J-Club Hall of Honor | Event Registration

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - When it came to Central Minnesota high school wrestling in the 1960s, there may have been no better rivalry than the one that existed between St. Cloud Cathedral and Saint John's Prep.

The Crusaders - under head coach Terry Haws - won five State Catholic Tournament titles during those years. But the Johnnies - under the direction of Fr. Otto Weber - were always right near the top as well, winning a state title of their own in 1966.

The annual dual meet between the neighboring schools drew overflow crowds, packing gymnasiums to see two evenly matched teams.

But both head coaches left their jobs following the 1967 season - Haws to become the head wrestling and assistant football coach at Saint John's University, and Weber to concentrate on his many other duties at both the Prep School and university.

"Otto wasn't always my favorite person growing up - only because his teams occasionally beat my dad's," said Haws' son Pat who went on to his own long coaching career at SJU. "But when I got to Saint John's and got to know him, I fell in love with him. In fact, I don't know if he had any enemies at all. 

"He was such a great person and an amazing coach. You could see that in the success his teams had."

Weber had plenty of success as an athlete himself. Raised on a rural Stearns County farm near St. Martin, he graduated from Saint John's Prep in 1952, then went on to SJU where he took up wrestling and won an MIAC title at 147 pounds in 1954 - defeating Dick Mace of Gustavus 4-3 in the championship match.

"Since his start last year as a novice, Weber's two-year record shows steady improvement (that has) now culminated in an individual championship," The Record reported.



Weber graduated from SJU in 1957 and was ordained in 1961. That's when he started as a teacher and staff member at the Prep School. He'd spend all but one of the next 26 years there (the only gap came during the 1970-71 school year when he served as a student-work supervisor at Benilde-St. Margaret's High School in St. Louis Park). 

His tenure included numerous coaching positions, including head coach of wrestling, and later girls track and field.

He also worked next door at SJU, spending 15 years as coordinator of the university's intramural program (he'd been part of an intramural football championship team himself as a student). 

Weber also worked alongside Haws, stepping in as co-head coach with Terry's brother Larry after Terry suffered a heart attack that kept him out of action during the 1971-72 season, and again after Terry's fatal heart attack at the National Catholic Invitational in Cleveland in February of 1973.

"He could see in both a wrestler and runner the possibilities of what they could become if they worked for it," said Terry Elfering, a three-time MIAC champion at 118 pounds who got to know Weber when he was a student at the Prep School in the 1960s. "I remember when I was running the two-mile in high school, he told me not to think about getting tired. Because if you think about being tired, you will be. That advice worked and I broke 10 minutes.

"He was a smart man and a great person. He truly helped me become the person I became just because of who he was and the way he cared for people. He set an example that's stuck with me for the rest of my life."

Elfering was one of thousands of young people who attended the summer leadership camp Weber established at the Prep School during the 1960s. He later founded a wrestling camp at SJU - one of the first of its kind in Minnesota - and had a hand in starting a number of other summer sports camps as well. 

Those camps drew new generations of potential students to Collegeville for the first time.

"It's remarkable," said Maury Meyer, a standout wrestler at St. Cloud Cathedral and SJU who went on to become a longtime coach and administrator at nearby Albany High School. "I worked at a lot of those camps, and I still have adults who are now 50 or 60 come up to me and tell me about their experiences. So many kids got their first exposure to Saint John's that way. 

"And the wrestling camp really became a cradle for wrestling coaches around the state. Every year, it was like a who's who of future hall of famers. Guys like Ken Droegemueller (Osseo), Dick Pullen (St. Michael-Albertville and Monticello), Don Dravis (Staples), Gerry Gingles (Canby) and Roy Minter (Ridgewater Community College). A lot of knowledge got passed around at night when the kids had been put to bed. And that was all because of Otto."

Weber's contributions to the sport were recognized when the Minnesota Chapter of the National Wrestling Coaches Association presented him with a lifetime achievement award in late 2019.

"He'd been a successful wrestler himself so he knew all the techniques and was able to pass them along to the wrestlers he coached at the Prep School," recalled Gary Svendsen, who became the first SJU wrestler to win a national title in 1972. 

"As college wrestlers, we were already pretty advanced with our technique and experience. But he played a big role when he stepped into Terry's shoes by making sure we had everything we needed to be successful. He was also matside for all our matches, shouting out encouragement and advice. That played a big role in any of the success we had."

Svendsen became close enough to Otto that he asked him to co-officiate his wedding in August of 1973.

"He, of course, did and stayed for the reception and party afterward," Svendsen recalled. "Later that night, after a few refreshments, he was outside in the parking lot standing on a car and leading a bunch of my old wrestling teammates in the Johnnie fight song. 

"He was a fun-loving guy and so full of life. It was fun just to be around him."

That vitality and vigor continued throughout his life. Weber frequently went for runs on campus and took part in workouts with his track team at Saint John's Prep. He also played amateur baseball for a number of years in his hometown of St. Martin.

"He was there when we first opened up Warner Palaestra (in 1973)," Pat Haws said. "It was all concrete floors and he and I sealed them together. They put in those racquetball courts, and Otto was incredibly competitive. If you played him best two-out-of-three and won, it became best-out-of-five. If you won that, it became best-out-of-seven. He refused to quit. That was just his nature.

"He never slowed down," Haws continued. "If Otto was catching a cold, he'd stop at every drinking fountain and take a drink - thinking he'd drown it. And if that wasn't working, he'd go for a run. He was always on the go."

Weber had just finished a run with counselors at his leadership camp on the evening of July 12, 1987 when the 53-year-old suffered a massive heart attack and collapsed outside a Prep School dormitory. The priest - who had battled heart problems in the months prior to his death - was rushed to the hospital in St. Cloud where he was pronounced dead.

"That came as such a shock," Svendsen said. "But what was so amazing to me was how packed the Abbey Church was for his funeral. There wasn't room enough for everyone inside. There were so many people from so many walks of life. I remember even (then U.S. Senator) Dave Durenberger (an SJU graduate) attended.

"It was a true testament to the many who held him in such high regard."

And his legacy lives on today through all those he impacted during his time at the Prep School and SJU.

"What he taught me about running and wrestling has formed the basis for all the success I've gone on to have," said Elfering, who owned his own construction business until retiring three years ago. "I tried to pass on the values he instilled in me to each of my four children.

"He was just an amazing human being."

2026 Hall of Honor Class 
The 2026 class will be inducted into the Saint John's University J-Club Hall of Honor in a ceremony scheduled for Homecoming Saturday – Oct. 17 - in Guild Hall (Old Gym). 

The dinner and enshrinement ceremony begins at 5 p.m. in Guild Hall (Old Gym). A Homecoming Celebration social will again take place outside the venue from 4-5 p.m. following SJU's football game against Concordia in Clemens Stadium prior to the dinner and program. 

Registration is $75 per person before Oct. 11 ($100 per person after) and includes dinner and beverages. Children ages 6-12 are $35 and those ages six-and-under are free. All proceeds go to the J-Club to support SJU athletics.

To register to attend, click here. 

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