Dick Rydze won the AAU platform, both indoors and outdoors, in 1969 and 1971 and he won the indoor title for the third time in 1972. He was also a silver medalist at the 1971 Pan American Games. At the Munich Olympics he moved from fifth place into second on his final three dives.
Rydze graduated from the University of Michigan in 1971, having studied zoology and later attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He later practiced internal medicine, and served as medical doctor for the Pittsburgh Steelers for 22 years, until 2007. At that time he became the target of a federal investigation. In May 2017, Rydze was convicted by a federal jury in Pittsburgh of 180 counts of trafficking in anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and opioid painkillers. In March 2018 he sentenced to 10 years in prison.