THE TRIALS... 1968 At Ames, I had a tough time. For my first match I drew Dan Gable, the current NCAA champion. He beat me all right, but I don’t believe it was all that bad: 13-4, I think. I had Dan on his back once, nearly pinning him, but I couldn’t hold him there and eventually lost. My next match was with Tom Huff. I also had him briefly on his back, but he was too good for me and I lost my second match in a row. That was it. I returned home to Oregon with my tail between my legs, even though, who knows, I may have been the 4th best wrestler at 138.5 – we’ll never know. I did gain a greater appreciation for nationally ranked wrestlers, though. And, I really thought I could beat Gable if we ever wrestled again. The next time I wrestled Gable was in the 1970 NCAA finals match when I was a college sophomore and he was a senior. Tom Huff talks about his wrestling career up to and including the ’68 Trials: I was from Waterloo, Iowa and grew up in a wrestling family. Bob Siddens was the high school coach at Waterloo West where my three brothers also wrestled. In my ninth-grade year my older brother won the State Tournament at 95 pounds. The following year I won at 95 and he won at 112. I graduated in 1959 as a threetime Iowa high school champion. Upon graduation, I went to the University of Iowa. As a sophomore, I made the team but didn’t place in the NCAAs. The next two years I placed 3rd and 2nd, losing to Bill Dotson in overtime my senior year. Bill was also from Waterloo but he went to Waterloo East high school. I stayed at Iowa City and enrolled in Dental school there. After earning my Dental degree I joined the Air Force. In ’68 I was stationed in Colorado Springs, working out and wrestling for the Air Force team, and becoming good friends with Wayne Baughman. In the spring of ’68 I won the Regional Qualifier in Colorado and was preparing for the Final Trials in Ames. The 138.5 weight class was a tough one – particularly Douglas, Gable, and Dave Pruzansky. Gable had just won his first NCAA title. Gable and I both wrestled Larry Owings in the initial two rounds and we both won to eliminate him. Owings was really strong. Before I wrestled Gable, Owings came up to me 52 Wrestlers At The Trials
and said, ‘I wish I were in your shoes right now.’ ‘Why’s that?’ I asked. Owings replied, ‘Well, I really want to beat that guy and now I know I can do it.’ I ended the conversation with something like, ‘It’s not going to be easy.’ Pruzansky was very tough. Gable tied him and I beat him by a decision. I remember him as being very good. The final round-robin came down to Douglas, Gable and me. I first had to wrestle Douglas. We had become good friends over the years, ever since we wrestled back in ’63 trying out for the World team. He had a fabulous gut-wrench. In our match I remember taking Bobby down right away with my fireman’s carry and it was a close match. However, twice I was penalized for stalling. Actually, I was trying very hard to resist his gut-wrench. What happened was that he’d let go of it while I was resisting him, and I just continued to lay there on the mat… and receive a penalty point against me for stalling. At the very end of the match I caught Bobby again with my fireman’s. However, time ran out as I dropped him onto the mat and I didn’t get the points that would have won it for me. Next I had to wrestle Gable for the chance to finish 2nd and be invited to the Alamosa Camp. Now this was more than just another match – both of us being from Waterloo and all. For years Iowa fans were asking, ‘Wonder who would win a Huff-Gable match?’ We were both big deals in our careers at Waterloo West and then in college, even though I never won the NCAAs. Anyway, I was about six years Dan’s senior and my pride wouldn’t let me lose to an up-and-coming guy who was just a college sophomore. I took Dan down with my fireman’s in the opening seconds and had him on his back but we went off the mat. Back up on our feet, I took him down again – this time in the center of the mat – and put him straight on his back. His body got locked with his shoulders pinned and he didn’t have a chance to bridge or turn. I didn’t even have time to put in a half-nelson. He was pinned in just over a minute into the match. I had earned a trip to the Finals Camp in Alamosa. Dan Gable talks about his experience: Much of my coaching was based on what the 1970 NCAA loss to Larry Owings did for me.
THE TRIALS... 1968
Even Tom Huff couldn’t spoil Bobby Douglas’s dream of wrestling in the Olympics Photograph courtesy of Bobby Douglas
But the ’68 Trials, now that you’ve brought it up, were a big factor, too. The ’68 Trials experience is kind of a story never told, as to how it affected the way I coached. By 1968, I was a good wrestler and headed in the direction of being a great wrestler. But if my career had ended in 1968 with one NCAA title as a sophomore, I would soon be forgotten. I was a freshman at Iowa State in 1967 and couldn’t compete for the team, though I did wrestle in the National AAUs for the first time [Author’s note: placing 3rd at 125.5 behind Rick Sanders and Masaaki Hatta.] In 1968, I went undefeated for Iowa State and won the NCAAs at 130 pounds. That was a peaking event for me. My last major Folkstyle event had been in March of 1966 when I won the Iowa state high school tournament. So, with this two year hiatus, I was very focused on winning those NCAAs. After the NCAAs I needed a break – and took one. I had hardly taken a breath all season long. The Trials were being held just a month or so after the NCAAs and I actually didn’t know if I was going to compete until I went to the weigh-in. I was having a good time letting my hair down and I don’t exactly know what finally
made me go. I probably just needed to wrestle. However, I wasn’t terribly focused – same as at the 1970 NCAAs where I was cooperating too much with everyone, especially the media. Wrestling at the Trials was an unbelievable experience. My first match was with a high school kid from Oregon – Larry Owings. I didn’t give him much credit, him just being a high schooler and I beat him fairly handily. I tied Dave Pruzansky whom I had never heard of before, but he was a pretty fine wrestler and afterwards we became good friends. I really didn’t know much when it came down to the final round-robin with Tom Huff, Bobby Douglas and me. Against Douglas I went in with a lot of confidence. However, he technically took me apart. It was the first time I ever felt that I really had my butt kicked. He hit me with a headlock and also got one good bear hug on me. He whipped me by a good ten points. I then had to wrestle Huff who was also from Waterloo West. I didn’t think I would lose to him. I knew he had a great fireman’s carry but I didn’t think that would matter. I never wrestled anyone who had a fireman’s like his – he hit it on me from the outside and pinned me just like that. I really didn’t get a chance to wrestle. Wrestlers At The Trials 53