Dick Wagner

Dick Wagner has been associated with athletics for a long time. Dick has officiated softball, boys and girls basketball as well as track and cross country. He has started state track meets and umpired state championship games. A past president of the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association, served as a clinician at the IGHSAU rules meetings and chaired the softball rules committee for many years and a member of the Softball Umpires Hall of Fame. Dick served as Athletic director at Burlington high School and has started track and cross country meets for nearly fifty years. In 1996 Dick was the Honorary Referee at the boy’s state track meet. In 1998, Dick was recognized by the National High School Federation for his contributions to cross country. But none of these noteworthy items defines Dick as greatly as two additional achievements. Over the past few years Dick has battled several major problems including a leg amputation and throughout all this he has maintained an unbelievably positive attitude and continues to strive to serve others. Perhaps Dick’s crowning achievement has been the construction of a private/public cross country course through some of the most beautiful scenery Iowa has to offer. It winds through the Shimek State Park and Dick’s property which adjoins it. Working with friends and students from alternative classes, Dick has cut a cross-country trail out of a natural wilderness. Local Agricultural students built bridges over the streams and ravines, and every one of Croton’s Forty residents helps out at the annual cross country meet hosted by Dick and Harmony High School since 1990. Free soda is available for all the students athletes and workers. The awards ceremony not only features the traditional trophies, but also features Croton Baseball Caps and T-Shirts for the top finishers. In the fall of 2002, 249 athletes competed at the meet. Each year Dick invites an Iowa celebrity to assist in handing out he awards. One year Chuck Offenburger, the “Iowa Boy” was the invited celebrity. The following week the Des Moines Register carried an extensive article documenting this extraordinary athletic event. At the conclusion of each meet the workers take part in a pot-luck picnic. Dick’s property also features two basketball hoops with a concrete playing surface for 3-on-3 tournaments and hosts hundreds of students each year for history and science field trips.