OSWEGO, N.Y. - After his 34th season as the head wrestling coach at SUNY Oswego, Mike Howard will be inducted into the Upstate New York Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his lifetime service to wrestling on September 29, 2024.
            Howard began his collegiate wrestling career with the University of Buffalo, and wrestled there from 1981-1983 before transferring to SUNY Oswego where he wrestled from 1984-1986. During his time with the Lakers, Howard wrestled in the 167-pound weight class and was a two-time co-captain.
            After spending three seasons as the assistant wrestling coach for the Lakers Howard was hired by SUNY Oswego in 1989 to be the associate head coach with the Oswego State wrestling program. Howard and the Lakers had a lot of success from the start, making 20 straight NCAA championship appearances from 1990-2009 and 27 appearances total throughout his tenure. During this time he has had 72 NCAA championship individual qualifiers.
            Howard has been named Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference (ECWC) coach of the year on two separate occasions, once in 1996 and again in 2001.
            The wrestlers he has coached over the years have racked up a high amount of accolades under his command. He has had 22 individuals earn All-America honors, 26 conference champions and 199 conference place winners.  Five of his wrestlers have been honored as the Conference Most Outstanding Wrestler and two have earned Conference Rookie/Freshman of the Year awards.  Eight individuals have won the New York State Collegiate Championships with 130 total NYS place winners.   Since 2013 when the NCAA created regional competition in the sport of wrestling, he has coached three regional champions and 34 regional place winners. Twenty-eight of his wrestlers have been named to the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Scholar All-America team. 
            During his tenure Howard has also served as the Chair of the NWCA Division III Ranking Committee and served multiple years on the NCAA Championship Seeding Committee.

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Written by: Ben Diamond