THE LAST WORD
Intensive Camp at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. It was the toughest, most grueling 10 days of my life. They trained us like a Hawkeye wrestler. We were up daily at
Gable’s impact bigger than ever N
IAGARA FALLS, Ontario, Canada - The first time I saw Dan Gable up close and personal was in the summer of 1982. I was a wide-eyed, 16-year-old attending the Iowa
6 a.m. for a conditioning workout. We then went through two tough wrestling workouts and ended each day with another con- ditioning workout. We did a 12-mile run on the camp’s final day. By the end of the first day, my roommate was on the phone
calling his parents to come and take him home. We were being trained by then-Iowa assistant J Robinson,
who went on to turn Minnesota into a national powerhouse. His staff included three wrestlers - Randy Lewis, and Ed and Lou Banach - who won Olympic gold medals two years later. So I have somewhat of an understanding of Gable’s famous
quote: “Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy.” A few days into the camp, Gable walked into the massive fieldhouse where we were having a wrestling workout. The whole camp came to a stop as Gable jogged around the
track while warming up before providing instruction. He was right in the middle of his run of coaching Iowa to an unprece- dented 15 national titles. He was already a living legend. I was in awe. He was my hero, and a person I aspired to be like. Now over 30 years later, I am still in awe. Gable somehow found time in his busy schedule to attend the
Battle at the Falls international women’s duals on May 31 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. I have been fortunate to get to know Dan personally over the
past 10 years while covering wrestling for the Omaha World- Herald newspaper and during my time at USA Wrestling. Dan has done some amazing things for wrestling, including winning Olympic and World titles along with a pair of NCAA titles for Iowa State. But what he’s done since Feb. 12 has been nothing short of incredible. Gable’s been everywhere, supporting and promoting the
Craig Sesker
quest to keep wrestling on the Olympic program. He was at the Curby Cup in Chicago, the Rumble on the Rails event in New York City, the United 4 Wrestling event in Los Angeles and the event in Niagara Falls. The day before going to Niagara Falls, he was at a minor-
league baseball game in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with the Iowa wrestling team. The next morning, he flew to Buffalo and con- ducted interviews, signed autographs and posed for photos at the Niagara Falls event. The next night, he was in Stillwater, Okla., for the National Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Gable is 64, and is retired from his duties at the University of
Iowa, but he’s still the biggest name in the sport. Spend a few minutes with him, and you can understand how passionate and enthusiastic he is about the sport of wrestling. He’s doing everything in his power to rally people in the U.S.
and around the world in this Olympic fight. Gable embodies all of the qualities, like hard work, dedication
and overcoming adversity, that you can learn by wrestling. Gable’s going to keep fighting, and with him in our corner, you
can bet wrestling has a strong chance of staying in the Olympic Games. A very strong chance.
42 USA Wrestler
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