Oh brother! Wahlgrens leave Hall of Fame legacy at Princeton

Three state champions. Four state medalists. One dedicated father/coach. One household.

The Wahlgren brothers won a total of four state championships and eight individual state medals and received 32 varsity letters at Princeton High School between them over a 11-year span from 1983-94.

They were groomed by a loving father and a passionate coach, who has shared his love for the great outdoors to the youth of Princeton for decades.

The Wahlgren family - Lee, and his four sons, Erick, Kai, Kipp and Kristian - have each left their mark on PHS athletics and school history in their own special way.

For all of their accomplishments, the Wahlgren family earns induction into the BCR’s Bureau County Sports Hall of Fame.

“I had no idea what they would accomplish, just knew they would be involved in almost everything,” Lee said, who retired as a PHS teacher in 2000. “It was a thrill. I enjoyed it. They were very skilled, very competitive.”

Kai, who has been with the Bolingbrook Park District since 2000, currently serving as Director of Recreation, said it was cool growing up as a coach’s kid at PHS, graduating in 1989.

“My dad would take us to all different games, basketball or football. Watching them run out of that back tunnel there, the eye of the tiger with the band. Just that atmosphere at the gym was just so cool,” he said.

Chaos at home

A household of four boys with an eight-year age span was what one might expect, Erick said, “chaos.”

Dad was the authoritative figure at home, keeping the four boys in line. Their mom, True, was the backbone and peacemaker of the family, getting everyone to where they needed to be.

And the boys were always playing sports and games at their house. In the front yard, on the porch, inside with Nerf baskets. If the games weren’t at their house, they were at a friend’s.

You name it, they played it.

And they played to win.

“We were very competitive in anything ... hacky sack, bags, basketball, football, badminton, Wiffle Ball, anything,” Erick said.

The baby brother, Kristian, who was eight years younger than Erick, five younger than Kai and four younger than Kipp, the middle two brothers often mistaken for twins, often felt the brunt of his brother’s blows.

“I was the recipient of some not so fun encounters,” said Kristian, a Captain with the U.S. Navy serving in San Diego. “I didn’t really like it in the younger years, because physically, I just could not keep up. But in hindsight I think it was great. Even in our own household, I was always trying to work harder just to keep up with them. So I think overall, it helped me become a better athlete and raise my level of competitiveness.”

“He was just a little guy following us around. He’s trying to stay with us and we’re trying to lose him,” Kai said.

Erick proved to be the peace maker among the brothers.

“Kristian got whaled on quite a bit. The two in betweens were only a year difference in school and teamed up on him. I would make it right,” Erick said with a smile.

Split decision

The first two brothers, Erick, and Kai, who wrestled for the Tiger Town Tanglers youth program, went out for basketball at PHS, while the next two, Kipp and Kristian, wrestled.

It all worked out just great for all of them.

Erick and Kai were solid contributors to the Tiger basketball teams while Kipp and Kristian won three state wrestling championships and five state medals between them.

Just before the winter sports season started his freshmen year, Erick went into the coach’s office at PHS and told his dad, then the head wrestling coach, he had decided he was going to play basketball.

“He said, ‘if that’s what you want to do,’ and told me to play hard,” said Erick, who as a senior was a contributor to PHS’ first regional basketball championship in 31 years.

Kai made the same decision as he grew in height more geared toward basketball than wrestling.

“I saw the handwriting on the wall that they were basketball,” Lee said.

State champions

Kipp, who is a Colonel with the U.S. Marines stationed in Korea, took third at State at 135 pounds his junior year. He moved up two weight classes and all the way to the top of the podium, defeating Steve Wood of Harvard for the state title at 145 pounds his senior year.

He said winning state was a dream come true.

“A lot of work goes into a wrestling season and to win a state title while making it all come together over a weekend is special,” he said. “There are many factors at play over the course of that weekend - physical, mental, emotional; so to keep them all in check and being able to perform at your best and end it all with a state title is something all wrestlers dream about.

“Growing up with my dad as a coach and always being around the sport, it was something that I definitely dreamed of doing from a young age. When I saw guys like Mike Jones and Dennis Taylor win the state title, it became something that I wanted to do as well.”

Kristian said seeing his brother win state “opened my eyes to what is possible and to go after that goal myself.

“You have to go through your own process and get that confidence. Each year, my records from freshmen to senior were getting better,” he added. “You start to tell yourself and convince yourself, ‘Hey, if I make these corrections and I do this and I can get better, yeah I can get to that level to be competing for state.’”

Kristian, who was also a state qualifier in track, made his way up the medal stand, placing fourth as a sophomore at 145 pounds before claiming the 152-pound title as a junior by defeating Steve Brown of Lena-Winslow. He repeated his state crown as a senior at 160 pounds by defeating Carl Zindars of Mahomet-Seymour.

While the younger brothers made their mark on the wrestling mats, both of whom went on to compete for the U.S. Naval Academy, the older Wahlgrens shined in the pole vault during track.

Erick came through first, tying for second place at State as a junior in 1985. He soared to the top of the podium as a senior with a vault of 14-0, 31 years after Lew Flinn won the event for PHS in 1955. Flinn would provide much tutelage for Wahlgren’s success.

“It was a great honor to win it. I was always looking forward to doing it after school and Mr. Flinn helped when he could,” Erick said.

Even though Erick would become the state champ in the spring of 1986, he had to bow to his younger brother, Kai, in the Princeton Invitational.

“He was a senior and I was a freshman in the PIT and it was a windy day. Erick was doing a lot better than I was, but he couldn’t do his normal pole vaulting because it was so windy out. I was pretty much straight pole as it was and I beat him that day,” Kai said.

“It was my one claim to fame following him. I was always chasing his record.”

Kai would go on to claim fifth place at state as a senior with a height that nearly equaled that of what Erick did to win state three years before.

Gridiron success

All four brothers suited up for Tiger football, all contributing to the success of playoff teams.

Erick went on to play for IVCC, Illinois College and Elmhurst University, where he was the No. 1 ranked punter in the nation.

Kai just missed out on the 1989 state runner-up Tigers team, helping to set the stage for their gridiron success. He once had a game as a tight end in which he scored a rare trifecta - he ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown pass and passed for a touchdown.

Kipp, a No. 1 singles and doubles player in tennis for PHS, was a key member of that 1989 state runner-up football team playing as wing back/defensive back. He made a game-clinching sack to hold off arch-rival Hall 13-7 in the second round of the playoffs to keep the Tigers on track to reach the 3A state finals.

“The football season is still a significant highlight from my high school days,” said Kipp, who was named for his mother’s maiden name. “The way the whole town was engaged with pep rallies, bonfires, and the team meals was a pretty neat experience as a high schooler. It was quite the full engagement by the whole community and eating up the whole Tiger Style mantra.”

Kristian, a wing back/linebacker, took part in the Tigers’ second-round playoff run as a senior in 1993.

Life lessons

All four brothers have applied the many life lessons learned from sports to their daily lives.

“You try to apply those same principles to whatever team you’re on in the military for sure,” Kristian said. “I definitely go back to my sports experiences even after high school and the Naval Academy. Life lessons in my mind that are instrumental always help applying it in every day life.”

“I try to preach that to my own kids and other kids I come across, the life lessons you take away in being involved in team sports, working together, cooperation and teamwork and all that stuff,” Kai said.

Papa Wally

Coach Wahlgren, aka “Wally” and “P-Dub,” came to PHS in 1970 on the urging of Lew Flinn, his teammate with the semipro football team, the Chicago Rifles and head PHS football coach, who told him he needed a line coach.

It was the perfect place for the Wahlgren, now grandparents of 10, to start and raise their family.

“True liked the town and the rest is history,” he said.

Wally was a standout athlete in his own right. The 1960 Pittsfield High School graduate played football for the long defunct football team at Bradley University and then semipro for the Rifles.

He coached football and wrestling for years at PHS. He also shared his passion for the great outdoors, sponsoring the Sportsman’s Club since the early 1970s. He introduced countless of young men to annual fishing experiences in Ontario, Canada for 30 years from 1989-2019 until shutdown by COVID-19.