans, and 115 national qualifiers while guiding the Golden Knights to 233 dual-meet victories.

"I have learned a lot in my 39 years of coaching, but nothing stands out more than the fact that you have to surround yourself with greatness in order to be great," Henry said. "I have been blessed to have been surrounded by outstanding assistant coaches, co-workers, and administrators. No one person makes a team great."
 
"We are so grateful to Don for his leadership both as a coach and a leader within our department," said Lisa Goddard McGuirk, Gannon's Director of Athletics. "During his tenure, he has developed our program into a national power.  Don has kept the student-athlete experience at the forefront throughout his career, serving as a coach, mentor, and our student-athletes' biggest fan. He has led our program with integrity and a constant commitment to excellence. I am so appreciative to have had the opportunity to work with Don, and we wish him all the best during retirement."

Henry was inducted into the NCAA Division II Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2014 and joined the Slippery Rock University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016. He will become eligible for the Gannon University Athletics Hall of Fame next year.
 
Henry, 62, will leave the program in excellent shape for his successor. The Golden Knights are coming off a 2022-23 season in which they had three NCAA Division II All-Americans – Dom Means (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) (fourth place), Alex Farenchak (Painesville, Ohio/Riverside) (fifth), and Nick Young (Batavia, N.Y./Alexander) (seventh place) – among seven national qualifiers.


 
Gannon also finished the season with a 9-5 dual-meet record, which included a second-place 6-1 mark in the PSAC. The Knights placed second among 11 teams at the Super Region 1 tournament, and finished 10th in the NCAA Division II Championships.
 
The Golden Knights excelled in the classroom as well. The program ranked 20th in Division II with a 3.163 grade-point average in 2022-23, and the team had nine NWCA Scholar All-Americans. That type of academic success was a hallmark during Henry's time as head coach.
 
Henry's success was not immediate at Gannon. He was hired to resurrect a program that had been dormant since 1971. His first team in 1984-85 went 0-10 in dual meets and finished 12th out of 12 teams in the regional.
 
Gannon went 15-58 in dual meets during Henry's first six seasons, but he was steadily building the foundation for his program. He placed his coaching emphasis on wrestler development, not dual-meet records.
 
Throughout the years, he propelled the program into the national spotlight, regularly sending multiple wrestlers to the NCAA Championships. For instance, the Knights have had three All-Americans in each of the past four seasons.
 
Henry coached his first All-American in 1987-88 when Sean Haight placed seventh at Nationals at 126 pounds. The Knights had their first winning season under Henry in 1990-91 when they went 6-4, led by 134-pound All-American Tom Boyd (sixth place), who later became Henry's long-time assistant coach.
 
The 2000-01 season stands out as a special one as Gannon finished 9-4 in dual meets and placed seventh nationally while Doug Joseph won Gannon's lone national championship at 197 pounds.
 
During one seven-season stretch from 2007-08 to 2013-14, Henry's teams went 60-23-1 while his wrestlers claimed All-America honors 15 times.
 
"When I was hired in 1984, I was a young, inexperienced kid who was given the opportunity to build a program," Henry said. "After struggling at first, we had our first national qualifiers, All-Americans, and we were off to the races. We laid the foundation with solid guys and have built on that to where we are now consistently a top 10 NCAA Division II team."



 
Even by Henry's high standards, the past four seasons have been outstanding. Gannon has had 10 Super Region One champions, 31 national qualifiers, and 12 All-Americans during that span.
 
Henry leaves Gannon with a 233-231-3 dual-meet record, which includes a 119-59-0 record since 2007-08. He has won the East Region Coach of the Year award three times, was the Super Region 1 Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2021 and was named NWCA Division II National Coach of the Year in 2021.
 
"We have accomplished many great things under Coach Henry's leadership," Tom Boyd said. "I wrestled on his fourth team and have been with him pretty much since the day I walked on campus in 1987. … He truly is a legend in the sport of college wrestling and has touched many lives."
 
Henry believes the program is set up for future success in part because of the alumni dedication. 
 
"The alumni engagement is outstanding," Henry said. "They know where we started and are proud of where we are."
 
As a wrestler at Slippery Rock University in the early 1980s, Henry was a two-time national qualifier who placed in the PSAC Championships three times and served as the team captain as a junior and senior. He was a key wrestler on three East Regional championship teams. He graduated from Slippery Rock with a bachelor's degree in parks and recreation management, and he wrestled in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1984 and 1988.

When he came to Gannon, he was hired as a supervisor for the Recreation and Wellness Center, in addition to coaching. Henry worked in several roles before becoming the facility's director in 1999. He served in that role until 2014.

Henry said he is looking forward to the next chapter of his life on Sept. 1, 2023, when he will marry his fiancé, Mindy.
 
"Although I will not be coaching the team, I will be its biggest fan, and plan on attending as many matches as possible throughout the season," Henry said.
 
Don Henry joined Gannon University as an inexperienced coach in the mid-1980s, and after 39 years of dedication to young men and decades of hard work, he will leave as a Gannon legend.