His career was like a meteor... a streak of brilliance then, tragically, he was gone. But for a dozen years, Rick Sanders was the golden boy of wrestling, America's first World champion, a legendary athlete.

He won three Oregon high school championships--with 80 wins, one loss--collegiate titles at three levels, five national Freestyle crowns and six international medals. He once beat Dan Gable, 6-0, the only shutout defeat of the Iowan's storied career. At his hometown university, Portland State, he won the NAIA in 1965, the Division II NCAA in 1967 and '68, and Division I in 1966 and '67, reaching the finals again as a senior. He was voted outstanding wrestler of four of those national events.

As a college freshman, Sanders won his first Freestyle title and made the World team. He took a bronze in '66, won the Pan Am Games in '67 and was a silver medalist in the 1967 Worlds and the 1968 Olympics.

A year later, at 114.5 pounds, he became the first American ever to win a World championship. He returned to the Olympics in 1972 and captured another silver. Of the 11 bouts he won in two Olympics, nine were by fall. Suddenly, Rick was gone, killed in an auto accident in Yugoslavia.

He was a complex personality, a free thinker. He had his own style of training, his own style of living. He wore long hair and a beard before they were fashionable, to the distress of conservatives. But Rick was a champion, with technique and expertise ahead of his time. A self-made man, with little family background, he concentrated on helping youth.

He often left cutting weight until the last minute. A favorite vignette is one of Rick jogging up and down the aisle of a mammoth jet airliner on his way to a match with the Soviet Union.

In 1970, he won the World team trials at 125.5, after an epic series with fellow Olympic medalist Don Behm. But he gave up his position to try--unsuccessfully--to cut to 114.5 so that both could wrestle.

He is one we shall never forget. Richard J. Sanders is honored as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.