Submitted photo: Don Miller coaches his first Fort Dodge wrestling team in 1970. Miller is now the namesake of the annual Dodger Invitational, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this Saturday.

For 50 years, Don Miller has been in the Dodger gym on the third Saturday of December.

What started as a coach’s dream a half century ago now lives as a Fort Dodge tradition that has withstood the test of time.

When Don Miller became the school’s head coach in 1970, tournaments weren’t a huge part of wrestling scene yet.

Miller wanted to change that in his own backyard. So the future Dodger Hall of Famer went to FDSH athletic director Dutch Huseman with a plan.

Today, that home invitational is the Don Miller Invitational.

North Central Iowa was a hotbed of wrestling in the 1970s, with Eagle Grove, Emmetsburg, Algona and Osage, just to name a few.

Miller wanted to build a tournament from the ground up and attract top-flight programs to Fort Dodge for a tournament.

“My assistant coach, John Atkins, and I wanted to put together a tournament, so we went to Dutch,” Miller said. “Dutch said, ‘Let me think about it.’ A couple of weeks passed, and I told John we had to put a plan together of how we were going to do this if we wanted to actually make it happen.”

A more well-prepared Miller then went back to Huseman and pitched the idea again.

“We wanted to have seven teams: Eagle Grove, Emmetsburg, (Council Bluffs) Lewis Central, Ames and some others. I got two referees to do it for free, and we had Curt Davis for police security,” Miller recalled. “Some teachers volunteered their time to watch the doors, and we did everything on two mats.

“We charged $2 for adults and $1 for kids. We cleared $1,800, which would be almost $15,000 today. Afterward, Dutch said, ‘I think we should do this every year.’

There have been changes through the years, including the addition of wrestlers of the meet to honor former FDSH wrestling state champions Tim Ascherl and Brent Helmkamp.

“Tim and Brent were terrific kids,” Miller said. “It’s very deserving to honor them both still to this day.”

In 2005, the big change to the meet came with the renaming of the invitational to recognize Miller.

“It seems like yesterday when it started. Time flies,” Miller said. “When Tom (Kinseth, athletic director at the time) came to me and asked, it was a great honor. I accepted it with humility.

“It’s fun to see it keep going.”

Current Dodger head coach Bobby Thompson was the first four-time tourney champion from Fort Dodge.

“The area was just so strong when it came to wrestling talent,” Thompson said. “Coach Miller wanted to have a tournament and get a field of quality programs to come here and compete.

“When I wrestled, there was an unknown when you got to state when it came to some teams. The (field at the FDSH Invitational) definitely helped.”

Thompson tries to break the season into three parts: before Christmas, after Christmas and the postseason. Heading into break with a home invitational is a perfect way to set up the rest of the regular season.

“We can sit back and look at what we need to do from this point forward (after Saturday),” Thompson said.

The Fort Dodge wrestling team has had four different coaches during the Miller Invite area: Miller, Hans Goettsch (1985-89), Ed Birnbaum (1990-2004) and Thompson (2005-present).

Birnbaum, who wrestled in the Miller Invite twice, still remembers the area rotation of tournaments well.

“Back then, there were basically three invitationals: Eagle Grove, Humboldt and Fort Dodge. Emmetsburg came later,” Birnbaum said. “The competition was strong in this area. Everybody wanted to win those tournaments.

“It seemed like you could go from zero to hero really quick.”

Birnbaum is proud of the way the event has survived 50 years of changes.

“Coach Miller did a good job of getting schools here when he started,” Birnbaum said. “To see this at 50 years is remarkable. A lot of tournaments that were going back then don’t exist.

“You have to give a lot of credit to Miller for getting teams here, and to the school for keeping with the tradition.”

Birnbaum remembers the feeling of succeeding in the event, both as a wrestler and as a coach.

“It’s a big deal,” Birnbaum said. “As a coach, it was an honor and humbling to win. A lot of fun. There were a lot of great coaches who came here and never did win it.”

Miller’s attendance remains perfect, even to this day at age 78.

“I sit down on the south end of table No. 2,” Miller said. “I just realized I’ve been wrestling and around the sport since I was eight years old — so 70 years now.”