The champion

No wrestler in the long and brilliant history of the sport in Iowa State has ever captured the imagination the way this young man has under high school and collegiate rules he's never been defeated that string of wins now stands at 169 He's won so many tournament titles and so many honors as Outstanding Wrestler at the NC double-a tournament as the man with the most pins in the least time that the count is lost at this time I think it would be fitting to recognize his parents and ask them to come down Mr. and Mrs. Matt Gable from Waterloo isle I'd like to have Dan comer over here now please as a little remembrance of our appreciation dan the student body would like to present you with an Iowa blanket there's a place underneath the I where we like the place the undefeated national champion at the end of the year we have made room to add the 1970 n-c-double-a champion the Big Eight champion outstanding wrestler at the NC double-a tournament the Grigorian trophy and athlete of the year and all you have to do Dan is to come through for us congratulations Dan I really not thought of his west High's wrestling coach sometimes people think I mean actually is Dan Gables coach I guess my first contact with him was enough in the tenth grade and he was a little guy a real little father that not too muscular I think of times when he would sit in the wrestling room you know we may have some teams that had come in and want to work out with us and they wanted to know where Dan Gable was for I'd point over to the maybe the corner some places where a redheaded guy be sitting and they were quite surprised they couldn't believe it he was a kind of a skinny little guy from a tenth grader right on up to the senior in the wrestling room he just didn't like to get beat it was very irritating for him to get beat Dan wasn't real nifty on his feet and starting out I think he had in mind though that he wanted to be that state champ in the first year and he just worked real hard his dad and his mother were always backed up him and I think they were a probably more than Danny did I remember this happening out of the Nationals approval I guess maybe I won't ever forget it Dan came out with His team members And I gave him a tap on the behind and I just told him that I want him to win already he looked up at me and he said mr. szidon he said I'm gonna win he said if I don't do my best I won't win he says I'm gonna do my best so I'm gonna be a national champion As freshmen dan asked a lotta questions came mr. Anderson and myself to what can i do to do this better until a sophomore he still wanted answers to questions he was a captain he's picked because he's a leader and he's a leader from the start right on through I've always felt good leader was a good example and he has been a great example he had a winning streak going he was something to look up to as far as the whole team was concerned and a just a feeling he was being a winner and wanting to be a winner made them want to be worse off he's had a number of injuries but he's put up with them kept working out I don't believe there is anybody in the country that was capable of beating him I don't think Even Grant my opinion he has had the greater influence on amateur wrestling the last three years than any one person has had the last 25 at least don't really get too scared until two three hours before the match then I started worrying a little bit but I think everybody gets scared before me if they don't must be awful cocky or something Must be awful sure of themselves sort of visualize the setting scene see the action there's a big crowd there and sort of psyches me up a lot more than Just if there wasn't a big crowd I sort of see this while I'm just thinking about the match I'm just thinking about wrestling it's all I'm thinking about the holds are going through my mind like a tape recorder fireman's carry single double ankle pick there's holds just going through my mind I just wanna throw one after another when I wrestle when I want everything to be instinctively and not thinking about I just I'm thinking about a move what's coming because I'm not I haven't been practicing enough usually I can't see it because I'm in the background anyways and all a sudden I hear a raising in the crowd it was some move or some guy getting pinned our guy is pinning the guy or our guy got a take down opponent as the crowd rises and cheers everything I start just moving that much more than warm enough you know I started really getting ready for a match and they when they get excited I get excited I just try to reach my peak before every match it's hard to describe it something inside track we wanted to come out when you get out there and wrestle and build up your self to a peak people go out there then you let that let it run out of your like just energy I guess you want to go all the time whatever I do we wherever I go I probably involved some way with biology that's one of my goals you know coaching teach you only just to be a good coach and a good teacher but really excel in a field I look at it as long as I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it the best I think coach especially a coach has to know how your body operates how your muscles work how the different systems your body function and through biology that's why I really learned a lot about how to keep myself in shape and how to train a lot of similar between what I like to do my own personal life like hunting and fishing in biology there's a lot of things in biology that's dealing with the outdoors you know animals and Wildlife things like that when he was six years old I started to roll him in the Y you teach him how to swim and so forth and he was a good swimmer but he decided he wanted to wrestle and I just kind of pushed him a little bit and encouraged him but didn't have too much of that because he was pretty well much of a self driver I definitely think winning builds up the want the desire to win this question was asked to my coach last year why do you think Dan wins over the next guy you know why does he win so many matches his answer was his desire he said I have a tremendous desire to win and I really never thought about it that much before he said that but actually it's true I want to win really bad I know I can beat Grant I know I'm better than Grant if he beats me there's something wrong but you never know I could lose if I lost there's a lot of people upset that's one thing I don't like if I got beat fair and square personally myself I wouldn't knock me down but my my mom she'd be shuck my dad be shuck he's really headlining the paper I'm actually real proud of him his record speaks for itself I think that he actually thinks in his own mind that he can always get in better condition but I don't think he can I mean I don't know how he could works out all the time and there's not much of any way that he could get in better condition he's dedicated he's willing to pay the price When I was small I used to compete against myself all the time I used to love baseball and I used to stand out in the front yard and swing a baseball bat for hours and play whole games and sort of talk to myself I'll think about who's up to bat I'm Mickey Mannel now or something and I used to wear actual spots on the grass just completely dirt where I used to stand and swing in this one spot you just do the thing to also like I said I like fishing a lot same thing I used to just go on fishing side yard for hours used to catch stringers off I don't know why I don't know why but I just always loved to sort of dream I don't know why Well I knew the caliber wrestler that Grant was and is and I was scared I had confidence in Dan of course but I was still scared because he was so close to finishing out his college wrestling career than that why take a chance when he wouldn't have had to wrestle you know but you'd hate to see him get that loss in there amongst all of his wins yeah I know I know how she reacts she gets excited she's been excited ever since I started wrestling she was all scared you know your money pretty well and you can just tell when she's pretty scared I could see her see it in her eyes I guess it sort of made me not want of wrestle as much because she always says you know you don't wanna wrestle Grant you know and stuff like that I remember you're not really gonna wrestle Grant are you and I'd keep saying nah or something like that you know I had her all confused she didn't know whether I was gonna or not my dad you know he doesn't put no pressure on me I mean he just wants me to wrestle hard as I can wants me to see me win but if I lose I tell ya he'll be right there beside me even though I'd lose I thought it was a terrible thing I wouldn't see any reason why two national champions would wrestle each other while one's up a weight and the other one's down a weight days it was a useless match because one of them had to lose and I thought all the time maybe it might be my kid and I like mike grant because he's a good kid even though he is a milky and I wouldn't want see him get beat but if somebody's gonna get beat I'd sooner see grant than dan I was just nervous as real nervous and I didn't like it and I didn't want any part of it and I told dan serval times don't do it dan just said several times let me worry about it I just always dreamed about being state champion wrestler came true always dreamed about being national champion that's when it came true dreamed about being win the olympics and I hope that comes true you can just see yourself in those other foreign countries and you're standing with the number one place above the other the countries I can see myself stepping up there I can't see myself with a second third or fourth place because I'm shooting for the number one spot that's what I hope I win That right there's enough to keep me striving for that goal working working out feet above everybody else but this routes in the resolve has worked out real well it's worked out real well for my son as a result of dan working with him we have a lot of boys out there working out in East High School here in Waterloo from West high schools to cedar Falls UNI and Iowa State University of Iowa Purdue when you get a boy like Dan Gable showing these kids he can show them so much more actually out on the mat and then hours and hours on the mat you know and repetition repetition is what makes for good wrestler A young boy that's interested in wrestling danny likes to bring them along if a boy has an opportunity ever to beat his record even if Dan is his coach dan will make sure that he has the opportunity to do it and this the type of coach that dan will be someday I just hope that my son can wrestle for him well separate the men from the boys he'll either have 11 real tough boys out there or he won't have any it'll be about the way it'll go I'm going there with one intention to bring back the gold medal and if I I don't I'll be disappointed and I hope the same of the team I'd say I have a good a really good chance of winning I'd say our team has a really good chance of winning win it and I think we can bring home the championship like we did last year I want to try to pin every opponent I do what i hope i can do i should bring back all the trophies building up during the years this is gonna culminate and climax and so I'm gonna push myself a little extra harder because that's the main the main meat of all years the national tournament you gotta win this one you gotta be ready to go that's the one that counts the final matches against Larry Owings from University of Washington he wrestled all year mostly in hundred fifty eight and hundred sixty seven and then he cut to forty two for the nationals and he did a tremendous job sixty seventy percent he lost one meet during the year that was to Mike grant from Oklahoma the score was seven to five I beat grant nine to four We planned on it all year long everybody thinks we're crazy but I think he has a real good chance Gable to be favored he this is kind of a boy he is he wants to go against the best gable perhaps might be the best of all time that's what he wants to go against there's so much like I just really can't believe it they're both great pinners Larry's pinned everybody at his own weight this year it's only been at 58 at at 67 and he hasn't been able to kind of support partners it wasn't easy wasn't easy now take this defeat but but I got a I got a live with its life and I'm not gonna let this stop me one bit my one goal this year was to win the nationals that goal wasn't reached that was a big block of my life but I got overlooked this it was really hard for me to walk out there after I lost in front of all those people but when I stood there I mean it really cheered and everything and sort of lifted my morale and I could look up and take the defeat as I'm glad I could take I gotta overlook this I'm gonna work that much harder my goal is higher now I got my goal and Olympics I'd I probably have to put out much more than I already have be pretty hard there's a block before I get there I'm just gonna have to step over it just keep working I do wanna win the next Olympics I hope that all you kids out there I'll just set your mind forth some goal and reach out and work your way for that goal because I think every person has to have a goal in life and must try to conquer this goal there's gonna a lot of stepping stones and blocks But you've gotta overcome these I'm gonna try and overcome mine I know I'm gonna Overcome mine I'm gonna go on thank you very much