DOWAGIAC — It has been a long time coming, but Dowagiac’s Michael Shearer will finally be inducted into the National Junior College Wrestling Hall of Fame Feb. 24.

The induction ceremony will be during the NJCAA National Wrestling Tournament in Council Bluff, Iowa.

Shearer found out he was going to be inducted three weeks ago.

“The coach up at Muskegon called me and let me know,” Shearer said. “A year ago he made the comment that my situation had gone through the floorboard somehow and so they accepted it really fast.”

Shearer, 70, said that he was assuming that it was never followed up on.

“It is a good feeling,” he said. “They were having their 50-year reunion and he wanted me to come, so he looked me up in the White Pages.”

Shearer said that Muskegon is building a new athletic facility and they were also raising money for that project as well as celebrating 50 years of wrestling.

“There must have been 400 or 500 people there,” he said. “They introduced me and several other nation champions from Muskegon. We had a nice dinner. He told me this should have been done a long time ago.”

Shearer is a 1966 graduate of Dowagiac High School, where he wrestled for Dick Boles and John Lewis.

He was a two-time state conference champion with 58 victories in 1965 and 1966.

In 1966, he won the state championship at 120 pounds and finished that season with a 34-0 record.

He was Dowagiac’s first state champion.

He traveled north to compete collegiately at Muskegon Community College where he competed for two seasons — 1967 and 1968.

Under coach Sid Hultema, the Jayhawks went 80-6 on won the NJCAA national championship his sophomore year at 123 pounds.

In his six matches at the national tournament, Shearer allowed just two points to be scored against him.

Shearer competed alongside freshman Chris Taylor, who is also a member of the NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame.

He was 30-0 in dual meets his two years at Muskegon and was a two-time Michigan Community College state champion, the outstanding wrestler of 1969 and was named the two-time Muskegon outstanding wrestler.

Shearer was named a first-team All-American and was named to the Outstanding College Athletes of America in 1969.

Like in Dowagiac, he was Muskegon’s first national champion.

Shearer was an assistant coach for the Jayhawks during the 1969-70 season before transferring to Iowa State University where he wrestled his junior and senior seasons.

Muskegon won the NJCAA national title that season.

While at Iowa State he wrestled not only with Taylor, but another Olympian, Dan Gable.

Shearer still lives in Dowagiac with his wife Connie. They have three children — Stacey, Louis and Adam, along with seven grandchildren.