Gable talks preparedness, leadership at Rotary Club

Wrestling legend Dan Gable speaks to patrons after his address at the Little Rock Rotary Club on Tuesday afternoon. Gable was in town to promote the Arkansas State Wrestling Tournament, which begins Friday.
Wrestling legend Dan Gable speaks to patrons after his address at the Little Rock Rotary Club on Tuesday afternoon. Gable was in town to promote the Arkansas State Wrestling Tournament, which begins Friday.

Dan Gable doesn’t necessarily believe in luck.

Gable, who led the Iowa Hawkeyes to 15 team national titles, has had success on every level of wrestling as an athlete and a coach; but he believes that, in a sense, a person creates their own luck.

“But I do believe luck happens in life because you’re prepared,” he said.

Gable touched on that and other topics while acting as the keynote speaker for the opening luncheon of the 2014 Arkansas State Wrestling Tournament, as part of the Little Rock Rotary Club’s weekly meeting, held in the ballroom of the Robinson Center.

During his address of the crowd of about 400, Gable spoke of the benefits of wrestling for these that compete.

“It gives [kids] a chance to learn a lot of disciplines that they take with them,” he said.

Four-time NCAA wrestling champion and Director of the Arkansas Wrestling Academy Pat Smith, who was also in attendance, said Gable’s appearance speaks volumes about the legitimacy of the prep wrestling scene in Arkansas.

“You don’t have to tell these kids anymore who Dan Gable is, or who the big legends are in wrestling,” Smith said. “90 percent of these kids — this is there sport, they love it.”

The state tournament begins at 1 p.m. Friday and runs through Saturday afternoon at the Jack Stephens Center on the the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus. About 300 wrestlers from various teams across the state are expected to participate in the tournament, which is in its sixth year.

Gable, a staunch supporter of spreading and maintaining the sport of wrestling across the country, said that he was impressed with the growth of the sport in Arkansas.

“That’s why I feel so good about this state because we are creating opportunities for kids through this sport,” Gable said.

A legend in the wrestling community, the 70-year-old Gable carried a 355-21-5 record and coached 45 individual national champions, 152 All-Americans and 12 eventual Olympians in his 22 years as head coach of the Hawkeye wrestling program from 1976-1997. Gable, who also served as the head coach of the U.S. Olympic wrestling team in 1980, 1984 and 2000 and still maintains a close presence with the program — he has a statue bearing his likeness outside Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the home of Iowa wrestling.

As a competitor, Gable went a combined 182-1, with three NCAA individual championships while at Iowa State. He’s only loss came in the NCAA championship match his senior year with the Cyclones. He later won the gold medal in wrestling in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, then joined the coaching staff at Iowa in 1972 before taking over as head coach.

Read more about this story in tomorrow’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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