Missing that Gable style

ST. LOUIS - Dan Gable ruined college wrestling.

Say what?

Indulge me for a few minutes.

Gable, the legendary Iowa State wrestler and University of Iowa coach, obviously is one of the sport's greatest ambassadors. He has dedicated his life to wrestling and thrilled fans for decades with his tenacious style on the mat and from the coaching chair.

But, for many, those glory days are gone.

From my view in section 324 in the Scottrade Center this weekend, wrestling has lost something. The aggressive, attacking, nothing-can-stop-me style comes from fewer and fewer wrestlers now, including Gable's beloved Hawkeyes.

A gentleman from southwest Iowa, after watching an Iowa wrestler, showed me a text he got from a friend watching at home on TV. 'That's the way Iowa USED to wrestle,” his friend wrote.

That, in a nutshell, is why Gable ruined wrestling. He spoiled generations of fans, not only from Iowa, but from Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and beyond.

I don't watch as much wrestling as I did during Gable's glory years at Iowa. This is the fourth NCAA Championships I've attended with my son, Ben, after covering the sport for 25 years. I'm a fan of wrestling and still enjoy the characters this sports produces.

But I've seen enough at this year's National Duals and this weekend to know something is missing.

These wrestlers are better athletes than many of the sport's greatest names, including Gable himself. They are stronger and faster. But they aren't tougher.

Too many matches are scoreless after the first period. Too many are 1-0 after the second. Too many are tied 1-1 at the end of the third. Too many are decided by riding time. Too many, it seems, are thinking too much.

My son remembered a quote his high school wrestling coach told him, attributed to Gable: 'The first period is skill, the second period is endurance, the third period is guts.” I'm not sure if Gable ever said that, but it sounds like something he'd say. It fits his style.

Former Iowa greats like Mark Ironside, Barry Davis, Royce Alger, Lincoln McIlravy and Tom and Terry Brands didn't dance for six minutes and decide to turn it on for 30 seconds. They didn't care how talented their opponent was; they didn't think about what he was going to do.

They just wrestled. I miss that.

l Comments: (319) 368-8696; jr.ogden@thegazette.com