Dan Gable - The Worst Sort Of Motivation

In 1964 a neighbor raped and killed Gable's 19-year old sister, Diane. Gable was fifteen, and his parents wanted to sell the house and move. Gable, however, didn't want to relocate. He claimed that the murderer wasn't going to take their house. He was already a young man with an almost complete focus on wrestling, and the death of his sister and the emotional turmoil it caused pushed him to work even harder. He submerged himself in his sport.

Gable spent his sophomore year at an Olympic tryout camp with Rick Sanders of Portland State. Here is where the strongest weapon of Gable's wrestling career showed up. Sanders introduced Gable to arm bars to pin his opponents. After that, Gable pinned sixty of the last sixty-five opponents he faced in college, and he would not lose a match until he faced Larry Owings of the University of Washington in the NCAA finals his senior year. As a college wrestler, Gable amassed an outstanding record of 138-1, which included three NCAA championship titles. Gable would get another chance to wrestle Owings during the 1972 Olympic trials. Gable beat him handily, 7-1.