History's all around you when you take a seat at Wells Fargo Arena now through the Saturday night finals. And the extended Offenburger family finally got a qualifier!
Thanks for highlighting a little piece of what makes Iowa Iowa, Chuck, as you always do so well.
I had high school buddies that wrestled but the first tournament I attended was a couple of years after graduation, in 1977. At that tournament Coach Bob Siddens won his last state title with Waterloo West and his star pupil, Olympic gold medalist Dan Gable, was introduced as the new head wrestling coach at the University of Iowa. It was also future Iowa State wrestler and coach Jim Gibbons's last state title at Ames High and Jeff Kerber of Emmetsburg became a four-time state champion. Kind of a watershed tournament on a number of levels.
I remember my buddy and I had seats high in the rafters at the Big Barn, Veterans Auditorium, and we were screaming our lungs out for the only wrestler to qualify from Waterloo Central High, on one of the end mats, in a championship match. We were so loud the family in front of us from Winterset thought we were cheering against their son in the center mat. We had to explain ourselves. The Winterset wrestler's grandma was so nervous her clenched fists were trembling.
A big part of the tournament is the "Parade of Champions" the final night of the tournament, which as I recall recognized individual achievement across a number of sports.
Unfortunately, an ugly side to the wrestling tournament back in those days was the considerable amount of alcohol-related vandalism done to Des Moines area hotels. There was a story of a vacuum cleaner being tossed out of an upper-level hotel window into a swimming pool, for example. But that was back when "18 was legal" and I'd like to think things have changed quite a bit since then.
The Kennedy head coach is my nephew. Nick hails from North Linn a wrestling hotbed in its day. Nick and his brothers Dan and Chris won many state titles between them. Their dad (my brother in law) was a firefighter in CR and won a National Firefighters wrestling title ( who knew there was such a thing!) and the boys thrived under his tutelage. I enjoyed watching when I could. Thanks for the bringing back some fond memories!
Hi Chuck! I forwarded this to Hank. He was head wrestling coach at Winnetonka High School for several years. As far as I know he still goes to the state meet. I love wrestling. I cheered for it in highschool and scored for it at Harmon High in KCK.
Thanks for highlighting a little piece of what makes Iowa Iowa, Chuck, as you always do so well.
I had high school buddies that wrestled but the first tournament I attended was a couple of years after graduation, in 1977. At that tournament Coach Bob Siddens won his last state title with Waterloo West and his star pupil, Olympic gold medalist Dan Gable, was introduced as the new head wrestling coach at the University of Iowa. It was also future Iowa State wrestler and coach Jim Gibbons's last state title at Ames High and Jeff Kerber of Emmetsburg became a four-time state champion. Kind of a watershed tournament on a number of levels.
I remember my buddy and I had seats high in the rafters at the Big Barn, Veterans Auditorium, and we were screaming our lungs out for the only wrestler to qualify from Waterloo Central High, on one of the end mats, in a championship match. We were so loud the family in front of us from Winterset thought we were cheering against their son in the center mat. We had to explain ourselves. The Winterset wrestler's grandma was so nervous her clenched fists were trembling.
A big part of the tournament is the "Parade of Champions" the final night of the tournament, which as I recall recognized individual achievement across a number of sports.
Unfortunately, an ugly side to the wrestling tournament back in those days was the considerable amount of alcohol-related vandalism done to Des Moines area hotels. There was a story of a vacuum cleaner being tossed out of an upper-level hotel window into a swimming pool, for example. But that was back when "18 was legal" and I'd like to think things have changed quite a bit since then.
The Kennedy head coach is my nephew. Nick hails from North Linn a wrestling hotbed in its day. Nick and his brothers Dan and Chris won many state titles between them. Their dad (my brother in law) was a firefighter in CR and won a National Firefighters wrestling title ( who knew there was such a thing!) and the boys thrived under his tutelage. I enjoyed watching when I could. Thanks for the bringing back some fond memories!
Thanks for another great article Chuck. Heart warming and interesting .Keep 'em coming !!!
Denny Reavis
Hi Chuck! I forwarded this to Hank. He was head wrestling coach at Winnetonka High School for several years. As far as I know he still goes to the state meet. I love wrestling. I cheered for it in highschool and scored for it at Harmon High in KCK.