University of Minnesota Athletics
Fred Roethlisberger - M Club Hall of Fame
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Fred Roethlisberger
Gymnastics Coach, 1972-2004
HOF Class of 2001
Coach Fred Roethlisberger is credited for much of the modern success of men’s gymnastics at the University of Minnesota.
A gymnast at the University of Wisconsin, he was that school’s 1966 Athlete of the Year. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, he was the second-highest scorer on the U.S. team. He captained the 1967 Pan American team in Winnipeg, winning gold medals in the all-around, horizontal bar and parallel bars.
Coached by Roethlisberger, the Gophers won 11 Big Ten team titles from 1972 to 2004. He coached 20 All-American gymnasts, 48 individual Big Ten title winners, and two Nissen Award winners. Roethlisberger’s Gopher teams were often ranked in the nation’s Top Ten, finishing second by one tenth of a point in 1990.
He is a four-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, five-time Mideast Region Coach of the Year, and four-time United States Gymnastics Federation Coach of the Year. An assistant on the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, he coached the World Gymnastics Championship team in 1994. He was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame as a gymnast, coach and contributor.
Roethlisberger’s son, John, and daughter, Marie, were also Gopher All-American and Olympic gymnasts and, like him, are members of the “M” Club Hall of Fame.