J-Club Hall of Honor | Event Registration

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Saint John's University has been a central part of Bob Dumonceaux's life for almost 70 years now.

But as a kid growing up on a farm just north of Foley in the early 1950s, he had mixed emotions about the place.

"I was the third of four boys," he recalled. "We had a 128-acre farm and everybody worked on it. My oldest brother graduated high school and never came home. We had to take him to St. Cloud to get on the train that night because he'd been drafted. Then my brother Leonard, who is nine years older than me, disappeared the fall after he graduated. My dad took him to this place called Saint John's way on the other side of St. Cloud. 

"That was a sad time for me. We didn't see him again until Christmas. So to me, Saint John's was the place that took him away."

As the next in line, Dumonceaux became his father's right-hand man on the farm while also going on to a stellar high school athletic career. In 1957, the senior became the first of what would become many Foley High School wrestlers to advance to the state tournament.

"That was exciting," Dumonceaux said. "On the way home, the coach and I stopped at a restaurant. It was the first time I ever put salad dressing on my lettuce. We didn't have that on the farm. It was great."

That fall, Dumonceaux enrolled at SJU himself - still not quite sure what to make of the place.

"My dad dropped me off in front of the refectory with only a suitcase in my hand," Dumonceaux recalled. "He said 'Be good Bert,' then drove away and I was on my own. I cried so hard. I was lonesome for my family, and for all the pigs and the cattle on the farm.

"I lived in Benet Hall and it was quite a change. We didn't have running water at home. But here I got up every morning and took a shower. It took some getting used to."

Dumonceaux eventually made the adjustment. And from there, he thrived on campus, especially on the wrestling mat.



He finished in the top four in his weight class at the MIAC meet all four of his collegiate seasons and twice earned runner-up honors - including as a senior in 1961 when he dropped a controversial decision to Curt Buckhardt of Macalester in the heavyweight championship match. 

Dumonceaux wrestled the defending conference champion to a 4-4 deadlock after three periods, but Buckhardt was awarded the title on what was ruled as superior riding time.

"I was leading by two points in the third period," said Dumonceaux, who started out also playing football at SJU, but had to give that sport up because his summer duties at home on the farm made it impossible to report to campus early each fall. 

"Then he reversed me and the match was tied," he continued. "But I still felt good because I thought I had the advantage in riding time. Suddenly, there was a huge commotion at the table and the ref came out and raised the other guy's hand. John Kuelbs, who was one of our star wrestlers, was arguing. He pointed out that when they added up the two riding times, it came to more than nine minutes. It turns out, they never shut his clock off after the third period. So they gave him the match. John was so upset it almost ended up in a fistfight.

"It was kind of a heartbreaking way to end my college career."

By that time, though, Dumonceaux had already laid the foundation for his future. He'd served as the student head coach of the wrestling team his senior season and began teaching a mathematics course. 

He came back to coach the wrestling team and teach a physics course the following year before spending two years away at graduate school. He then returned to SJU in 1964, coaching wrestling the next three seasons before handing the reins off to Terry Haws prior to the 1967-68 campaign.

"He was really positive, upbeat guy to be around," recalled Don Schreifels, who won at MIAC title at 171 pounds in 1965 under Dumonceaux's tutelage. "He loved Saint John's and he loved wrestling. What more could you ask for from a head coach.

"I loved the guy. He was a real Johnnie all the way."

Indeed, away from the mat, Dumonceaux embarked on an over 50-year tenure as a professor in the math department at CSB and SJU that lasted until his retirement in 2014.

"I never looked at going anywhere else," he said. "I loved the math department and the other professors there. Fr. Walbert Kalinowski, in particular, became a really good friend. My parents moved off the farm and lived in Oak Park (near Foley). I was the only one in our family who still lived close to them. That was important to me, and this area was a great place to start a family."

Dumonceaux and his wife Evie raised seven children just miles from campus. Four of his sons - David, Duane, Darwin and Damien - went on to became standouts on the Johnnie football team. 

Their father had a front row seat to it all, leading the chain gang at home football games for decades. It's a role he first took on when the regular chain gang failed for the Johnnies' matchup against Concordia at the Metrodome in 1991 – Duane's freshman season.

"At the time, the MIAC hosted a day of games at the Metrodome each season and Saint John's was the designated home team," Darwin recalled. "The regular guys couldn't be there for whatever reason and Peg Gagliardi (the wife of legendary head coach John Gagliardi) asked if my dad and some of his sons could do it.

"That was the start of it all."

Indeed, Dumonceaux and his sons staffed the crew for years, and those sons and their sons still handle the job today.

"Saint John's is what we grew up with," said Darwin Dumonceaux, who also won an NCAA Division III national title in the shot put as a senior at SJU in 1999. "It was everything. It was our lives. It's what we grew up around.

"And it's still a huge part of our family today."

"This place became home for (my Dad)," added Damien, a defensive lineman who helped lead the Johnnies to the 2003 Division III national title and is now a longtime member of the football coaching staff. 

"He loved the campus and really cared about his students. He'd give out his home number and we'd get calls all the time asking if Dr. D (his nickname) was there. He'd take all the time they needed to get things figured out, and if they didn't, he'd tell them to come and see him in his office the next day.

"Teaching, and being part of the Saint John's community, was a real passion for him."

One that continues to this day as his children and grandchildren still run the chain gang at Clemens Stadium (though grandson Nolan – a son of Duane - is on the field where the junior handles long-snapping duties for the Johnnies).

"I've been here so long now that I'm wrapped up in the place," he said. "It's such a big part of my identity. So much of my world has revolved around Saint John's and it's a place that's been very good to my family and I over the years."

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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