UWEC Athletics Hall of Fame
Ryan Quinn was an All-American player for Hall of Fame coach Todd Oehrlein’s powerhouse Blugold teams at the turn of the century. Quinn helped the Blugolds win the 2001 NCAA championship. He grew up in Western Wisconsin, prepping at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School where the lefthander won both a team and individual state championship playing in sneakers and clubs off a rack. He initially attended the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor and then Winona State before transferring to Eau Claire.
Quinn had several major highlights during his Blugold career, the first being when he finished as the runner-up medalist in the 2000 NCAA championships. He lost his chance to win the title when the meet was terminated by rain after three rounds. The next spring, he helped the Blugolds win the NCAA team title as he tied for fourth individually. An elite curler, he took off the 2001-02 year as his team finished second in the 2002 U.S. Olympic trials. Then in 2002-03, he came back to UWEC and won the Jack Nicklaus Award, emblematic of the NCAA Division III Player of the Year. In 52 rounds as a Blugold, he averaged 72.5 and was the medalist in no less than 10 invitationals. Quinn achieved GCAA All-American First Team honors twice and Third Team recognition another year.
He won two Wisconsin State Amateur titles and had a chance to win three other times. In 2001, he swept the Wisconsin State Golf Association Best-ball title, the WSGA Match Play title and the State Am. According to Wisconsin Golf magazine, he remains the only player who has won those three titles in a calendar year. Quinn graduated from UWEC in 2003 with a major in business management. He went on to play golf professionally from 2004-12 in several pro golf tours before retiring. At the time of his induction, he was a claim specialist for State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Illinois after previous positions in the auto and technology industries.
