Len Gadway started his wrestling career in the 5th grade when his physical education teacher, Stan Riggs, presented a unit on wrestling. This was the beginning of Len's love and passion for the sport. Stan Riggs would go on to be a Hall of Fame coach for Peru High School and Len will join his mentor and coach into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame today. In high school Len would win two Section VII sectional titles for the Peru Indians. In 1973 Gadway won the 155 pound title and then in 1975 Len would repeat his sectional title at the 167 pound class. Len would travel on to Syracuse to represent the section in the NYSPHSAA wrestling championship and become the first Peru and Section VII wrestler to finish in the runner-up position on the podium. Len pinned his way to the championship match but would be defeated by Chris Lawson from Section VI.

Len credits Coach Riggs for his development as a wrestler but also gives an enormous amount of credit to Jack Hogan, father of another Hall of Famer Mike Hogan, for all that he did for him in wrestling. Len stated, "Jack Hogan carted us (Mike Hogan and Len) around the state to wrestling events and was very instrumental in my development as a wrestler and person. I owe him a huge amount for his effort and generosity."

Following his high school wrestling career. Len would journey to Northern Adirondack High School, one of Peru's biggest rivals in the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference, to become an assistant coach. Coach Gadway would remain there until 1982 when he started his head coaching position at Beekmantown. Coach Gadway's forty some year career at Beekmantown is something to be very proud of. Gadway has won 482 dual meets at this time and still counting... it is not sure when Len will end this remarkable run as a coach. During this period of time, Len's Beekmantown teams have won seven Section VII team championships (1985, 1986 and 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009) as well as six Champlain Valley Athletic Conference championships. In addition, Coach Gadway has been named the Coach of the Year five times during his illustrious career with the Eagles. One of the biggest honors that Len has had is the coaching of his son, Chris, to three Section VII titles in 1999, 2000 and 2001. And in 1999, Len had his two sons. Lee and Chris, win a Section VII title and wrestle in the New York State Championships together. Further, Coach Gadway has coached many individual wrestlers to championships including Hayden Head to a state title in 2012 and Jason Lapham during his career at Beekmantown finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. He has coached 142 Section VII individual champions and numerous other sectional place winners, too numerous to mention.

Furthermore, Chris Gadway, son of Coach Gadway, had this to say about his father, "It isn't always about winning and losing for my father. It is how you won and lost that was important to him. My father stressed that his success as a coach was not what happens on the mat but off the mat. Dad is highly respected in the Section VII wrestling community for his success and the way that he conducts himself and his squads."

Len has indicated that some of the life lessons that he attempts to teach his student/athletes are the same ones that Coach Riggs conveyed to him at Peru. Those lessons include a wrestler should never quit and that hard work and self-confidence will enable a wrestler to achieve anything that they strive to do. Jason Cook, one of Len's former wrestlers, stated this about Coach Gadway. "He was old school and would push all his athletes to do their best. But he would make sure that all his wrestlers were taken care. He would give them money to eat with at tournaments, make sure that they had rides home after practices and contests. And would provide the wrestlers with off season practices and competitions to help them get better at the sport. I feel privileged and honored to have wrestled for Len Gadway."

Len Gadway has given over 40 years of commitment and service to the sport of wrestling. And for this dedication the Upstate New York Chapter is honored to enshrine him into the Upstate New York Chapters Hall of Fame now and forever. Congratulation Len!