Time Machine: Cornell's 1947 wrestling team saw dream come true

Editor's note: This is a continuing series of Eastern Iowa sports history 'Time Machine' articles. Mark Dukes worked at The Gazette from 1973 to 1998, the last 14 years as sports editor.

Today's college wrestling powers are schools with tens of thousands of students. It will undoubtedly continue to be true and almost always has been true.

Except for 1947.

With World War II ended and freshman eligibility rules relaxed, a tiny institution in Mount Vernon, Iowa, emerged to become what one writer described as 'The Biggest Little School in Athletics.'

Cornell College won the 1947 NCAA tournament over such powerhouses as Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State), Iowa State Teachers College (now Northern Iowa), Illinois and Oklahoma. At the time, Cornell's male student enrollment of 415 was only a bit more than a large-school lecture class of today.

Cornell always will proclaim to be the smallest school ever to win the NCAA wrestling title. There are three NCAA divisions today, Division II being introduced in 1963 and Division III in 1974.

Circumstances of the day allowed Coach Paul Scott to assemble what Cornellians have long described as 'The Dream Team of 1947.' War veterans returning to college got free tuition through the GI Bill. And, thanks to the relaxed freshman eligibility rule, they were allowed to compete on the varsity.

Scott put together a roster of wrestlers ranging in age from 18 to 24. It was a mixture of young men who either returned from the war or arrived out of high school. Scott also was a high school wrestling official and saw many of the top preps in action. He plucked a key threesome from powerhouse Waterloo West — Dick Hauser, Leo Thomsen and Lowell Lange, all state champions.

War vets Dale Thomas of Marion, Rodger Snook, Kent Lange, Al Partin and Fred Baxter gave Cornell maturity and more talent. Thomas, who never wrestled in high school, was a 1943 AAU national champion, went off to war and returned to play football and wrestle at Purdue before transferring to Cornell.

'Paul Scott was the first modern college wrestling coach,' said Richard Small in a 2007 Intermat story. 'At the time, most coaches waited for wrestlers to come to them. (Scott) went out and actively looked for talent.'

Small, a 1950 Cornell graduate, and his wife, Norma, are the most generous benefactors in school history.

Scott sought the best of competition during the 1946-47 season. The 13-meet schedule included duals against Iowa State, UNI, Eastern power Lehigh, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Nebraska.

The lone blemish that season was a 12-12 tie at UNI before 3,700 fans. Scott told former Gazette sports editor Mike Chapman in 1997 it was 'as fine a dual meet as you'd ever want to see.'

Legendary in Cornell annals is an Eastern trip Scott had put together. The team traveled in a caravan that included a dilapidated International Harvester truck-station wagon that had serious engine issues and no heat, a 1943 Mercury four-door and a new Dodge wagon.

The group stopped in West Lafayette, Ind., to pick up Thomas, who had successfully petitioned the Big Ten to leave Purdue and go to Cornell. Transfer rules were so relaxed at the time that Thomas competed on that road trip.

The big match was against Lehigh, then the pre-eminent team in the East. The Purple (as the Rams were then known) delivered the most crushing defeat in Lehigh Coach Billy Sheridan's 36-year career, a 36-0 whipping that included six Cornell pins. The trip concluded with convincing wins over Army and two athletic club teams comprised of former collegians.

The 1947 NCAA championships in Champaign, Ill., included 32 teams and was billed as a battle between Cornell, Oklahoma A&M and Iowa State Teachers College. A&M was missing a defending NCAA champion who was beaten in team wrestle-offs and ISTC was without a defending champ who was injured. Cornell entered healthy and hungry.

Cornell clinched the team championship before the finals, due in large part to bonus points. The Purple, with 10 pins in the meet, had 32 points, ISTC 19 and A&M 15. Cornell's win ended A&M's string of seven straight NCAA titles and broke a 12-year dominance of titles won by A&M and Oklahoma.

Cornell had top-three finishes in six of the eight weight classes. Houser became the first freshman to win an NCAA title. Lowell Lange followed. Snook was runner-up and Thomsen (a 1948 Olympian), Dexter and Thomas placed third.

A large crowd in Mount Vernon greeted the team as it returned to town. Wrestlers got in an extra workout along the way because the International Harvester quit working in Lisbon and they had to push it the last mile.

Two weeks later, traveling for four days by train to San Francisco, Cornell won the National AAU Tournament, then perhaps the most prestigious meet in the country. Lowell Lange and Thomas won titles while Houser and Snook placed second.

In 1948, Cornell ran its dual meet win streak to 32 before a car accident on Highway 30 outside Mount Vernon seriously injured Houser, Lowell Lange and four others. Because of the injuries, the loss of Thomas to graduation and Dexter to academic issues, Cornell did not compete in the 1948 NCAA meet. Instead, it chose to wrestle at the AAUs, finishing third. Cornell returned to the NCAAs in 1949 and '50, finishing third each season.

The 1947 Cornell team was the first to be inducted into the National Hall of Fame.

Thomas became the winningest wrestling coach in history, compiling a 616-192-12 record in 34 years at Oregon State. Scott quit coaching in 1950 but returned in 1954 and was Cornell's alumni director for two decades. Many of the wrestlers had successful careers as doctors, teachers, coaches or executives.

Note: A source for this story was Arno P. Niemand's 2010 book 'The Dream Team of 1947.' More stories, pictures and videos can be found on the book's website.

Contact Dukes at markdukes0@gmail.com with your Time Machine thoughts and ideas