Inductees

Fairley attended San Diego High School, and he was voted the Most Valuable Wrestler on the 1969 team. He was the San Diego County Sambo Champion in the 114.5 pound weight class. After graduating from San Diego State University in 1973, Walter coached wrestling at Lincoln, Serra and Crawford High Schools respectively from 1975 through 1991. He served as head wrestling coach at Crawford from 1981 until he left in 1991 to become a school administrator.

At La Jolla High School from 1996 through 2012, Fairley supported the wrestling team with fundraising (receiving two new wrestling mats from the school district, for example), by serving as an active voice in support of the sport at city conferences and school board meetings, by screening and hiring of all prospective coaches, and even coaching the team until new coaches could be hired. Every year since his arrival, he personally checked to see that every wrestler had shoes, headgear, insurance or other needs addressed.

Walter played a key role in bringing stability to a wrestling program that had previously been in a constant state of change. As a result, the La Jolla team has won a league championship and twice finished as league runners-up in the past three years. Such accomplishments had not been achieved in the prior 14 years. As an administrator, Fairley has also been responsible for encouraging colleagues at several other county high schools to start and maintain their wrestling programs.

Ten of his former wrestlers have gone on to become high school wrestling coaches, half on the varsity level and the others as assistant or JV coaches. They have coached at Crawford, Hoover and La Jolla High Schools. He and the current head coach at LJHS are also responsible for establishing the only “Junior Wrestling Program” in the community.

He is a member of the La Jolla High School Alumni Association and a key member of the LJHS Foundation Athletic Committee. He recently retired as a board member of the Community Service Association for San Diego City Schools. Now that he has officially retired from the working world, Walter plans to volunteer as a coach of the freshman and JV wrestling teams at La Jolla High