Forgotten Superstars -Dan Gable

I have always been a Buckeye fan in all sports,but there is one sport that even though I root for Ohio State that there is an equal for them in-Wrestling.
I have always rooted for Iowa Hawkeye wrestling for two reasons-I love their attacking style and long time face of the program,the legendary Dan Gable.

Dan Gable was such a dominant figure in wrestling as a wrestler and a coach,that I cannot think of an athlete to compare to Gable as being similar in any sport.
"Gable Style" has always made Iowa wrestling a bit different than other wrestling squads,even elite ones.
Iowa might be the only state in the nation that puts wrestling right with basketball as far as interest goes and much of that can be attributed to Dan Gable.
Between Gable's grappling career at Iowa State,where he lost just one match in four years,earning three National Championships and his coaching career at Iowa,If Gable is not responsible for starting the interest in wrestling statewide,he sure built that interest to its peak in his terms as a competitor and coach.

Dan Gable is also known for his dominant Gold Medal winning performance at the 1972 Munich Olympics,where he won all of his matches without surrendering a point to his opposition.
Gable took over as the head coach at Iowa in 1976 and took to working on establishing Iowa as the equal of his alma mater Iowa State,which he did in quick order.
The Hawkeyes won 15 NCAA team titles (Nine in a row) and 21 Big Ten titles in a row under Gable,which basically made Iowa the New York Yankees of wrestling.
Gable also coached the freestyle wrestling Olympic teams on three occasions in 1980,1984 and 2000.

Iowa wrestling took a step down after Gable's final year in 1997.
Hawkeye alum Jim Zalesky won three titles in his tenure with Gable as an assistant athletic director,but that was just three titles in nine years and Tom Brands,a Gable protege with the Hawkeyes and the USA Olympic team was brought in to return the program to its glory days.
Brands has been able to do just that after a rebuilding first year as Iowa won three NCAA titles in a row before a third place finish last season.

With the advent of the Big Ten network,I get to watch a lot more wrestling than I ever did before and Iowa along with Ohio State have become winter staples for me.
Thanks to Dan Gable and the aggressive Hawkeyes to making a fan out of me.
For more on Dan Gable,I highly recommend this book for you readers and.or this film for the non-readers!

I will try to be back with something else later tonight,time permitting....