Dan Gable

At the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, Gable won gold in the lightweight class (149 1/2 pound) wrestling division. It was a dominating performance that has passed into legend. In a match with six opponents, and in a much publicized event wherein the Russian team vowed to find a challenger who would take Gable down, Gable ended up beating all six opponents, not once allowing them to score even one point off of him.

When he left the Olympic arena, Gable took an assistant coaching position under Gary Kurdelmeier at the University of Iowa. Together, these teams produced national championships in 1975 and 1976. Gable eventually took over the program from Kurdelmeier, and after finishing third in the country in his first year, Iowa went on to win nine consecutive national titles.