Dan Gable

Gable was born on October 25, 1948, in Waterloo, Iowa; at Waterloo West High School he compiled a 64–0 record and won Iowa state titles in 1964, 1965 and 1966.⁠[1]

Gable recalls that in April 1967, having finished his freshman year at Iowa State University, he wrestled freestyle for the first time at the AAU National Championships, reaching the semifinals before losing 6–0 to multiple NCAA champion Rick Sanders; freshmen were then barred by the NCAA from varsity competition.⁠[2]

Wrestling for Iowa State University, Gable won NCAA titles in 1968 and 1969 and three Big Eight Conference titles, and won 100 consecutive college matches.⁠[3]

In 1970, in the last match of his college career, the NCAA final at 142 pounds, Gable lost to Larry Owings of the University of Washington, his record going from 117–0 to 117–1; beforehand he had filmed a promotion for ABCABCABC (American Broadcasting Company) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It grew out of NBC’s Blue radio network, took its name after becoming independent in 1943, developed into a national television network after merging with United Paramount Theatres in 1953, was acquired by Capital Cities in 1985, and has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1996. With CBS and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks, and it is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry’s Wide World of Sports inviting viewers to watch him finish his career 182–0.⁠[4]

After college Gable won titles at the 1971 Pan American Games and the World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, and in six Midlands Opens.⁠[5]

In 1972 Gable won the Soviet Union’s Tbilisi tournament and was named outstanding wrestler; the Soviet national coach then vowed to find someone to beat him before the Olympics, but none did. At the Munich Games he won gold without any of his six opponents scoring a point.⁠[6]

Gable began coaching at the University of Iowa in 1972 and, after several years as an assistant, took over as head coach in 1976; his first season produced an NCAA champion in Chris Campbell at 177 pounds, with Iowa third nationally. In 1978 Iowa edged his alma mater Iowa State to win the NCAA title. By the time he stepped down in 1997 he had led the team to 15 NCAA team titles and coached 45 NCAA champions, 12 Olympians, 152 All-Americans and 106 conference champions.⁠[7]

Gable was inducted into the U.S. Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1980 and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1985, and in 1996 was named one of the “100 Golden Olympians.”⁠[1]

Gable was head coach of the U.S. Olympic freestyle team in 1980, 1984 and 2000; the 1984 team, with four Hawkeyes, won seven gold medals, three of them by his pupils Ed Banach, Lou Banach and Randy Lewis.⁠[8]

The 1996–97 season was Gable’s last as coach: Iowa won its 24th straight Big Ten title and 17th NCAA title and scored 170 points at the championships, breaking its own NCAA team-points record; his career dual record as head coach was 355–21–5, and his teams won nine straight NCAA titles from 1978 to 1986, equaling the longest streak in any sport at the time.⁠[9]

In 2002 Gable served on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.⁠[10]

In April 2012 the University of Iowa unveiled a life-sized bronze statue of Gable outside the entrance to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, showing him motioning for a stalling call during a match against Iowa State; at the ceremony Gable called it the only bronze award he would ever accept.⁠[11]

In August 2012, before the Olympic wrestling competition in London, FILA inducted Gable into its Hall of Fame in the Legends category; he became the seventh American in the Hall and the first in that category.⁠[8]

After the International Olympic Committee announced on February 12, 2013, that wrestling would be dropped from the Olympic program from 2020, Gable appeared on programs including Fox and Friends and MSNBCMS NOWMS NOW (My Source for News, Opinion and the World) is an American cable channel for political news and commentary. It was formerly MSNBC, launched in July 1996 as a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft, adopted its current name on November 15, 2025, as its business was spun off from Comcast, and since January 2026 has belonged to the independent public company Versant Media Group. It is known for its liberal-leaning commentary programs.Open the full entry in New York to campaign for reinstatement, disputing claims that the sport lacked global reach and noting that it was practised in almost 200 countries.⁠[12]

On September 8, 2013, the International Olympic Committee decided to reinstate wrestling for the 2020 Olympics, and Gable and Iowa associate head coach Terry Brands reacted to the decision in a University of Iowa video.⁠[13]

In March 2015 the University of Iowa Press published A Wrestling Life: The Inspiring Stories of Dan Gable, written by Gable with Scott Schulte, covering his childhood in Waterloo, the murder of his sister when he was a teenager, the 1972 Olympics and his coaching career; it then joined The New York Times sports best-seller list.⁠[14]

In a press release the White House announced that President Trump would award Gable the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, noting his 117–1 record at Iowa State University.⁠[5]

On December 7, 2020, Trump presented the medal to Gable in the Oval Office of the White House, having announced the selection at a campaign rally in October.⁠[15]

On January 9, 2021, Gable appeared on episode 152 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing Russian wrestling, coaching the science and art of wrestling, the pain of defeat, the day of the 1972 Olympic final, fear, the tragic loss of his sister, the role of family and wrestling being voted out of the Olympics.⁠[16]

In August 2026 the independent film Gable, telling Gable’s story, announced additions to its cast, with Finn Cole in the title role, Ben Foster also starring and Mireille Enos as his mother; directed by Jon Greenhalgh, it follows a working-class kid from Waterloo who overcame a family tragedy to face the Soviets at the height of the Cold War.⁠[17]

Personal website: Public link: https://dangable.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[16]

X: Public account: https://x.com/dannygable (opens in a new window)⁠[16]

University of Iowa: Official website: https://uiowa.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]