General 2/14/2020 12:30:00 PM Chris Brannick

Eddie Griffin To Be Inducted Into Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame announced Friday its class of 2020 and University of Central Oklahoma athletic director Eddie Griffin is among the group of seven inductees.

The announcement precedes a luncheon to formally introduce the class. That will take place Thursday, Feb. 27. An induction ceremony will take place later this year.

Griffin has been the athletic director at Central Oklahoma since October of 2017, overseeing the Broncho athletic department's most ambitious transformation in school history. Nearly $30 million in facility renovations have taken place over the past few years at Central.

UCO has also won two team national championships and four individual national titles in rowing, as well as an individual national title in wrestling, since Griffin's arrival to campus in 2017.

That arrival was a return to campus for Griffin. The former head wrestling coach won three national championships in 1979, 1981, and 1982. Griffin, who graduated with his Master of Education from Central and later became the head wrestling coach for the Bronchos, helped lay a foundation for success in athletics at UCO and in 2008, Griffin was inducted into the UCO Athletic Hall of Fame.

He was named the Rookie Coach of the Year by Amateur Wrestling News in 1979. He coached 26 All-Americans, 11 individual national champions and put together a 40-18-1 dual record that included wins over Alabama, Arizona, Brigham Young, Oregon and Washington. Griffin was named NAIA National Coach of the Year three times in four seasons.

Griffin's 1981 team was perhaps the best in NAIA history, scoring a tournament-record 155.25 points and crowning six individual champions, while running away with the title. The Bronchos won again in 1982.

Griffin came to UCO a second time after serving as the president of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and Jim Thorpe Association. He also served as an athletic director for Oklahoma City Public Schools and Northeastern State University, as well as head wrestling coach at Clemson University.

Griffin coached high school wrestling at Del City and Ardmore before his first stint at Central. He was a wrestler at Oklahoma State in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Griffin, who helped Oklahoma State win NCAA wrestling championships in 1968 and 1971, was the recipient of the Gallagher Award in 2011.

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