“And that was it,” he says. Gable won, easily, but Owings scored some points and even put the champ on his back one time. But Larry Owings had tremendous credentials of his own. Gable loves telling the story of how he once had a freshman wrestler on his team who faded at the end of matches; to build up the wrestler’s mental toughness, Gable drove would drive the wrestler 10 miles out of town a several times a week after practices, and had the freshman run all the way back to campus as Gable followed him in his car. During the weigh-in, an ABC reporter asked, “Larry, why, particularly with such a successful sophomore season, would you drop a weight class that will be impossible to win because of Gable’s presence?” Owings glared at the interviewer and said, “I’ll beat him.”. By beating Gable, and handing him his only defeat in 8 years of wrestling, Owings became an icon. 1970 150 3rd Larry Owings . A few years ago, at a wrestling banquet, Les Anderson, a former assistant coach at Iowa State, pulled his former protégé aside, and said, “Gable, I just want to apologize for that last match. He will show up at a practice at a high school just a few miles from where he lives now, and he will stand in front of the teenagers and say, “If you can score on me, you can win the state title.” Some of the wrestlers will think he’s joking. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Standing in the hospitality room with Larry and chatting with him about the past, present and future of our sport was a rare treat for me. My mom, dad, brother, Ned, and I saw Gable in the 1968 NCAA matches as a sophomore at Iowa State. But neither wrestler found the peace that they sought: Gable walked away wondering, How could I have lost to this guy?. Gable was more exhausted than he’d ever been at the end of a match. “I’d never experienced that before,” says Gable. After his Olympic title, he coached the Iowa Hawkeyes to 21 consecutive Big Ten titles and 15 national championships in his 21 years as head coach, going 355-21-5. “Now why on earth would they want that?” Diane asked. As Sports Illustrated put it: “Owings was wrestling best at 136.5 that year, but he struggled to keep his weight under 138 … Owings thought to himself, ‘I’m not going to the Olympics, Why am I cutting weight? Keller’s second national title would prove to be one more than Owings would win after he fell again in the 1972 national finals. Is the hardest S.O.B. Yes, Dan Gable -- the most famous wrestler and most decorated coach in the history of the sport, the volcanic legend who was so combustible as a coach at Iowa that after losses he’d return home and punch holes into his young daughters’ bedroom doors -- has admitted that he has become more emotional these last few years, someone who finds himself now tearing up at the end of old movies. “So I went up to 149,” he says, “and I told myself that he’d beat me, and everybody will leave me alone.” It was not a contest: Gable won 7-1. 1972: Larry Owings 142 2nd. They are the real wrestlers in the family.”. Indeed, from a family of state champion wrestlers, Larry wound up as the best of the bunch, winning the 136-pound crown in 1967 and 141 in 1968. His career had been one of perfection -- he was 64-0 as a high schooler, a three-time state champion, and 117-0, with two national championships, entering the final collegiate match of his career -- and there was no reason for Gable to be anything other than supremely confident when he arrived with his teammates in Evanston. They also were in phenomenal physical condition. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. He has come to peace with things he never thought he would. He coached 152 all-Americans, 45 national champions, 106 Big Ten Champions and 12 Olympians, including eight medalists. The YouTube video cuts to black. That day in March he was David vs. Goliath. The basement in the Gable home in Iowa City is full of trophies and trinkets and framed photos in glass cases; Dan Gable calls this part of the house the museum, and every museum must be a complete representation of history. In 1972, Bill Murdock was the champion at 177 pounds. In his final meeting, he sat face to face with Karl Rove, who made the mistake of saying something to the effect of, You’ll do what we tell you to do. It’s been 17 years since he coached his last match, but his life still revolves around wrestling and fixing problems within in the sport, both small and big, from the new freshman at the university who needs a kick in the butt to the sport’s very survival -- last year, after the International Olympic Committee dropped wrestling as one of its core sports in February 2013, Gable made it a personal crusade to have it reinstated. My body was thrown through the air, filleted and flattened, like the gangly wrestler I was. Not a state powerhouse yet, Lincoln’s girls wrestling team has some individuals who are vying for top honors in the sport this spring in Oregon. Few opponents had scored a point on him. Many who were there that day use the same words to describe the strange aftermath: it was like a bomb went off. His plan of wearing down Owings, though, was faltering, as Owings seemed to have another level of endurance no one else at the 142# weight class had. According to one source, Larry failed to get his athletic career off to a great start; nicknamed Porky, Owings lost all eight of his matches in his first year as a junior varsity competitor at Canby High School. “I like wrestling the heavier guys, because I don’t seem as slow to them. Maybe Larry Owings is the only thing that is keeping that part of him alive. Two years ago, Gable got the call that Diane’s killer had died in prison. Gable would go for five mile runs, then get inside a car and, with the windows rolled up all the way, turn the heater on full blast so he would return to his ideal wrestling weight at the end of the day. “I’ve never wrestled after you’ve lost a match, and I’m not going to do it now.” Says Gable, “You could say that this was my first coaching moment. Later, over beers at a local bar, when he’s asked how often he thinks about his loss in the 1970 NCAA wrestling national championships, he will say, without a beat, “Everyday.” His wife, Kathy, will turn to him and look as if she suddenly doesn’t know this man she’s been married to for 40 years. He is turning on his iPad, hoping to find clips of the match that would change his life in unexpected and complicated ways. It is the subject of an old wrestling match from 44 years ago that has him go silent. Joel Embiid is the first Sixers player with a 50-point game since Allen Iverson in 2005. The move was so fast that Perri stopped the match and walked to the scorer’s table to ensure that the proper points were awarded. At the same time Gable was a pinner: he liked putting opponents on their backs and showing them the gym lights. “If we would have tied and there was an overtime, I don’t think I would have won,” he says. Olympic Wrestling Champion and Legendary Wrestling Coach/Motivational Speaker . “They are tough on the mat, AND it is important to me & to them that they are respectful and nice afterwards, whether they get their hand raised or not.”. The next season Owings was featured on the cover of the Official NCAA Wrestling Guide to rules and regulations in the sport. Let the match begin. So I went up to 149,’ he says, ‘and I told myself that he’d beat me, and then everybody will leave me alone.'”. His only defeat … He would finish in second place the next two seasons in 71' & 72'. He did his demonstrations on me. Owings at that moment pulled off a move that he’d never done in a match: a leg sweep that caught Gable by surprise and dropped him down to the mat -- as Gable fell, he felt like he was going down in slow motion. Going into the match Gable had not lost a match in high school or college, he was 181-0. He Googles his name on the iPad. From inside his cabin Gable looks out onto the night fast approaching. Really?”. 42nd NCAA Wrestling Tournament 1972 3/9/1972 to 3/11/1972 at Maryland Champions and Place Winners Top Ten Team Scores Outstanding Wrestler: Wade Schalles - Clarion Team Champion Iowa State - 103 Points Number of Individual Champs in parentheses. [1] https://intermatwrestle.com/articles/6839/InterMat-Wrestling-InterMat-Rewind-Gable-Owings? This time we were at a wrestling tournament called “The Larry Owings Invitational.” It is very much like this coach to be humble about his accomplishments. Gable had over two minutes of riding time on his side, so all he had to do was stall, bide his time and he would be declared the winner. With 17 seconds left, Owings was ahead 13-11. The Cougs hosted the annual tournament named after the legendary national champ from Canby High, and were named tournament champions to boot. Jim Woods 167 6th. When his teammates passed him in the tunnels they never expected a hello. “But that was my gig, too.” Over the first two periods the match went back and forth, and when the match stretched into the third period the energy of the hall seemed to change -- from frenzy to palpable anxiety -- as the crowd seemed to realize that Gable was in a fight. He coached for a while, then settled into obscurity of teaching and administrating. “I say that I went undefeated for seven years, lost a match, and then I got good,” he says. He attempted an arm-bar move, raising his arm over Owings’s shoulder to lock him up and take him down. Wrestling is just two people out there -- anyone can be beat, anything can happen.” Owings had dropped two weight classes to wrestle in Gable’s class at 142 pounds. Gable, with his dominant wrestling on top, had earned enough riding time for 2 additional points at the end of the match, leaving the final tally at 13 points for Owings and 11 for Gable. He was a forward on the 2015 team who made it to the $1 million championship game, falling 67-65 to Overseas Elite. Mel Renfro 177 2nd. Winslow's crimes include raping two women, assaulting another and committing misdemeanor sex crimes against two others. When I started to embrace that, I started to become happier, I think.”, The young wrestlers have all heard of Dan Gable. That’s the way Owings prefers it. “Was I annoyed?” says Owings. Through the windows an orange sun is sinking just beyond the towering pines, and light glows his pale bald head. There were some things I could have done … We just thought you were invincible.”, Anderson was dying of cancer, and as Gable says, “It was like he was unloading a lifelong burden.”, Where are They Now: Former UConn star Doron Sheffer. The crowd had come to these NCAA championships to see Gable climb the final step on a stairway of perfection U.S.-style, and Owings was to be merely the last in a long line of stepping-stones. Wrestling never came up until they went on a date later in their relationship and two strangers walked up to them and asked for Owings’ autograph. And he wants the sport of wrestling to thrive for generations to come. Canby Coach Larry Wright encouraged Owings to continue his wrestling at the highest level. But the scars from 1970 would never go away, and not just for Gable. [2] Cael Sanderson, a revered clinician, was a four-time NCAA champion and an Olympic Gold Metalist. Jean was due to wrestle in the night’s final match, and the PA announcer called for the match wrestlers: Jean had three minutes to get to the mat. “No,” she says, disbelieving. They were on their first date when Owings asked if she was into sports. In 1968, in Ames, Iowa, he stepped onto the mat to face the Iowa State sophomore who was already considered the best wrestler in the country. And then, having found a nine-minute YouTube clip titled Gable-Owings, Larry Owings taps the play button, and, with a strange mix of fascination and unease, he leans back in his chair. Dan Pleasant 150 5th. The Saturday night finals at Welch-Ryan Arena at Northwestern Univ. After his Olympic title, he coached the Iowa Hawkeyes to 21 consecutive Big Ten titles and 15 national championships in his 21 years as head coach, going 355 … It was the greatest wrestling match of all-time. He was taking time out to do countless interviews, up until the very moment of his match: ABC’s Wide World of Sports requested that he tape a spot for them on the mat just minutes before the final. At Iowa State, he became an NCAA Division I national runner-up and two-time national champion. Up close and personal, he looks like he’s one sweaty workout away from his wrestling weight at Washington. Gable is 65 now, still works out every day on the elliptical and lifting his old high school weights, but lately he’s been feeling his body crumbling; he walks with a limp, the result of eight knee surgeries and four hip replacements. It’s harder and harder now for Gable to feel the fire that was in him for so long, but he becomes alive again, the old wrestler with the mean streak, when he talks about the Owings match. His teams won 21 Big Ten Conference championships, and 15 NCAA Division I titles. Larry Owings admitted, “‘I’d beaten the best in the world — it was the pinnacle of my career, and would be, no matter what.” He wondered aloud, “Where do you go from there?” Owings remained one of the top wrestlers in the country for the next few years, but a second NCAA title eluded him. No Title. “There’s the verbal stuff, here and there. It was the final moments of the third period that elevated the match into the realm of myth: 30 seconds remained, and Gable was ahead 10-9; if he could stall, if he could just bide his time, a third national title was his. You think Larry should have gotten a plaque as a assistant coach of the year for some of those years for helping you get to that level. Owings’ neighbor and close friend of two decades showed up to a tournament a few years ago and saw Owings in the stands wearing a shiny purple Washington jacket. Where Are They Now: Catching up with Cubs legend Ernie Banks. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. I’m emotional about it because there’s still a lot of meaning …”, Where Are They Now: Catching up with former Cavs guard Craig Ehlo, His voice trails off, and he lifts a hand to dry his eyes; something that’s been buried deep is suddenly resurfacing. First, though, he has a question about the man who beat him: Here is Larry Owings: sitting at his dining room table in his modest house in the Oregon countryside, 30 miles outside of Portland, on a May afternoon. A few old black-and-white wrestling photos turn up in the image results, but mostly he finds himself staring at photos of strange faces. Finally, Gable says in a quiet, raspy voice, “I know that the match affected my entire life. Many Iowa State fans and Cyclone’s Coach, Myron Roderick, loudly protested those last two points. Hajime Shinjo 158 6th. “Well, that’s not me,” he says, as he reads about the retirement of Larry Owings of Brownwood, Texas. Just sitting here, talking about it … it hurts. Just after graduating from high school, Larry Owings traveled to Ames, Iowa to compete in the 1968 U.S. Olympic Trials. Hajime Shinjo 150 3rd. After that point, for the most part, people left Larry Owings alone. The tributes to Dan Gable on the Internet are endless, but time, it seems, has forgotten the one man who beat him. Larry Owings, 16, a member of the Can by (Ore.) High wrestling squad, completed a perfect season with 22 consecutive victories and became the fifth of five brothers to win a state championship when he pinned all four of his opponents in the 136-pound class at Corvallis. The way Owings sees it, there was his life before the match and his life after: before 1970 he was a nobody hungry to make a name for himself in the sport, though also an introvert completely unequipped for the attention that would come. And his flurry of pinning combinations were powerful and painful. Gable’s success was always due in large part of his ability to live in a bubble -- no distractions ever got in his way. Gable claimed he was more exhausted than he’d ever been at the end of a match. Standing is about just about to get underway. There's the champion Dan Gable hasn't lost in high school or College. The accomplishments of preeminent Larry Owings speak for themselves. So just after graduating from Canby, Owings traveled to Ames, Iowa to compete in the 1968 U.S. Wrestling Olympic Trials. That softie had been nowhere to be found earlier in on this day as he navigated his black pickup through Iowa City while downing cans of Mountain Dew and breathlessly telling rollicking old wrestling stories that crackle like firecrackers. He was intrigued -- Dan and Kathy went to Washington to have a series of meetings at the White House. Hajime Shinjo 158 6th. The victory also put a target on his back. Gable says that the loss was “like a death in the family.” “It just about killed my parents,” he says. Going into his senior season (1970) Gable was a two-time defending champion. His voice cracks, his eyes flicker, and suddenly, he goes silent, grasping for words. He holed himself up in his room, he didn’t talk to anyone, he didn’t even return his parents’ phone calls. The match ended without takedown points awarded to either wrestler. Before the finals in 1970, Larry Owings was interviewed by an ABC reporter. 1973: Tom Brown 142 3rd. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Gardner's one-year deal includes player and team options for 2022. National Champion. That Gable could lose. While Gable’s record that season was 31-0, with five straight pins in the 1970 NCAA tourney, Owings was 32-1, and had four pins entering the finals. Owings was a rising junior at the University of Washington and he threw me around the room like a rag doll. Right from the whistle, the score went back and forth quickly, no one getting a solid lead. After returning to Ames the next day, the first thing he did was ask teammates to wrestle him. Gable's college career record was 117–1, with his only loss being in the final match of his final season to Larry Owings of the University of Washington.