Not since that time long ago when I had a sit-down one-on-one interview with Kirby Puckett have I been as excited to chat with such a legendary athlete.
On Wednesday, I received a telephone call from Dan Gable, who in 1999 was chosen the greatest athlete in the history of Iowa by Sports Illustrated magazine.
You really need to have been raised an Iowan, I think, to fully appreciate the epic story that is Dan Gable’s life. I went to high school in the 1970s in Sibley, Iowa, and to be an Iowa teen-ager at that time was to wish to be the great Dan Gable. As a wrestler, he was like Jim Brown was to football, like Jesse Owens was to track and field, like Babe Ruth was to baseball. If you’d asked me how important Gable was to wrestling, I’d have probably even said that he invented the sport. No one before, nor since, has meant as much to wrestling as the kid from Waterloo, Iowa.
King Turkey Day will take place Sept. 19 here in Worthington, and we are very fortunate to have Mr. Gable as our featured speaker. Not only will he address us that Saturday, but he’ll also be in town Friday, Sept. 18, to appear at the Minnesota West Community and Technical College gym.
The Worthington Youth Wrestling Association is sponsoring a dinner and book signing. Doors are to open at 5:30 p.m. and from 6:30 to 7:20 p.m. The Great One will sign his book, “A Wrestling Life.” A presentation will follow at 7:30 p.m. Pulled pork sandwich meals will be available on site, with proceeds going to the WYWA.
One of the first things I said to Gable when he returned my call on Wednesday was how much I enjoyed following his competitive career. His response to that was quite remarkable.
“I think I’m more known for putting people out in the great sport of wrestling, and everywhere in the world,” he said.
Indeed. Most people today recognize Gable more for his great coaching than for his great on-mat career.
Either way, his legacy is incredible. He compiled a 181-1 record in high school and college (Iowa State University). He was a two-time NCAA champ, three-time All-American and three-time Big Eight champ. After college, he claimed crowns in the Pan American Games and in two World Championships, just for starters. In 1972, he won a gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, without giving up a single point, and with an injured left knee and seven stitches on his head that he received in his first match.
It was said that the Soviet Union was obsessed with finding a wrestler who could take Gable down. They never found one, and neither did anyone else.
I still remember my dad and I watching him on TV in our Allendorf, Iowa, home as he won the gold. We were very proud Iowans that day.
He took over the University of Iowa coaching job in 1976 and became Iowa’s all-time winningest coach. He won 15 NCAA national team titles - including nine in a row - while posting a 355-21-5 record through 1997.
I remember that during his dominating stretch, at least one national major sports publication openly questioned whether Gable was bad for wrestling. They complained that as long as he was head coach, no other college teams had a chance.
I remember laughing when I heard that.
Gable is especially proud of his coaching record.
“A lot of people tell me I may be one of the greatest athletes of all time. And a lot of people have told me I could be the greatest coach of all time,” he told me. “But if you put ‘em together, athlete and coach, it’s pretty hard to beat that. A lot of people can wrestle, but they aren’t always able to give it to somebody else.”
Gable’s early life has been well documented. He had a difficult childhood. His parents seemed always to be on the brink of divorce. As a high school sophomore, Dan’s older sister Diane was molested and murdered by a classmate in the family home. Gable often said that terrible tragedy added to his passion for wrestling as a way to provide another escape for his family.
On Wednesday, The Great Dan was in Las Vegas, Nev., watching the World Wrestling Championships. He said he’s looking forward to coming to Worthington, though he’s been here before. Years ago when Worthington staged the national junior college championships at the local college, he came to watch and recruit.
Regarding his speech on the 19th, he said he’ll “look the crowd over a bit” before deciding exactly what to say. “What I’ll probably do is I’ll talk a little bit on my life that helped me stay on the straight and narrow, and some of the experiences that helped me.”
He said he wants to be an ambassador for wrestling, but he also wants to talk about the things that are really important in life - that we should look out for the people we love, and that we should strive for excellence.
“I’m a guy about excellence,” he said.
But Gable also said it’s important to him to do it in an entertaining fashion, with some stories and recollections. I asked him if he might tell an Iowa joke, or maybe even a Minnesota joke.
He said he just might.
I was impressed - and I’m thinking our Worthington audience might be just as impressed - to hear him say that in spite of the troubles he’s seen growing up, he was lucky to have had many good people in his life who helped him mature.
“I’ve been pretty blessed growing up,” he said.
