Khris Whelan was a two-time wrestling all-American for the Tigers, finishing 7th at 126 pounds in 1980 at the NCAA Championships, as well as 4th at 134 pounds in the 1983 NCAA meet. He compiled a 97-19-3 career record. He left with a final career record of 97-19-3 and was a member of the Mizzou team that placed 12th at the 1982 NCAA Wrestling Championships, which was the highest finish in school history at the time. In Whelan’s four years, MU finished 26th (1980), 28th (1981), 12th (1982) and 16th (1983) in the nation. A native of Granite City, Illinois, he was named Missouri’s Most Outstanding Wrestler in 1983 when he posted a 32-3-1 record. He spent most of that season ranked No. 1 in the nation in his weight class, which was a first at the time for the Tiger program. Whelan was the first MU wrestler to win the prestigious Midlands Tournament (1982) and was MU’s first grappler to win the East-West All-Star Classic where he was voted the meet’s most outstanding wrestler. He won Mizzou’s Marshall Esteppe Most Outstanding Freshman Award in 1979. He later served as the lead assistant coach for Mizzou under Hall of Fame coach Wes Roper from 1988 to 1993 and helped the program land some nationally heralded recruits. He helped train and develop seven MU all-Americans and two Big Eight Conference champions as a Tiger assistant coach. He also served as a coach for the Great Britain National Team and served as the head coach of the Great Britain women’s team. He coached at two World Championships, as well as the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Since 1997, he has been an accomplished coach at the prep and collegiate levels, developing more than 20 place-winners and three state champions in the prep ranks, and his 1999-2000 Hazelwood Central team took second place in the Missouri state championships. He was the head coach at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville from 2005-07. He also coached at Cahokia (Ill.) High School and at Belleville (Ill.) Althoff High School. He was inducted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame in 2001.
