Preserving Independence wrestling history leads to a family history discovery for Matt Shannon

DES MOINES — Matt Shannon carefully combed through the faded clippings and decades-old yearbooks.

His grandmother, Norma, helped him piece together long-lost, but meaningful aspects of Independence High School sports history in the library’s archives and at the Buchanan County Genealogical Society.

One discovery jolted him. It turned out that Shannon’s grandpa, Buster Gates, had been Independence’s first-ever individual state wrestling meet qualifier in 1948.

“I got it from a yearbook, but I confirmed it with (the late wrestling historian) Dan McCool’s book,” said Shannon, who is a computer technology teacher and assistant wrestling coach at Independence, and has been helping run the individual state meet with Trackwrestling.com since 2012. “I messaged him back and forth about it.”

Shannon kept digging and finally assembled a full history of Independence wrestling dating back to 1929 — and kept making significant finds along the way.

“There were like five or six state qualifiers we had that we didn’t even have record of,” said Shannon, whose father, Dennis, was a state finalist at heavyweight in 1980. “So I don’t know if that got lost when the school burned down in the 1960s or if that was in 1982 when we lost it.”

Regardless of how and when it happened, Shannon continues to painstakingly rescue and venerate important pieces of Independence history, even as his workload on the technology side ramps up.

He’s now running about 70 events a year across a variety of sports — and around the country.

Next up: The Big 12 wrestling championships beginning March 5 in Tulsa, Okla.

“It’s fun getting to know all these people from around the United States,” Shannon said. “I’ve run tournaments in Florida and around the Midwest. The South Dakota championships next week, I’m helping with video.”

But the most important help he provides is always in March at Wells Fargo Arena, where his family history merges with the broader past and thrilling present.

“We grew up around the sport,” the 33-year-old Shannon said. “Family vacation was state wrestling pretty much.”

Still is, but Shannon is working to ensure future historians won’t have to pore over as many timeworn articles and yearbooks as he did. The former wrestler now teaches the yearbook class at Independence.

“I told our kids in class there are gonna be people 100 years from now looking at this thing,” Shannon said.

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