Newt Loken

Newton C. Loken (February 27, 1919 – June 28, 2011) was an artistic gymnast and coach of gymnastics, trampolining and cheerleading. While a member of the Minnesota Golden Gophers men's gymnastics team, Loken was NCAA all-around gymnastics champion in 1942 and the Big Ten Conference all-around champion in 1941 and 1942. He was the coach of the University of Michigan gymnastics team for 36 years from 1948-1983. Loken's gymnasts won the NCAA championships in 1963 and 1970, as well as 12 Big Ten championships. His record as Michigan's gymnastics coach was 250-72-1. Loken also coached the Michigan trampolining team to NCAA championships in 1969 and 1970.

Born in Breckenridge, Minnesota, of Norwegian descent, Loken attended West High School in Minneapolis where he became Minnesota's all-around gymnastics champion in the late 1930s. After high school, he attended the University of Minnesota. Loken was named captain of the Minnesota team coached by Ralph Piper in 1942 and was also named an All-American. He won Big Ten all-around championships in 1941 and 1942. He also won the NCAA all-around championship in 1942. Loken later recalled that Coach Piper was so confident in Loken that he had a trophy engraved for Loken's all-around championship in 1942 two weeks before Loken actually won the competition. Loken also won the NCAA individual championship in the horizontal bar in 1941 and Big Ten championships in the parallel bars (1941) and the flying rings (1942). Loken was also an All-American cheerleader and captain of the Minnesota cheerleading squad.Life magazine published an article featuring Loken on May 18, 1942, titled, "All-around Gym Champion: Newt Loken is a Combination Strong Man and Acrobat."

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