If you happen to be a sports fan, especially one who follows high school, college and Olympic wrestling and its history you've heard the name of Dan Gable.
This man is a legend in the State of Iowa. As a young man in Waterloo, Iowa his family was a victim of a horrid tragedy. His sister was murdered. This loss of Gable's young sister forced him to take out his anger and aggression and put it into a positive mode. His parents turned his sisters bedroom into a wrestling practice room.
Dan became a veritable tornado on the mat. In private he had the demeanor of a mild mannered Clark Kent. When he wrestled he took no prisoners; venom dripped from his lips. Gable went undefeated through high school. He then moved on to Iowa State Univ. one of the top wrestling colleges in the U.S. He went undefeated through college but was inexplicably defeated by one Larry Owings in the national championship match of his senior year.
Did Gable give up and go back to Waterloo to work at John Deere? The answer is 'no'. He further dedicated himself to the Olympic Games of 1972. He won every match decisively securing a gold medal for his country.
Eventually Gable took his talents to the Univ. of Iowa as their coach and won numerous national championships.
The reason for this blog post borders on the ridiculous. Iowa is the originator of top notch high school wrestling. Many don't know this but the legendary basketball coach at Kentucky, Adolph Rupp, got his first job out of college at Marshalltown Iowa High School as a wrestling coach. He had to read a book on the sport. Even so, his team won the state championship his first year, 1927.
The Des Moines Register, 'the paper all of Iowa depends on' ran a story on the greatest high school wrestlers to come out of the state. The reporter had them categorized into the Top 25 because they had won 4 championships.. Guess what? Gable wasn't listed. He was placed in the 'Others' category.
Can you believe it? Well, I can because the Register, a once great paper, is now bird cage liner.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment