Don Hartman spent most of his childhood years in Upper Michigan, growing up in the tiny lumbering town of Nahma, where he participated in athletics. He graduated from high school in 1960. Wrestling was not an interscholastic sport in Upper Michigan until the late 60's, so Don's first exposure to the sport was as a coach. After high school, Don attended Northern Michigan University where he earned his Bachelors Degree in 1965 and his Masters Degree in 1971. He did his student teaching at Kingsford, MI High School and then return to Northern Michigan where he taught physical education classes while working as a graduate assistant. In 1967 Don moved to Oconto, Wisconsin, where he taught biology and physical education and coached wrestling, football and track. Oconto was where Don was introduced to wrestling upon accepting the head coaching position there. Two years later he moved to Pulaski where he was assistant coach under Jim Richie. At one point, the coaching staff at Pulaski consisted to Jim Richie, Don Hartman, Joe Kind and Emil Kuhn; all who are now members of the George Martin Wrestling Hall of Fame. Don coached football as well as wrestling at Pulaski. It was at Pulaski that Don met his wife, Judy. Three years later the Hartman's moved to northwestern Wisconsin and settled in Osceola where Don served as wrestling coach for 20 years while teaching physical education and health. While Don coached at Osceola, the Chieftains won 7 conference championships, winning 107 matches, losing 20. Don's overall record at Osceola was 153-71-5. His teams won 25 various team titles, 4 regionals and 2 sectionals. During this era Osceola had 64 all-conference wrestlers. Twenty-nine Osceola wrestlers placed in the State Tournament and 2 individual titles were earned. In 1985 Don was honored as WWCA Coach of the Year in District One. Don was a member of the original George Martin Wrestling Hall of Fame Organization and Selection Committee. Later he was chairman of the Hall for 4 years. During that time it was his task to get the Hall of Fame display into the fieldhouse. (Wrestling was the first association to do so.) He also served as area representative, vice- president and president of the Coaches Association. During Don's term as president, George Martin was posthumously inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, OK. Mrs. Martin asked Don to represent the Wisconsin coaches and to make the presentation address. Don also served 2 terms on the WIAA Wrestling Rules Advisory Committee and worked at many camps in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin during his coaching years. When it was deemed necessary that a web site be created for the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association and the Hall of Fame, Don worked with Webbedfeet to create the the first domain. When the University of Wisconsin remodeled the Fieldhouse in Madison the original display was removed so Don and Bob Olson created a traveling Hall of Fame display that could be taken to the coaches clinic as well as the state meets. This served the needs of the coaches association until Jim Stephenson's efforts created the George Martin Wrestling Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame-Wisconsin Chapter Hall of Fame display.which is located at Chula Vista in the Wisconsin Dells. This comprehensive display was completed in the Spring of 2015. Over the years from the early 80's for approximately 20 years (until the station was sold) Don had hosted "Mat Talk" on WIXK Radio along with Bob Olson and Walt Anderson. The program is aired every Sunday evening during the wrestling season for one hour. Since retiring from coaching, Don and Walt also did the play-by-play of the state tournament, as well as conference, regional and sectional meets. After retiring from coaching Don approached the Wrestling Coaches Association for permission to create an alumni group which was called the "Sages" to provided an opportunity for other retired coaches to work on various projects and to stay involved in the sport. The group with the leadership of Jim Stephenson wrote the first "History of Wisconsin High School Wrestling" book which was over three hundred pages in length. During this same time period Bob Olson (New Richmond) researched and compiled a historical record of the coaching lineage of very high school in the state of Wisconsin. Don was inducted in to The "George Martin Wrestling Hall of Fame" in 1996, the "Lifetime Service Award" from the National HOF in 1999 and the "Northern Michigan University Sports Hall of Fame" in 2000.