University of Minnesota Athletics
Kenneth T. Bartlett
Men’s Gymnastics, 1950-53
HOF Class of 2005
Kenneth Bartlett’s senior year is celebrated as one of the finest in Golden Gopher men’s gymnastics history.
At the 1953 Big Ten Championships, Bartlett won all-around and parallel bar titles, placing second in the flying rings and horizontal bar. At the NCAA Championships, he won the flying rings and took third in the all-around and the parallel bars. He was also that season’s team captain and undergraduate “M” Club president.
Bartlett had been Big Ten flying rings champion his junior season and finished third at the NCAA Championships. All-American status did not exist at the time; using today’s standards, he would have been a four- time All-American.
At Bartlett’s graduation, Coach Ralph Piper rated him the top all-around performer in Golden Gopher history.
Bartlett served in the Marine Corp and later taught and coached at Long Beach State University for 37 years. In 13 years of coaching, he had five conference or state champion gymnastics teams, producing two All-Americans and 30 state or conference individual champions.
In 1997, Bartlett was inducted into the Long Beach State University Hall of Fame.