KRAFT'S NCAA MEMORIES
Former coach also a commentator of historic moments
How many NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships have you attended? Do you know of anyone who has seen more than 50? How about 50 in a row?
Ken Kraft may be one of the leaders of the pack when it comes to NCAA tournaments. As a wrestler, coach and athletic administrator at Northwestern University, Ken has attended 50 tournaments in a row!
“My first one was in Stillwater in 1956, when I was a junior in college at Northwestern,” said Ken. “Coach (Jack) Riley took several members of the team down to Oklahoma, even though we didn’t qualify, just to get the experience. I remember that he went to Ed Gallagher’s widow and bought each of us a copy of Mr. Gallagher’s book on wrestling. I still have it.” (Ed Gallagher was the legendary coach who started the incredible OSU tradition; he died in 1940).
Ken qualified to wrestle in the 1957 NCAA Championships and lost in the semifinals of the 167-pound class to Tom Alberts of Pittsburgh, on riding time. He also lost in the wrestlebacks and failed to place that year.
Soon after graduation, he was named head coach at Northwestern at the age of 22 and served in that capacity for 22 years. He the
n moved into athletic administration for 25 years, retiring in 2004 after 47 years in the Wildcat family.Ken attended every NCAA tournament during those years … and also played a much larger role. Beginning in 1965 and for the next 18 years, he was a color commentator on ABC Television’s Wide World of Sports broadcast of the NCAA Championships. In that role, he became a household name (and face) to millions of wrestling fans around the country.
He is also one of the founding fathers of the Midlands Championships and is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla. Wrestling has been a major part of his life and so has the NCAA Championships.
So what is Ken’s most memorable moment out of those 50 NCAA meets?
“There’s only one, in my mind,” he said without hesitating. “It was the Dan Gable-Larry Owings match. It is the biggest upset in the history of wrestling. Dan losing his final match was a huge story for wrestling in terms of media impact. Going 181-1 (through high school and college) and losing his last match was bigger than going 182-0.”
If you’ve been to more NCAA tournaments than Kraft, please let me know. By the way, Dan Gable is working on a pretty impressive string of his own. He has attended every one since the 1966 meet in Ames, when he was a senior in high school. He has seen 40 in a row.
To contact USA-Today…
In a recent issue, I wrote a column about the letter I sent to USA Today, expressing shock and displeasure over the lack of coverage that great newspaper gives to the sport of wrestling. In response, I received a very courteous letter from the editor, Ken Paulson, who told me he has never received any other letters of complaint from wrestling fans before.
If you want to write to Mr. Paulson at USA Today to express your displeasure about wrestling coverage, send your letters to: Ken Paulson, Editor, USA Today, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22108, or send an email letter to the editor on its web site www.usatoday.com.
If enough wrestling fans speak out, USA Today perhaps will listen and change its unfair policy on wrestling coverage. Be sure to be polite. A nasty letter will do no good at all but a courteous, well-crafted request for more wrestling coverage could make a difference.
Blubaugh the legend
One of my favorite people in all of wrestling is Doug Blubaugh, the 1960 Olympic champion who is immortalized on the poster, “The Epic Struggle.”
Doug is still giving clinics around the country. Recently, my wife, Bev, and I were running a booth at the Midlands Championships when a young wrestler approached me and asked if there are any clinician videos of Doug Blubaugh available.
“I’ve been to a lot of camps and clinics and Mr. Blubaugh is the best,” said the young wrestler. “I have learned so much just being around him. I know lots of people who feel the same way.”
Doug will be one of 30 American wrestlers featured in my new book, “Legends of the Mat,” which will provide biographical profiles of some of the greatest wrestlers in American history. Here’s hoping there will be some Doug Blubaugh clinics on video available soon. From his NCAA championship days at Oklahoma State, to the Olympic gold medal, to his coaching career at Michigan State and Indiana University, Doug is a wrestling icon, one of the true unsung heroes of the sport.
Trivia question
How many different coaches have won more than one Division I NCAA wrestling team championship for their schools? See the answer at the bottom of the column.
Ultimate fighters
If you don’t follow the Ultimate Fighting Championships, you probably don’t know what huge stars Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes have become in the world of mixed martial arts.
Couture, the former Oklahoma State All-American (7th, 2nd and 2nd, the last coming in 1992) and a world team member in Greco-Roman, and Liddell are on the latest cover of the slick magazine Bodyguard, promoting their upcoming fight, Feb. 4, in Las Vegas. Couture is perhaps the biggest star in the history of the UFC, but lost his world light heavyweight title last year to Liddell, who wrestled at Cal State Bakersfield.
Couture won their first match and they go into this contest tied at one win each. It is going to be a blockbuster event and can be seen on Pay-Per-View TV.
Hughes was a two-time Division I All-American at Eastern Illinois University and is now the reigning UFC world champion in the welterweight division. He is an incredibly tough and talented warrior and has been getting TV exposure on the Spike cable network.
The UFC has drawn huge numbers on Spike and has moved into mainstream sports with large, sellout crowds in Las Vegas. Many movie and sports stars attend the events and Couture has become almost a folk hero in some circles.
Dan Severn started the wrestling stampede into the mixed martial arts world over a decade ago and Randy Couture has taken wrestling to new heights in terms of respect. He has made many friends in the Hollywood scene and may soon transition into that world.
Gable the movie?
There have been three documentaries made on the life and career of Dan Gable, the best being the superb “Sports Century” segment done by ESPN several years ago. But many wrestling fans wonder why Hollywood hasn’t made a movie on his amazing life story. Well, the project has been on the radar for nearly two decades and at least six different movie scripts have been written.
Recently, Gable flew to New York to meet with John Irving to continue work on the movie script about his life. Irving is one of the nation’s most respected novelists with a long string of hits, beginning with “The World According to Garp” in 1976. Irving won an Academy Award for best screenplay of a movie for “Cider House Rules” in 1999 and has lots of clout in Hollywood. Hopefully, the Dan Gable movie will make it to the big screen in 2006 or 2007.
Paul the wrestler
Speaking of movies, if you ever get the chance to see the television movie entitled “Paul, The Apostle” you might want to give it a try. Not only is it a pretty good version of the Biblical Paul’s story, it opens with a long wrestling scene. Paul (known as Saul before his conversion) and a friend go at it pretty good in a wrestling arena in old Jerusalem.
“My strength is my tenacity,” says Saul after the match. “I never give up.”
Spoken like a true wrestler!
And the answer is…
Regarding the earlier question on coaches winning NCAA team titles, the answer is 12 and the list goes like this: Dan Gable, Iowa (15); Ed Gallagher, Oklahoma State (11); Art Griffith, Oklahoma State (8); Myron Roderick, Oklahoma State (7); Harold Nichols, Iowa State (6); John Smith, Oklahoma State (4); Port Robertson, Oklahoma (3); Jim Zalesky, Iowa (3); Tom Evans, Oklahoma (2); Gary Kurdelmeier, Iowa (2); J Robinson, Minnesota (2) and Joe Seay, Oklahoma State (2).
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