Henry Pillard
Class of 1986
Joliet Junior College
Henry originated from Anamosa High School. His collegiate involvement began at Dubuque University.
His coaching career began at Blue Island, where he was the Sophomore Coach for 7 years and the Varsity Coach for 1. He then moved to Joliet Junior College in 1965 and staying as that school’s head coach until 19135 a total of 19 years. He had 268 wins-43 losses and 5 ties over this span.
His achievements at Joliet Junior College have been many: 46 All American: with 8 of them being National Champions 4 of these me n have gone on to become Division I All Americans and NAIA All Americans. One—Clarence Richardson holds the fastest pin in the NCAA for Louisiana State; Harry Geris went on to represent Canada in the Last 3 Olympics. One of his graduates defeated 4 American Olympic Champs at one time or another, Banach twice; Baumgartner; Gibson and Blatnik. The man who did this was Mike Evans formerly of Bloom, who turned boxing pro, rather than tries out for the Olympics. Henry is most proud of the fact that over 40 people who are products of Joliet JC are now coaching somewhere in the United States.
Henry has been very involved in all facets of wrestling: to list a few:
* Started the Kids program in Joliet, with the late Eddie Johnson
* Started the Kids Tournament in Joliet, which became a forerunner to the present State Junior High Tournament
* Started the wrestling program at the State Penitentiary in Joliet and ran it for 7 years, wrestling various visiting team:
* Hosted many exchange teams in the area, including Holland and Japan
* Began the Joliet International Tournament and was the Director from 1978 to 1983. This has been the World’s largest International Tournament.
* He began and became the director of the National Clinics which offered graduate credit. This series covered Scholastic to Sambo and was offered in many areas. The programs leant itself to improving our wrestling approach to the International Style
* He has been involved in pairing at tournaments, official, clinician and director.
* He was the Team Manager for the Mayor Daley Club, at a time when they were National Champions in both Greco and Free Style.
* He was vice-president of the Daley Foundation from 1971 to 1974
* He was President of the National Junior College Association in 1976
* He was the 1968 and 1972 Coach of the Junior College Qualifiers to the Olympic Trials
* He was the National Junior College USA Team that toured Iran and again to the Pan Am Games’ in Mexico City in 1983
* He was named Coach of the Year in Junior Colleges in 1975 and 1978
* He has been entered into the Congressional Record Book as a Contributor to Wrestling in 1981
* He is in Who’s Who in Midwest Professional and Administrative Recognition
* He was named to the National Junior College Hall of Fame in 1985
* Henry is presently Dean of Students at Joliet Junior College