"The Courage to Succeed"

Dan Gable
"Right out of high school I never had the fear of getting beat,
which is how most people lose."

"The Courage to Succeed!"      www.dangable.com    Dan Gable Bio:     ▪ 3-time State HS Wrestling Champion.     @ West Waterloo HS, Iowa (undefeated in HS).     ▪ 6-time Midlands Champion.     ▪ 3-time Big Eight Champion @ Iowa State.     ▪ 2-time NCAA DI Champion @ Iowa State (runner-up in '70).     ▪ 3-time National AAU Freestyle Champion.     ▪ Gold Medalist @ Pan American & World Games.     ▪ 1972 Olympic Champion (no points scored on Gable).     ▪ University of Iowa Head Coach '78-'97 (355-21-5)     w/15 NCAA Team Titles/45 individual NCAA champions.     ▪ World Freestyle Coach/Olympic Coach.   National Hall of Fame Distinguished Member - 1980     "When I lifted weights, I just didn't lift just to maintain my muscle tone.  I lifted to   increase what I had already had, to push to a new limit.  Every time I worked, I was   getting a little better.  I kept moving that limit back and back.  Every time   I walked out of the gym, I was a little better than when I walked in."  Dan Gable     ∙ During the summer before Dan Gable was a freshman at Iowa State, he worked out   with Bob Buzzard.  Buzzard had won two Big Eight wrestling titles.  He recalls,   "Dan was a tough kid.  Some days I'd crunch him, some days I'd fool around   and let him make some moves,  But on the last day before I went back to   Eastern Michigan University, I wanted to show him he had a ways to go, even   though he had won three consecutive state high school championships."     After Buzzard finished with Gable that night, Dan fell to the mat crying tears of anger.   Right then Gable recalls, "I vowed I wouldn't ever let anyone destroy me again.   I was going to work at it every day, so hard I would be the toughest guy in the world.   By the end of practice, I wanted to be physically tired, to know that I'd been through   a workout.  If I wasn't tired, I must have cheated somehow, so I stayed a little longer."     To push one's body to the limit of endurance and beyond, to deny one's self normal   pleasures while all around others are enjoying those pleasures, to persevere under   grueling competition is, to me, a rare act of courage.  Gable decided that he would never   allow himself to get tired in a match again.  Dan's strength and endurance allowed   him to be on the offense all the time, always pressing, never giving an opponent a   chance to relax or counterattack.     After a college career (Iowa State) in which Gable won two NCAA wrestling titles   and lost only one match, he found a new motivation...the Russians, the dominant force   in wrestling.  Before the Olympic Games of 1972, Gable had defeated a dozen Russians   in dual meets.  At a banquet after one match, the Russians made a vow to Gable that   they would find someone before the games in Munich who would beat him.     Between the banquet and the Olympics, Gable tore the cartilage in his left knee.  The   doctors recommended an operation, but Gable wouldn't hear of it...he just kept on   practicing.  The injury did, however, force Gable to alter his wrestling style.     "I changed my style of wrestling from simply offensive scoring to what I call defensive,   offensive scoring.  In this situation, I actually made myself a better wrestler because   I learned a new way of scoring."     Once the games began, Gable encountered more adversity.  He received a head-bump   to the left eye in his first match and doctors sewed up the eye with seven stitches.     "The blood was obstructing my opponents chances of wrestling, and consequently,   the medical doctor almost disqualified me," he recalls.  "I can remember thinking in my   corner while the doctors were bandaging me up that nothing was going to stop me."       Neither the Russians nor any country found a wrestler who could beat Dan Gable   in the 1972 Olympics.  He won the gold medal without giving up a point to any of   his six opponents.  Dan Gable had a goal, and he would not allow anything or   anyone to stop him.   THE LOSS THAT MADE THE MAN     Full Article by Eric Neel     ▪ On Saturday, March 28, 1970, Dan Gable of Iowa State lost to Larry Owings of the   University of Washington in the 142lb. weight class at the 1970 NCAA Wrestling   Championships in Evanston, Ill. by a 13-11 decision.  Gable, a senior, entered the   match with a perfect career record of 181-0 through high school and college.   Dan Gable (Iowa State) on right at the 1970 NCAA's...       Dan Gable was asked one time - What is... Perfection?   ▪ What has it meant to chase it for so long?  Dan Gable is still in pursuit, he says   ..."If I could figure out how I could have gone back and saved Diane (Gable's   older sister, Diane, had been murdered when he was a high school sophomore.   He knew who had done it even before the police told him.  He'd had a bad   feeling about the guy)... and, how I could have gone back and not had that   one loss (to Owings) in that tournament, and still gone on to be the same   person I am today, that would be perfect."    Eric Neel - ESPN.com     ▪ Danny Mack "Dan" Gable - was born on 10/25/48 in Waterloo, Iowa.   *A Good Littler Man Wins Big - Owings drops 31 lbs. to meet Dan Gable!   *Gable Was One Match From Glory by David Hinckley  "Charlie Jacobs meets Dan Gable"     ▪ 1976 - Dover's Charlie Jacobs (left) gets an autograph from   wrestling legend - Dan Gable.      ▪ WYWA's Don Lehman has a legend's autograph!

 

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