Inductees

At Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, Jack earned three varsity letters in wrestling, placing in the Big 10 Championships twice before graduating in 1955. Jack began his teaching and coaching career for nine years in Illinois, first at Morgan Park Military Academy in Chicago, then at Oak Park and Argo High Schools, and finally at Larkin High School in Elgin. After moving to California with his wife and young family “on a whim,” Gifford coached for eight years at Brawley High School in Imperial County (1962-70) and then for 17 years at Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles County (1970-87), with a combined dual match record of 235-70-3. He started the wrestling program at Brawley, and his winning tradition continues there today. His teams earned five (or more?) League Championships, with many individual league and tournament champions.

Gifford’s 1969 and 1970 teams were Southern California Champions – prior to the first CIF State Championships which were introduced in 1973. He coached Brawley’s first individual state champions: Roy Aguilar (at 98 pounds in 1966), Robert Dowden (at 115 pounds in 1967), and Gilbert Mendez (twice at 115 pounds in 1969), followed by Fidel Torres (at 98 pounds in 1970). He was selected as Southern California Coach of the Year in both 1969 and 1970, and in 1980 he was the National High School District 8 Wrestling Coach of the Year.

While at Beverly Hills HS, Jack improved the program and it moved from the GIF 3A Ocean League up to the 4A Bay League, one of the toughest in Southern California. In 1977, he coached six wrestlers to the GIF Sectionals: 1976 MVP and State Finalist Mark Shoenfield (at 114 pounds who returned to the State Finals in 1977), Gary Solnit (98 pounds), and Randy Ziskin (194 pounds) who all made the GIF Finals. plus Josh Belsky, Allen Field, Deric Farrell.

Active in organizing Cultural Exchange Teams from Southern California for many years, Jack was Team leader for a team trip to Japan. He retired from coaching in 1987, but he continued to work as an instructor at the Moreno Continuation High School in the Beverly Hills School District for several years. Jack has been a member of the South Bay Wrestling Coaches Association, and he served as their President three times. He was inducted into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2008. He credits assistant coaches like Dave Kreider, Bill Hoag, Gilbert Mendez, Randy Kaluva and George Kimball for his successful coaching career.