“(Gable) ran some guys out of town. He was a hard guy to wrestle for. You had to be tough to wrestle for him.” - Tom Brands
Dan Gable
Hall of Famer is retired now, but he’s left a lasting legacy as one of the best wrestlers and coaches in history
By Andy Hamilton Iowa City Press-Citizen
Dan Gable is supposedly retired, but he
doesn’t think the word applies to him – and he’s probably right. It’s a Thursday afternoon on a gorgeous
day in May, and you won’t find Gable on a golf course or reeling in fish. He just returned the night before from a summit of wrestling minds at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and his bags are packed again, ready to be loaded in the car when his seventh grandchild arrives. Gable, though, insists he needs to squeeze in a stop by the Iowa wrestling room before he skips town. And so “retire- ment” for him on this day means sitting in
6 USA Wrestler Dan Gable
the bleachers inside a sweltering practice facility, watching nearly 20 wrestlers train- ing on the mats and stationary bikes around him before he starts a workout of his own. This is Gable’s sanctuary. The wrestling
room has been his habitat for nearly five decades, the launching pad to a career that reached unprecedented heights in the sport, the place where he’d push his body to extreme discomfort yet also where he’d
feel at ease. Gable, 62, officially retired from his post
in Iowa’s athletic department on Dec. 31. He was honored at sold-out event in June in Iowa City called: “Gable’s Gold: A Celebration of Dan Gable’s Legacy.” “Retirement isn’t a word I really like,”
Gable said. “I do pretty much the same now that I’ve done all my life.” The difference, Gable said, is he does-
n’t have constrictions or bosses anymore. Aside from that, he said the only thing changing is his mission. He’s taking on an even greater role now as an ambassador for wrestling. Gable doesn’t like the idea of retirement for another reason. He explains the difficulties many people have had tran- sitioning from full-time work into retirement and says he doesn’t want to “fail” at it. Gable has rarely failed at anything.
Those familiar with his story know the facts and numbers by heart: He never lost a match in high school at Waterloo West, went undefeated at Iowa State until his last college bout, dissected the defeat and embarked on a path toward greatness at the Olympic level. Gable won the gold in 1972 at the Munich Games, rolling through
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