LeRoy Gardner joined the Purdue coaching staff in 2022, taking over the volunteer coaching duties after six years as the head wrestling coach at the University of the Ozarks. He was also promoted to the title of assistant athletics director the director of men’s and women’s wrestling after the addition of women’s wrestling to the Eagles’ athletics roster in 2020-21. In his tenure at Ozarks, Gardner accounted for the school’s first-ever NCAA Championship qualifiers, in any sport, and an NWCA All-America honoree. He also served as the head coach at the University of Houston-Downtown and the U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School, in addition to an assistant coaching stint at his alma mater, Wartburg College. Gardner was a three-time All-American for the Knights, winning the 2003 national heavyweight championship and helping guide his team to a pair of NCAA Division III national titles.
A member of the NWCA Hall of Fame and the Wartburg Sports Hall of Fame, Gardner has a variety of international coaching titles and accomplishments on his resume, placing in the Fila Junior World Greco-Roman Championships during his competitive career, and serving as a personal coach for U23 senior women's world team member Charlotte Fowler at the 2018 world championships and on the staff of U.S. U17 Greco-Roman team in 2022. He graduated from Wartburg with a degree in psychology and added a MBA from Rhode Island, while serving as an officer in the in the United States Navy. He continues to serve as a Commander, in the United States Navy Reserve.
The Golden Valley, Minnesota, native and his wife, Suzanna, are the parents of one son, Amari.