WILL IOWA DEPRESSION HURT NCAA GATE?
These are not the best of times if you are a University of Iowa wrestling fan, especially if you were one of those who recently watched the Hawkeyes finish fourth at the 2005 Big Ten Championships in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
While there are plenty of wrestling schools around the conference which would love to finish among the top half of teams in the historically-tough conference — i.e. Indiana and Wisconsin, which tied for fifth in the 2005 meet, just 5.5 points behind the Hawkeyes — the fans dressed in black and gold hate the fact that Iowa suffered its worst finish since an eighth-place finish in 1967 or the fact that the Hawkeyes failed to claim an individual title for the first time since 1969.
Of c
ourse, I’m also sure that there are many fans around the country who are pleased, especially those in Stillwater, Okla., who probably considered the Hawkeyes to be the Soviet Union of collegiate wrestling between 1975 and 2000 when Iowa won 20 team titles.If you heard it once back then, you heard it a 100 times that: “Iowa’s domination was bad for the sport of wrestling.” Ironically, Iowa’s lack of success may also hurt the sport, especially when it comes to attendance.
As a fan of the sport, I might have agreed and would have been happy to see the likes of Minnesota (which won a pair of NCAA titles in 2001 and 2002) and Illinois (which recently won its first Big Ten title since 1952) add new blood to this warrior sport.
But as someone who watches the turnstiles — particularly those at the NCAAs — I would be concerned about the depressing mood of Hawkeye fans, who won’t be so quick to make the drive to St. Louis for this year’s Nationals. There used to be a time when the NCAA Championships were a sure sellout, especially if it was held in the Midwest.
St. Louis found that out in 2000, when a record 96,994 showed up to watch the Hawkeyes win what was the last team title during that 26-year “dynasty.” But the Gateway City didn’t find the same excitement last year from Iowa fans, who had seen the Hawkeyes finish eighth one year earlier in Kansas City.
That is why St. Louis is trying so hard to sell tickets to an event that was once considered a sure sellout.
“St. Louis asked me, ‘Where are the Iowa people,’” said Dan Gable, who was responsible for much of Iowa’s success and the following that traveled in the thousands to watch his Hawkeyes each March. “We drew 50 percent of the people last year in St. Louis. I think we may be undersold from the whole state at the NCAAs this year. They need the Iowa people.”
Gable believes the NCAA and wrestling took the Hawkeyes and their following for granted during the glory days.
“People don’t realize what we were doing for them at the time,” Gable said. “We were building something and making it bigger and larger. We don’t want to go down to a smaller type of atmosphere.
“No matter how bad people would criticize Iowa for winning too much, they always had that thing to shoot for. It’s not there enough right now as far as teams and individuals, I really notice it.”
The reality is that Iowa is going to be down for a while — compared to past Hawkeye standards — and so are the number of fans willing to spend their money to watch Iowa compete below those standards. That was seen at the recent Big Ten Championships, where Carver-Hawkeye Arena drew a respectable 18,268 fans, including 6,183 on a Sunday afternoon with a record 73 sunny degrees outside Carver-Hawkeye and just one Big Ten finalist inside.
I couldn’t help but notice at least one Iowa fan selling his NCAA tickets before the start of the Big Ten finals.
So who will buy those tickets that Hawkeye fans will pass on? I’m sure there will be a large percentage from Oklahoma as the OSU Cowboys shoot for a third consecutive and 33rd all-time NCAA title — and Minnesota, where Gopher coach J Robinson, the master of creating interest in wrestling, will send all ten wrestlers to St. Louis.
But what about the likes of Illinois, which had no more than 500 fans in Iowa City? It was somewhat ironic that the Illini won a wrestling championship the day its basketball team lost the chance for a perfect season.
Since that dream is over, it’s time to start believing in something else that may be impossible: a strong national tournament without Hawkeye fans.
Don’t Forget Wade, Beets
In our last issue of W.I.N., I made a special point of listing the former non-Div. I wrestlers who went on to also capture Div. I championships, once the NCAA created multiple divisions in 1963.
I love looking back at the history of the sport because at the age of 50, I feel that I’ve seen or heard of the great moments and men from the past. But perhaps I am getting too old because I forgot to list at least two former Div. I champs who also competed in the Div. II championships: Bill “Beets” Dotson and Wade Schalles.
I was well aware of both of these men: Dotson grew up in my hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, and I always thought of Schalles as the next Dan Gable.
So I was very surprised too that I did not include the fact that Dotson won the Div. I title for Northern Iowa (then called State College of Iowa) at 137 pounds in 1963, the same year Beets beat South Dakota State’s James Perkins for the Div. II crown.
Schalles, meanwhile, captured a pair of Div. I championships a decade later for Clarion (Pa.); winning the 150-pound title in 1972 and the 158-pound championship in 1973. During that two-year period, Schalles also won a pair of Div. II titles: beating South Dakota State’s Mike Engels at 150 pounds in 1972 and Allyn Cook of Cal Poly at 158 pounds in 1973.
• Mike Finn has covered amateur wrestling for the past 20 years. He can be reached at mikef@win-magazine.com. n