Walter Dodge

January 26, 2017 - 1:41pm
Walter Dodge came to Syracuse University in 1956 on a gymnastics and track scholarship, and has remained with the school’s gymnastics program ever since.

Now, the former athlete volunteers at the gym every week to help students work on their back handsprings or complicated vaults. The 79 year old said at this point, gymnastics is just a habit.

“It’s just something I do. I did it for so long and it was just part of my life,” Dodge said. “I never think about it. It’s something I do.”

Though now gymnastics is a part of his daily life, Dodge originally didn’t intend to be a gymnast.

“I wanted to be a pole vaulter,” Dodge said. “All the pole vaulters were gymnasts.

June 14, 2015 - 9:51pm
Well into his seventies, Walter Dodge continues to teach gymnastics to Syracuse University students.

Today Walter Dodge is 78 years old, still teaching and mentoring gymnastics students at Syracuse University.

Dodge’s love for gymnastics began in Philadelphia, in the eighth grade. All the guys on his track team were poll volters and gymnasts." It was simple, he saw kids older than him doing something that he had told himself he could also do. One day during track practice it began to rain and Dodge's teamates, went to the gymnastics practice room.