Gene Daise is a native of Kansas and one of those few athletes who was able to participate in both wrestling and basketball while in high school. However, wrestling became his top sports ambition when he wrestled for Colorado A&M (Colorado State University) in the late 1940s and lettered all four years for the Rams. He had been the conference champion as a senior, and competed for a chance to be on the US Olympic Team in 1948 reaching the multi-individual finals of the competitions that year at 138.5 pounds. He graduated from college in 1950 and began his teaching career at Phillips County High School (now Holyoke High School) as a Vocational Ag teacher. But the Korean War put a temporary hold on his teaching until the fall of 1953. It was that year that he started the wrestling program at the school, but as intramurals. In 1954 wrestling became a varsity sport at the school. His first state champion was Jim Ferguson at 120 in 1957, a year in which the championships were still in one classification. In 2005 he received the Colorado Athletic Directors Association Honor Award for outstanding contributions to his community and athletics.