By: Brayden Marsh

Dan Gable was a wrestler at Iowa State University and the head coach at the University of Iowa. His college record was 117-1, which easily makes him one of the best wrestlers in college wrestling history. His 1 loss was coincidentally his last match, which he lost 13-11 to Larry Owings from the University of Washington in the 142 pound finals. Although this had broken his 0 loss streak, he had nearly broken the 0 loss record that at the time hadn’t been broken yet. That record would be broken by Cael Sanderson from Iowa State University 32 years later. 

After college, Dan Gable would go on to compete at the Olympics, continuing to show his dominance in the sport. He would have 6 matches in the Olympics, and would go on to be the first person to not give up a single point in all of his matches, winning the gold medal.

He had also coached at the University of Iowa from 1972-1997. During his coaching career at Iowa, he had won 9 consecutive team titles, which hadn’t been done in any college sport at the time. He also achieved 21 consecutive Big Ten team titles. One of his biggest accomplishments was his record breaking 170.5 scored points at the NCAA wrestling tournament in 1997. This would go on to be broken in 2025 by Penn State, 28 years later. Gable’s reaction to this record being broken was “What took so long? Where have people been? It took 27 years to break a record!”

Gable’s concepts are also very notable. He was extremely determined to make sure his wrestlers were constantly aggressive, always making the opponent catch up. He understood that defense doesn’t score points, and that there always needs to be an urgency to score.

Dan Gable has had a large impact on wrestlers all around the world. To this day, he continues to show up to camps and clinics all around America. The records he had set had been revolutionary at the time, taking about 30 years to break some of them. He will continue inspiring wrestlers around the world, making a great foundation for people to learn from.