Inductees
Frank Hankin
Year: 2022
Gender: Male
About Frank:
He began wrestling as a freshman (1953-54) at Yuma Union High School in Arizona, where he competed in football, gymnastics, track and wrestling. Frank was second in State as a wrestler his sophomore year, then first as a junior and second again as a senior. He was the only wrestler from his school to win three consecutive Skyline Conference championships at that time.
In gymnastics, Hankin was third in Arizona for vaulting as a freshman, first on parallel bars and for the 20-foot rope climb as a sophomore, and second in those events in his junior year.
At the University of Utah from 1958-62, he was the a three-time Western Athletic Conference Champion with a record of 31 wins and three losses. Undefeated at 10-0 as a freshman, he went 9-1 as a sophomore, losing only to Wyoming’s NCAA champ, Dick Ballinger. As a junior, he lost two matches by one point each time, once to NCAA runner-up Wayne Baughman from Oklahoma. Frank was 4th in the NCAA Wrestling Championships at 177 pounds in 1958, earning him All-American honors.
Hankin was first three times at the Utah AAU Rocky Mountain Championships, and he was twice voted the Outstanding Wrestler. He was an alternate on U.S. Olympic Greco and Freestyle Wrestling Teams in 1964.
As the head coach at Gonzales High School in the CIF Central Coast Section, Frank compiled a dual match record of 112-5-2 in six seasons while earning five Mission Trail Athletic League championships. He also coached football there and started a youth wrestling club.
While teaching at Hartnell Community College in Salinas, Hankin coached for one wrestling season. He started an educational program for children of Salinas Valley and Monterey County farm labor camps that was documented in a film titled “The Migrant Education Story.” Frank volunteered as an advisor at Soledad Prison, and he was also a wrestling official for high school competition in the Central Coast Section.
During his 30 years of teaching and academic counseling, Frank became Director of Financial Aids and then Dean of Student Affairs at Palomar Community College in San Diego County where he also coached soccer. Hankin was twice the faculty president, and he was twice the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference President.