Peter Joseph Mehringer (July 15, 1910 – August 27, 1987) was an Olympic Gold Medal-winning freestyle wrestler from Kinsley, Kansas. Mehringer was nicknamed the "Kansas Whirlwind". After learning how to wrestle from a correspondence course, he went on to win two Kansas state championships, and three Missouri Valley Conference titles while attending the University of Kansas. He was an All-American and national runner-up at the 1932 NCAA championships. The KU sophomore won a gold medal at the 1932 Olympic Games, becoming the first KU athlete to ever have won an Olympic gold medal. Mehringer returned to KU in 1932 for his junior season and solidified his place among KU's all-time great athletes by earning All-Big Six Conference honors in football as a 214-pound tackle. Financial considerations prevented him from graduating from KU. Mehringer went on to play professional football with the Chicago Cardinals and the Los Angeles Bulldogs, and worked occasionally as a movie extra and stunt man. Although he declined to discuss it in his later years, he is KU's only grappling icon to pursue a career in professional wrestling. He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member in 1983 and the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1984. References External links Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum KUhistory.com Biography SLAM! Sports: Overcoming the odds: Pete Mehringer's 1932 gold medal 1910 births 1987 deaths American football tackles People from Kinsley, Kansas Olympic gold medalists for the United States in wrestling Wrestlers at the 1932 Summer Olympics American male sport wrestlers Players of American football from Kansas Kansas Jayhawks football players University of Kansas alumni Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics