John graduated from Rice Lake High School in 1961 and had a very distinguished athletic high school career. His wrestling record was 19-2 over 3 years. In football he played defensive end and was elected defensive team captain of the 1959 undefeated Warrior team. In track, he set the school and conference discus records multiple times. He went on to River Falls to wrestle and throw the discus. In Feb of ’63 he joined the Air Force and in basic training, ran the required ¼ mile in record setting time. He was sent to Anchorage and to Vietnam. In ‘Nam, he was introduced to horseshoes in his free time. He was then sent to Frankfurt, Germany and joined the Frankfurt (Rhein/Main) football team where he caught the attention of a certain scout who cut new orders which read: “to play football for England”, which he did. He was the MVP of the Utah/England bowl game. After not becoming the U.S. military’s Olympic qualifier, he was assigned to the Olympic training team. Training took place at historic Cambridge University - the location of the first sub 4:00 minute mile by Roger Bannister in 1960. In 1971, while assigned to the Olympic training team, he was further assigned to the British team - that of Jeff King, England’s entry. After his retirement from the Air Force in 1983, he moved to Iowa where he took up horseshoes full time. While there, he won 12 Iowa State championships and 4 team titles. Major success came in 2010 when he won the title “Men’s Open World Class Champion.” John and his wife Jo reside in Omaha, Nebraska.