A household name, and a hero to kids all over the country. Yes, Dan Gable -- the most famous wrestler and most decorated coach in the history of the sport, the volcanic legend who was so combustible as a coach at Iowa that after losses hed return home and punch holes into his young daughters bedroom doors -- has admitted that he has become more emotional these last few years, someone who finds himself now tearing up at the end of old movies. On March 28, 1970, in what remains the most famous college match ever, a Washington sophomore named Larry Owings defeated him, 13-11. Iowa State's Dan Gable had one of the most legendary careers in college wrestling, pinning 76 of his 118 opponents during his three years as a starter for the Cyclones and amassing a nearly flawless record on his way to two NCAA titles. In the final match of his illustrious career with the Cardinal and Gold, Gable suffered what is considered one of the biggest upset losses in college wrestling history, dropping to Larry Owings of . ", DAN GABLE: The complete history of one of the greatest college wrestlers. His physical makeup was legendary, his results extraordinary. Looking at the photo now, Gable says, I felt -- I feel -- like I let everyone down. After Gable received his second place trophy, there was a loud ovation in the hall that stretched on for minutes, until one of Gables teammates approached him and said, Gable, lift up your head. Caldwell was always dangerous and capable of beating anyone anytime. He holed himself up in his room, he didnt talk to anyone, he didnt even return his parents phone calls. His 1970 NCAA finals victory over Dan Gable cemented his place in wrestling history. "I was almost embarrassed to have won," he says. Gable said when Owings grabbed his leg "it was kind of like a slow-motion fall. There was a time I wished it never happened, he says. He coached 152 all-Americans, 45 national champions, 106 Big Ten Champions and 12 Olympians, including eight medalists. Iowa State Coach Harold Nichols protested. I was almost embarrassed to have won, he says. Im emotional about it. Don't get caught in the cradle." Gable said he learned not to take an opponent lightly, to eliminate distractions and accentuate an aura of invincibility and intimidation toward an opponent, just as Owings had done to him. While at Iowa State, Gable continued his winning ways by capturing three Big Eight Championships, earning All-American honors all three years. He said he "coached some wrestling ". Gable calls his loss to Larry Owings of Washington his greatest loss. "I had never heard that before. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Even now, no one tells Dan Gable what to do. Owings watches the video as Perri lifts his arm and Gable staggers away. After college, Owings competed on the senior level circuit before retiring. The result, though unexpected, put the crowd of 8,500 on its feet throughout the match and gave them [the athletes] a shattering ovation when it ended, per the New York Times. Where Are They Now: Catching up with Cubs legend Ernie Banks. _n*RgX`E^FkZoe%Y*poZ)XK+i.8p58Pu?MC%m j(Xq/|V\zl,ebRB9z}#m0/gmUH2.;9gtGix#91Nz2Oe&+"W5G`ota WBuHS{,$)/pxWu c oZ_/:~[ZWn7E8FX:oKAU( A sophomore had beaten the giant. <> As a sophomore, he wrestled mainly in the 95-pound weight class before moving up to 112 pounds by his senior year. Owings had one more thing Gable didn't have - implacability. He won every college match before dropping his last match in a stunning 13-11 loss to Washington's Larry Owings in the 142-pound finals in 1970. Before the match, Gable had recorded a promo for ABC saying, Hi, Im Dan Gable. * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). I remember asking him what he did in Colorado. Grant won in '69 @ 145 and again in '70 @ 150. It was Gable's first loss of his collegiate wrestl. % Feeling stripped of his powers after his loss, Gable was finding out what it was like to be human. Gable was in the locker room when he heard the water running in the shower. Gable asked Jean as he stood there under the water. He loved to golf with his wife, had a strong handshake with Popeye forearms. Owings was the first UW wrestler to win an NCAA title, but what mattered was that he had upset a man the Russians reverently called "The Machine," a man who had won 181 straight matches, 108 by pins. Owings briefly wrestled internationally and retired in 1973 to his home in Oregon. He has softened in his old age -- thats what nine grandchildren will do to you -- and lately he has been more reflective; a stack of papers on the desk is the memoir hes working on with a writer. His teams won 21 Big Ten championships and 15 NCAA Division I titles. Both wrestlers advanced through the tournament by pinning each of their opponents. Michael Jordan is the Dan Gable of basketball, a sportswriter once said. Gable's college career record was 1171, with his only loss being in the final match of his final season to Larry Owings of the University of Washington. It was during 117-1 at Iowa State University that lost to Larry Owings in 1970. v%NoBPXw It was the greatest wrestling match of all-time. How about a nod to the wrestler Owings so very wisely avoided. In the days afterward he shut himself from the world. Check Out My Website: https://www.kadenchristiansenproductions.comEmail Me For Business Inquiries: kaden.erick.christiansen@gmail.comThis an amazing passiona. Gable recovered from the defeat and would later say it made him a much better wrestler. While Gable's record that season was 31-0, with five straight pins in the 1970 NCAA tourney, Owings was 32-1, and had four pins entering . In this conversation, we talk about Owings' childhood, high school career, and the match with Gable. Gable, then and now, says the near-fall was "a judgment call.". In 1991, Gable was awarded with the Art Abrams Lifetime Achievement Award by Cauliflower Alley Club. I told him he had to get out there. Jean made it out just in time; he won the match, and the national title. Where do you go from there? Owings remained one of the top wrestlers in the country, but as disappointments mounted -- he finished second in the NCAA championships in 1971 and 72 -- Owings began to feel like his national championship win was a curse. He was intrigued -- Dan and Kathy went to Washington to have a series of meetings at the White House. "The Sophomore From Washington" is a documentary feature about Larry Owings, the University of Washington wrestler who defeated Iowa State's Dan Gable at the 1970 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Larry Owings, Coach/Official, Canby, Oregon. That has never bothered Owings. Gable calls his loss to Larry Owings of Washington his greatest loss. He describes Owings as a "Charles Lindbergh persona, quietly confident," who believed he could equal Gable's strength and conditioning. Wrestling was already fading in his life when he met Diane, the woman who would become his second wife. A few old black-and-white wrestling photos turn up in the image results, but mostly he finds himself staring at photos of strange faces. His days now are spent talking -- talking on stages and in boardrooms across the country on the speaking circuit; talking to millionaires over dinners to raise money for a sport hes trying to save; talking to strangers who still worship him like a god -- here in Iowa there are, at latest count, three bronze statues of him in the state. AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, (select parishes), MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY, CA-ONT only.Eligibility restrictions apply. Not only did Owings show incredible confidence in the style he wrestled Gable, he was shrewd in moving down a weight class and avoiding the one wrestler who beat him that season: Mike Grant of Oklahoma. He had two points in riding time that would be rewarded at the end by Perri. Not in Dan Gable's mind, not in this lifetime. Later, over beers at a local bar, when hes asked how often he thinks about his loss in the 1970 NCAA wrestling national championships, he will say, without a beat, Everyday. His wife, Kathy, will turn to him and look as if she suddenly doesnt know this man shes been married to for 40 years. Larry Owings's wrestling career was different from Gable's. Growing up with 5 wrestling champs, Larry was told by his siblings he would never be a wrestler even being nicknamed "Porky." Owing wanted to prove them wrong. Dan had a lot of pressure on him. That number 182 would have included Gable's undefeated high school and collegiate career. Waterloo, Iowa 50701 Owings thought to himself, Im not going to the Olympics, Why am I cutting weight? I got bumped down a seed at Nationals in 72 because the winner of the regionals 1 weight above me dropped down for Nationals. Owings had won. He coached 152 All-Americans, 45 national champions, 106 Big Ten champions, and 12 Olympians, including eight medalists. After graduating, Gable undertook an intensive training program and won the 1971 world and Pan-American championships. But Larry Owings had tremendous credentials of his own. After his Olympic title, he coached the Iowa Hawkeyes to 21 consecutive Big Ten titles and 15 national championships in his 21 years as head coach, going 355-21-5. Dan Gable will tell you that eighty percent of wrestling matches are decided before the first whistle blows. [10], Gable has been written about in many magazines and numerous books, including Two Guys Named Dan (1976), From Gotch to Gable: A History of Wrestling in Iowa (1981), The Toughest Men in Sports (1984) and Legends of the Mat (2006), all by wrestling historian Mike Chapman.[11]. Gable was known for all of those things, and his relentless style was ultimately adapted by the Iowa Hawkeyes program during his historic tenure as a head coach with the program. Owings didnt wipe the floor with Gable; that would have been impossible. Dan stood there crying. Gable won @ 130 in '68. When Owings arrived, the mind games, so subtly important in this sport, began. NCAA Champion and Outstanding Wrestler. Its harder and harder now for Gable to feel the fire that was in him for so long, but he becomes alive again, the old wrestler with the mean streak, when he talks about the Owings match. His 1970 NCAA finals victory over Dan Gable cemented his place in wrestling history. Our Mission: To honor the sport of wrestling by preserving its history, recognizing extraordinary individual achievements, and inspiring future generations, 405 West Hall of Fame Avenue I told him I used to wrestle in North Dakota, won a state championship in 1987. It happened March 28, 1970, at McGaw Hall, an 8,800-seat fieldhouse on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston, Ill. Gable was (and is) the god of the sport, a no-nonsense, punishing force who may have been the world's best-conditioned athlete. As did one summer before high school, where he went to work for a Norwegian dairy farmer who had him hauling hay bales from dawn to dusk. Really? NCAA Champion and Outstanding Wrestler. He was interviewed by a Chicago newspaper about his chances against the invincible one, and Owings didn't demur. Gable was only the third wrestler to have ever been inducted into the United World Wrestling's Hall of Fame in the Legend category. With none of his family members in attendance that day, Owings remembers staggering around, trying to process what just happened. The wrestler would go on to win a national championship. The promo never ran. It has to be in the top five here. Iowa shocked college baseball on Saturday, dominating top-ranked LSU 12-4 in the Karbach Round Rock Classic. Owings had his first chance at the 1969 NCAA Championships but, as he would later regret, decided to wrestle at 130 pounds, avoiding Gable's 137-pound class. Michael Jordan is the Dan Gable of basketball. When I started to embrace that, I started to become happier, I think., The young wrestlers have all heard of Dan Gable. After losing 20 pounds and growing several inches, nobody believed he couldn't be a wrestler anymore. In that way, he and I were similar. Every once in a while now Owings will still go to the mat. I agree with dbestsport that the Marianetti-McIlravey final was a huge upset in the annals of wrestling. Owings nearly escaped, but Gabled rolled him around and nearly put him on his back before Owings persistence paid off and he earned the escape point. Indeed, from a family of state champion wrestlers, Larry wound up as the best of the bunch, winning the 136-pound crown in 1967 and 141 in 1968. His career had been one of perfection -- he was 64-0 as a high schooler, a three-time state champion, and 117-0, with two national championships, entering the final collegiate match of his career -- and there was no reason for Gable to be anything other than supremely confident when he arrived with his teammates in Evanston. 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