Former three-sport Rocket athlete, Connellsville Wrestling coach
Dolde to be inducted into Slippery Rock Hall of Fame For the last three decades plus, anytime wrestling was mentioned in any association with Fayette County high schools, one name invariably came to mind first.
Tom Dolde helped inaugurate the intercollegiate wrestling program at Slippery Rock University of Pa., then returned to his scholastic alma mater and made Connellsville a wrestling power to be reckoned with across the WPIAL and the entire state of Pennsylvania.
Now the outstanding athlete at Slippery Rock and the even more outstanding coach at Connellsville is going to be honored for his achievements.
Saturday, April 5, Thomas E. Dolde will be one of eight new members inducted into the Slippery Rock University Athletic Hall of Fame in recognition of his achievements while an undergraduate there, then for his long tenure of success in coaching wrestling and football at Connellsville.
Dolde was a three-sport athlete at The Rock, earning four letters in football, two in track and as a member of the schools’ first wrestling team.
When advised of his honor, Dolde responded in his own quiet way, with a laugh, “Well, I don’t know what I did there, or afterwards but it’s great.”
Then in a more serious vain, he said, “Really, it’s a great honor. Any time you are recognized by your peers it’s great; it’s a privilege, for who knows you better than they do. I’m really surprised for I never expected anything like this, but about 10 or 15 years ago, Shirley Brothers (a late fellow teacher at Connellsville High) nominated me for the Hall of Fame honor. I just wish she could be here now to see it happen.”
After graduation from Connellsville High in 1956, Dolde entered Slippery Rock, where he lettered four years (1956-59) in football.
He recalled, “Back then, you had to go both ways; there were no special team players or just offense or defense.
“You had to play both ways. I was a guard on offense and middle linebacker on defense.”
One of the games that stands out in his memory is “the game with Indiana my senior year. They were ranked in the country, and we not only beat them 35-7, I intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble to help get that win.”
He was also named to the state second team that year, and, he added with a chuckle, “I got my name put on a trophy for being selected as the team’s most valuable player.”
Somehow, when you have known Tom Dolde for a lot of years, it boggles the mind a little bit to learn that he also ran track for The Rock, including helping set one record.
Dolde recalled, “I ran the 440-yard dash, and ran second leg on the mile relay team. Along the way, we set a school record in the mile relay, during the Tri-State Meet, involving teams from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.”
He also played one year of baseball (shortstop) and was on the first wrestling team the school ever had.
In the latter, Dolde “wrestled at 177. As a new team, we wrestled all exhibitions, and we had just a five-match schedule. Now they have a long winning wrestling tradition there.”
Thanks to help from a guy who learned the groundwork for wrestling success there in that one year, then returned to Connellsville, where a few years later he would make the Falcons a byword in wrestling.
Dolde returned to Connellsville in 1960, and until retiring a year ago, he taught, at various times, math, physical education, world history, health and any other subject he might be assigned.
He was also named an assistant football coach and worked 36 years as defensive coordinator with one of his biggest thrills in that respect coming in 1991 when the Falcons won the WPIAL Quad-A championship.
His tenure as a wrestling coach has been one of the most successful in the history of Pennsylvania coaching.
He is the WPIAL’s all-time winningest coach, and among the state’s all-time Top 10, with a 346-116-6 record, which includes 18 section championships in the 20 years from 1976 to 1996, two WPIAL championships, four seconds, and being named WPIAL Coach of the Year three times (1991, 1992, 1994).
Dolde was previously inducted into the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches and Southwestern Pennsylvania Coaches Halls of Fame.
And along with all his other success, Dolde has found time to get interested in Civil War history, including becoming arguably the ultimate authority in this corner of the state on the Battle of Gettysburg.
Dolde and his wife, Donna, are parents of two sons who have followed their dad into coaching wrestling.
Tommy is now the head coach at Connellsville, and Donnie is a coach at Junior High West.
There are also four grandchildren of whom Tom Sr. laughed, “I’m not sure yet what weight classes they will be competing in.”
Induction will take place at Four Points Sheraton in Warrendale.
Tickets must be purchased in advance ($30) from the SRU athletic office (724-738-2021), with March 27 the deadline.
Dolde will become the third Fayette County native inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining nationally recognized women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringer, German Twp. HS graduate and a member of the first HOF class in 1984, and Harry Brownfield, of Hopwood, long-time area coach and administrator, who was inducted in 1999.