Wisconsin Football Coaches Association

Inducted in 2004

Gary graduated from Marion High School in 1962. He earned two letters each in football, basketball, and track. Gary was elected captain of the football and basketball teams and was named the out­standing all around athlete.

At UW-Stevens Point, Gary participated in football in 1963 and track in 1964. He graduated in 1966 and was hired to teach social studies at Marathon.

Marathon hired Ray Dyer, a veteran coach and Gary to start a football program in 1966. Gary became the head coach in 1967 when Dyer left. 1973 was a breakout year as Marathon went 9-0 and was rated the number one small school in the state.

Marathon won Marawood Championships in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983, and 1993. The Red Raiders reached Level IV as state semifinalists in 1993 and 1994. Coach Raether was name District Coach of the Year in 1981 and Channel 7 Coach of the Year in 1994. He retired in 2002 with a record of 166 wins and 159 losses.

Gary built the weight room at Marathon. He developed a competitive power lifting program as well as weight train­ing programs for all athletes interested in lifting.

As a history teacher, Gary began teaching specialized courses such as Russian History. In 1973 he took an educa­tional tour of the Soviet Union sponsored by UW-Madison.

As boys and girls throwing coach in track, Gary trained 64 individual Marawood Champions and 12 State Champions in 36 years.

Coach Raether extends a special thank you to all the assistant coaches who helped make football fun and to head track coach­es, Dick Helling, Jim Allman, and Carla Elliot who gave him free reign to develop the throwers.