By Bill Schmidt
David Frame, son of William and Minnie Frame, was born and raised on a dairy farm just outside of Northfield along will older brother Bill, sister Mary Ellen, and younger brother Mike. When Dave was in 6th grade, his brother Bill was a manager-wrestler for the Northfield wrestling team. Two other wrestlers on the team also had sixth-grade brothers, so they asked the coaches if those three sixth graders could practice and wrestle in home meets.
At the time, Dave had no idea how much this opportunity would change his life.
That first year, he got picked on by the older wrestlers who enjoyed putting him in a painful hold just to make him holler. Dave loved being tortured as it was all in fun. He was always overweight and wasn’t very good, but he grew to love the sport. One of his sixth-grade buddies was the first Northfield athlete to earn a letter as a 7th grader. Dave did not make the B squad until he was in 9th grade, and only won one match against a blind wrestler. As a junior, Frame was still on the B squad and remembers wrestling in a meet at Rochester and was the only Northfield wrestler to get pinned. On the bus ride home, his teammates rolled the windows down as the bus drove down main street, Northfield, with many Christmas shoppers on the streets and were chanting ‘Frame got Pinned – Frame got Pinned”. Dave was laughing on the outside, but crying on the inside. But Dave never once considered quitting the sport. The following week, on the way home from a meet with Austin, the bus came down that same street, and Dave’s teammates rolled down the windows and chanted, “Frame got a Pin – Frame got a Pin” after Dave got his first win of the season. Dave finished the year in fine fashion, winning a good share of his matches.
As a senior, Dave finally made varsity in his seventh year of wrestling. Northfield had wrestlers at every weight except heavyweight. Dave only weighed 165 pounds and felt he could have made the team at any of the top four weight classes, but volunteered to wrestle heavyweight for the sake of the team. Frame had a remarkably good season, winning many of his matches at heavyweight and placing 4th at Regions. One of his highlights that year was a dual meet win (1-0) over a Faribault wrestler who outweighed him by over 100 pounds. Another came against Stan Christ from Mankato when Christ was a sophomore, and Dave had a one-point lead with 20 seconds to go in the match. The referee called Dave for stalling, gave Christ two points and put Dave in the bottom position. He was totally confused by the call because it was his first stalling call, and it should have been a warning. He was unable to get the escape and lost by a point. Christ went on to win the State Tournament that year as well as the two following years without a single loss in those three seasons. The next day in practice, Coach Heacock told his wrestlers, ‘If the rest of you guys had half the guts that Frame has, we would probably go undefeated.” Dave heard the 155-pounder whisper to his friend, “If had had as many guts as Frame, I could wrestle heavyweight too.”
In the Fall of 1957, Frame enrolled at Mankato State Teacher’s College. There were four wrestlers on his floor, three being state place-winners. Right before the season, they were heading over to meet Coach Rummy Macias and pick up their wrestling practice gear, and Dave volunteered to tag along. After everyone had been issued practice attire, Rummy asked if there was anyone else who needed gear. Dave was that anyone else. He was still a bit overweight and short, but he still wanted to continue wrestling.
Dave ended up breaking his hand halfway through the season and was done for the year. The following spring, Frame was out running with another wrestler and commented, “I don’t know why I am running, I won’t ever make the team.” His teammate replied, “You just might”, but was thinking, “He is probably right”. Rummy relayed that story to Dave a few years later.
Before returning to Mankato State the following year, Frame decided to start bringing his weight down. He came into the season at 155 pounds, lighter than he had been in many years, but knew it would still be tough to make the team. Two of the projected starters (130 pounds and 137 pounds), who had placed 2nd and 3rd in the nation the previous year, were ineligible. Dave continued to bring his weight down and decided to keep going all the way to 137 pounds. He started out at about 4th or 5th on the depth chart, but kept challenging and winning challenge matches all the way to the varsity spot.
One of Frame’s first varsity matches was against Oklahoma’s Stan Abel, who had placed 3rd in the nation the previous year and went on to win two NCAA Titles. Abel dominated the first two periods, but Frame kept battling and went toe-to-toe with Abel in the 3rd period and even took him down towards the end of the match. Dave heard that after the match, the Oklahoma head coach told Stan Abel, “If you keep wrestling like that, you won’t be wrestling for Oklahoma much longer”. A photo of Frame taking Abel down was in Amateur Wrestling News the following week, providing proof for anyone who doubted his story.
When it came to the NIC Conference meet toward the end of the season, the Mankato 130-pounder was having serious trouble making weight, so Frame volunteered to switch weight classes with him and went down to 130 pounds. Frame won the Conference Tournament and then placed second at the NAIA National Tournament, which qualified him for the NCAA Division One Tournament. Dave got beat by Brandon Glover, one of the top seeds from Virginia Tech. who was upset in his next match, and Dave was done. Glover went on to take third place. Mankato State placed 7th in the Division One Tournament that year, and Dave’s only regret is that he did not get a chance to contribute to the team.
Very early the following year, the Mankato 123-pounder was ineligible. Al DeLeon said he could make it down to 130 pounds if Dave could make 123 pounds, so Dave cut down to 123.
After wrestling at HEAVYWEIGHT throughout high school, David Frame was the 123-pound varsity wrestler for Mankato State. Unbelievable and unprecedented. It had never happened before or since. Dave was grateful for the opportunity to wrestle against numerous Division One All-Americans and more than held his own. Dave went on to win the NIC Conference Tournament and qualify for Nationals as a junior, but lost his first-round match at 123 pounds in the NCAAs when his opponent scored right at the end of the match to beat him by a point. That wrestler did not win his next match, but came back and took 4th in the Nation. Close, but no cigar – Again.
Dave continued to work out with Al DeLeon after the season and through the summer, as both guys worked at the same country club, and they had a piece of wrestling mat right next to one of the greens. They were best of friends, but very competitive on the practice mat. That next Fall Al and Dave lived together in the same house and continued working out on a daily basis. Dave had an excellent senior wrestling season, winning his third NIC Conference title and qualifying for his third National Tournament.
Frame never placed at the Division I Tournament, but defeated a number of Division I All-Americans those last two seasons and had some great matches against a few others including Earl Stottler and Grant Nelson, both National Champions and Hall of Famers. He had an overall record of 8-14 against All-American wrestlers, with many of those losses by a point or two.
After graduating from Mankato State with a Biology major, Frame stayed on at Mankato State and worked on his Master’s Degree. During that time, Dave worked out with the wrestling team and helped Rummy out wherever needed while officiating some wrestling matches at area high schools. At mid-season, Mankato State had a big dual with Oklahoma State and the meet was all set to start, but the official was nowhere to be seen. Rummy asked Dave to start officiating in the hope that the scheduled referee would show up soon. Dave officiated the first match without any tough calls and was set to start the second match between Al DeLeon and Masaaki Hatta, a three-time NCAA Finalist who went on to be a National Champion. DeLeon was Dave’s best friend, and he was NOT looking forward to reffing the match. Just then, the scheduled official showed up, and Dave handed him the whistle. Early on in the match, DeLeon was finishing a takedown and got called for a slam. Dave thought the call was questionable at best, and he would not have made that call even if the situation was reversed. DeLeon lost by a couple of points, with that call being the difference. Dave had the opportunity to wrestle Hatta a couple of times and gave him a good go the second time, scoring two takedowns on a wrestler who did not get taken down often.
The following year, Dave signed up for a two-year stint with the Peace Corps and traveled to Sierra Leone, West Africa, serving as a teacher. During those two years, Dave started a wrestling program at his school. A local tailor sewed blankets together, and they stuffed them with straw for mats. Dave contacted a company in the USA, and they donated wrestling singlets. With over forty boys wrestling, it was a busy, but great adventure. Dave said he could brag that they had a National Championship Wrestling Team in Sierra Leone, as they were the only wrestling team in the nation of West Africa.
After two years, Frame returned to Mankato State, where he finished up his Master’s Degree and continued to work out with the wrestling team while getting acquainted with a whole new group of wrestlers. More importantly, he met and fell in love with Claire, whom he married later that summer. Claire had one more year of college, and Dave was finished with his Master’s Degree, so he worked for a year in the audio-visual department at the college while Claire finished her Mathematics degree. Dave was hired as Bethany Lutheran’s first wrestling coach and had the opportunity to start another wrestling program. Only two of his eight grapplers had wrestled in high school, so it was a challenge, but the kids were great and showed tremendous improvement throughout the season.
Dave also started a wrestling program in the security ward at the State Mental Hospital in St. Peter. It was interesting to say the least. On one of the first days of practice, one of the security ward wrestlers explained, “We are not crazy in here, just dangerous.”
The highlight of the year came when Dave organized a meet between the wrestlers in the security ward and his Bethany wrestlers. He had to tell three of his Bethany wrestlers to give their security ward opponent a good match, but make sure you let him win.
After Claire finished college, they were both accepted to go back to working with the Peace Corps in Malawi, Africa, where they spent two years teaching. There was no opportunity for Dave to coach wrestling, but he survived – barely.
Dave and Claire returned to Minnesota after two years, and Dave was hired to teach science and coach wrestling at Albert Lea in 1969. He started out coaching at the junior high and also at the youth level, and in 1978, he moved to the high school program as an assistant to Neal Skaar and later assisted Larry Goodnature.
Highlights from the Albert Lea program were many. A personal highlight for Dave was coaching his son, Dan, a good football player as well as a good wrestler, who inherited Dave’s love for the sport and is currently coaching wrestling at Wahpeton-Breckenridge, a border-crossing Co-op.
Dave and Claire are also proud of their daughters Lisa and Jennifer, who were also very athletic, participating in tennis, basketball, and softball.
Neal Skaar and Larry Goodnature were both great coaches and fun to work with. Both Neal and Larry are in the Bartelma Hall as well as the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Dave has worked with many outstanding assistant coaches at Albert Lea, including four-time National Champion Chuck Jean, who was a pleasure to be around. While Dave was helping out at the varsity level, he watched his Albert Lea wrestlers win eight Big Nine Titles, eight Region One Championships, seven Individual State Championships and one State Team Title.
Being able to work out with the wrestlers until he was sixty years old was a tremendous personal highlight for Dave. Frame also served on the weigh-in crew at the state wrestling tournament for 42 years. Dave enjoyed competing in the Over-the-Hill Wrestling League for a number of years and even won an age-group state title.
As David looks back on his decision to go out for wrestling as a 6th grader, he realizes how his involvement got both his parents involved in the sport, along with his nephew Bill, a longtime Pine Island wrestling coach (who defeated Dave in an Old-Timers match), as well as his wife Claire, and their children. Daniel, who followed in Dave’s footsteps teaching science and coaching wrestling, lives in Wahpeton, North Dakota, with his wife Carolina.
Daughter Lisa and her husband Ben live in Park Rapids and have two daughters, Sydney and Morgan. Daughter Jennifer and her husband Mark live in Shakopee and have a daughter, Annika, and a son, Sam. Claire and David cherish their family and enjoy attending their grandchildren’s numerous sporting events. They have also been blessed to share world travels and adventures with many of their friends.