Don Parker grew up in Hawkeye, Iowa and attended North Fayette County Community School, lettering in wrestling, football, track and baseball.

Parker was a Iowa state champion, a two-time state finalist and a three-time conference champion in wrestling while earning all-conference and honorable all-state honors in football.

After graduating in 1963, he enrolled at that State College of Iowa on a full scholarship for football and wrestling. Parker was a two-time NCAA Division II champion, winning the title at 177 pounds in 1966 and 1967, and earned All-American honors at the NCAA Division I tournament with a sixth-place finish at 191 pounds in 1967. He was a three-time North Central Conference champion and was named outstanding wrestler at the tournament in 1966. Parker wrestled in the first NCAA All-Star meet and received the Academic/Athletic award from SCI. He received his bachelor's degree in teaching, majoring in physical education.

Upon graduating in 1968, Parker took his first teaching and coaching job at Zion-Benton High School in Illinois. He taught industrial arts and was an assistant football and wrestling coach. Parker returned to UNI as a wrestling graduate assistant and helped UNI's wrestling team to a second-place finish at the NCAA Division II tournament. He received his master's degree in physical education in 1970.

Parker then became a teacher and coach in Vernonia, Oregon, again teaching industrial arts while working as an assistant football coach and head wrestling coach. He then moved to Hillsboro, Oregon, continuing to teach industrial arts and working as an assistant coach for football and wrestling for two years.

He became the head wrestling coach at Upper Iowa University in 1973 while also working as an assistant football coach and teaching physical education. He coached seven All-American in four years and was named Iowa Conference Co-Coach of the Year in 1976.

Parker became the head wrestling coach at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and also worked as an assistant football coach for 12 years. He became an assistant professor in the kinesiology department while producing 13 All-Americans, a national champion and nine Academic All-Americans.

He was president of the NAIA National Coaches Association in 1986-87 and was NAIA Coach of the Year in 2000. Parker was inducted into the North High School Hall of Fame in 1986, the NCAA Division II Hall of Fame in 2000 and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum's Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame of Iowa in 2007.

In the fall of 1998, Parker fell 12 feet from a tree stand after the seat he was sitting on came loose. He broke his neck and became an incomplete quadriplegic. Parker continued to teach and coach from his wheelchair until his retirement in 2009. He continued to serve as an Emeriti volunteer coach at UWEC.

Don and his wife Carol live in Ear Claire. They have three grown daughters: Kristen, Lesli and Wendy and one granddaughter, Addison.