Fletcher Gilders
Encyclopedia
Fletcher Gilders was a Detroit native who won fame as a talented multi-sport athlete for the Colts of Northwestern High School
Northwestern High School (Michigan)
Northwestern High School is a secondary education facility in Detroit, Michigan. The most recent enrollment figures for Northwestern indicate a student population of approximately 2,000. Northwestern High School features numerous extracurricular activities; including: Debate, US Army JROTC,...

 and the Buckeyes of Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

. Following a stellar athletic career, Gilders earned distinction as a highly successful collegiate swimming and diving coach.

Detroit and Columbus sports headliner

In 1948, Fletcher Gilders was voted Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 High School Track and Field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 Athlete of the Year; later that summer, the versatile Gilders competed as a springboard diver
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...

 at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Detroit. The following year, Fletcher Gilders highlighted his senior season with a national interscholastic pole vault record of 13' 3"; he was fast becoming one of the top all-around athletes in America.

Upon graduating from Northwestern High, Gilders joined the U.S. military; serving until 1953, Fletcher later enrolled at the Ohio State University. At OSU, Gilders won back-to-back (1954 & 1955) NCAA titles on the one-meter springboard. During each of his three seasons at Ohio State, Gilders led the Buckeyes to Big Ten Conference
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...

 and NCAA swimming and diving team titles. Fletcher Gilders was also a member of the OSU track & field, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 and soccer teams; winning a total of 10 varsity letters to become the first four-sport letterman in Ohio State's modern history.
During the summer of 1956, Gilders finished sixth in springboard diving at the US Olympic Team Trials; narrowly missing an opportunity to join younger sister (Barbara Sue
Barbara Gilders-Dudeck
19-year old Detroit native and Mackenzie High School graduate, Barbara Sue Gilders represented the United States in the sport of springboard diving at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia....

) at the Melbourne Olympic Games.

Coaching accolades

Upon retirement from athletics, Fletcher Gilders enjoyed a noteworthy career as a swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 and diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...

 coach
Coach (sport)
In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

 at Ohio University
Ohio University
Ohio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...

 and Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...

. Coach Gilders guided the OU Bobcats for more than a quarter-century (1959-1984); winning five Mid-American Conference team titles along the way. At Kenyon, during the 1980s and 90s, Gilders and his athletes won 14 consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference
North Coast Athletic Conference
The North Coast Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division III athletic conference composed of schools located in the Midwestern United States. When founded in 1984, the NCAC was a pioneer in gender equality, offering competition in a then-unprecedented ten women's sports...

 championships and eight individual NCAA Division III diving titles; Gilders would also earn NCAA-D3 Coach of the Year honors on three occasions.

Detroit's Fletcher Gilders has earned a comparatively rare distinction; he is an inductee to the Athletic
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...

 Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...

 at Ohio State University, Ohio University, and Kenyon College.

All in the family

Fletcher Gilders is the older brother of Barbara Gilders-Dudeck
Barbara Gilders-Dudeck
19-year old Detroit native and Mackenzie High School graduate, Barbara Sue Gilders represented the United States in the sport of springboard diving at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia....

, a 1956 Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 finalist in the three-meter springboard diving event; she finished a half-point from the bronze medal
Bronze medal
A bronze medal is a medal awarded to the third place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St...

.

Fletcher Gilders is also the father of Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 Roger Gilders, a notable collegiate track and field athlete during the late 1970s. Roger Gilders still holds the varsity
Varsity team
In the United States and Canada, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of secondary schools, against...

 record in the pole vault at his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...

, Ohio University.

Fletcher's grand daughter (Roger's niece), Calah Young (née Gilders) is the former school record holder in the pole vault at both Ohio University and Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

.
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