Two years ago, Gable got the call that Dianes killer had died in prison. Each wore white headgear and white kneepads. He became an assistant wrestling coach at Woodburn High School, and today strives to serve as a positive role model and mentor to local youth. He describes Owings as a "Charles Lindbergh persona, quietly confident," who believed he could equal Gable's strength and conditioning. "He was in excellent condition. Gable wrestled collegiately at Iowa State, but spent his coaching career from 1976-1997 at the University of Iowa. Shop official NCAA team and championship gear. He wrestled Gable one more time, in the 1972 Olympic Trials, losing 7-1. Grant went up, Owings went. Gable was known for all of those things, and his relentless style was ultimately adapted by the Iowa Hawkeyes program during his historic tenure as a head coach with the program. '@$6. Gable calls his loss to Larry Owings of Washington his greatest loss. Who wants to be known for just one thing? He thinks about what would have happened if he would have lost his match: maybe he wouldnt have entered a failed marriage in 1970 just months after the match (Maybe she wouldnt have married me if I wouldnt have been a winner, he says), maybe he would have pushed himself harder to become an Olympian. He Googles his name on the iPad. Larry Owings, Coach/Official, Canby, Oregon Graduated from Canby High School where he was a two-time OSAA champion. Gable said he learned not to take an opponent lightly, to eliminate distractions and accentuate an aura of invincibility and intimidation toward an opponent, just as Owings had done to him. BRENNAN Stacy. Given that Gable -- by his own admission in the piece -- still isn't truly over that loss and that it still lights a fire in him well, I'm gonna say that that loss was perhaps the best thing that ever could have happened to Gable -- and, by extension, Iowa wrestling. This was where Owings wanted to be, on the mat in the middle of the action. Ive never wrestled after youve lost a match, and Im not going to do it now. Says Gable, You could say that this was my first coaching moment. I didn't know how the referee would score it.". He was as relentless and as conditioned as Gable was. Larry Owings. #SwimWithTheCurrent. Iowa State had won the national team championship, but Gable's loss dominated the headlines. What are you doing? Time heals nothing, not the memory, not the legend and not the gap between the two men, Iowa State's Dan Gable, the greatest wrestler of all time, and a confident University of Washington sophomore named Larry Owings. Darrell Keller, Oklahoma State DEC Larry Owings, Washington, 16-12 150 lbs Stan Dziedzic, Slippery Rock DEC Jay Arneson, Oklahoma . It's famous in part because of . Larry Owings, on the other hand, returned to Oregon, and faded into obscurity, at least as far as the wrestling world was concerned. Dan Gable will tell you that eighty percent of wrestling matches are decided before the first whistle blows. A natural introvert, he struggled for decades against his reputation as The Man Who Beat Dan Gable. He didnt want his whole life to be defined by something that transpired over a period of nine minutes when he was a teenager. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. It was the final moments of the third period that elevated the match into the realm of myth: 30 seconds remained, and Gable was ahead 10-9; if he could stall, if he could just bide his time, a third national title was his. The scorer had not seen the near-fall signal because a TV cameraman had jumped in the way, so Perri stopped the match to explain. "Owings was very squirmy and hard to control.. Check Out My Website: https://www.kadenchristiansenproductions.comEmail Me For Business Inquiries: [email protected] an amazing passiona. Facing a wrestler legendary for his endurance, opponents of Gable would almost always go for broke from the opening whistle. In his high school career, undefeated. See, Larry Owings is the The Man Who Beat Dan Gable. But I have to admit to this day that match made my career, not only the next two years. Larry Owings's wrestling career was different from Gable's. Growing up with 5 wrestling champs, Larry was told by his siblings he would never be a wrestler even being nicknamed "Porky." Owing wanted to prove them wrong. Every sport except boxing and wrestling, she said. Gable grew up in Waterloo, Iowa. Smith would rather have Owings wrestle at 150 pounds. He went in for Gables leg and picked up a clutch third-period takedown, almost catching the Cyclone off guard as time ticked down. If so, he must have had to have gone 142 for his qualifying tournament before the Big Dance, right? Gable remembers wrestling an opponent while at the same time watching Owings lose on an adjacent mat. This was the featured match of the tournament. Lyle Ballew, a teammate of Owings', reported back to Owings that during the Iowa State practices, Gable would work with teammates on every possible countermove to the cradle. "I'm not going to this tournament to be a national champion. Finally, Gable says in a quiet, raspy voice, I know that the match affected my entire life. ICONIC LEADER: How Dan Gable coached Iowa to 15 team titles. It is the subject of an old wrestling match from 44 years ago that has him go silent. He has softened in his old age -- thats what nine grandchildren will do to you -- and lately he has been more reflective; a stack of papers on the desk is the memoir hes working on with a writer. Desperation is something that brings out unusual things," Gable said. His physical makeup was legendary, his results extraordinary. An inspiring legend in his home state and as well as the country due to his work ethic and drive to succeed in wrestling, Gable won national titles in 1968 and 1969 at 130 and 137 pounds. He wasn't stalling on top, but he wasn't earning any additional points either. He had a chance to face Owings again three weeks later, then again seven months later, but Owings lost in the preliminary round. Larry Owens (born January 8, 1983) is an American professional basketball player. But now it is late afternoon, and Gable is sitting at a desk in the cabin behind his house that is his place of refuge, and his throat has closed. That Gable could lose. I told him I used to wrestle in North Dakota, won a state championship in 1987. All Rights Reserved. A few years ago, the Republican Party recruited Gable to run for governor of Iowa. A household name, and a hero to kids all over the country. ", DAN GABLE: The complete history of one of the greatest college wrestlers. He would drop down two weight classes, from 158 to 142, just to have a shot at Gable at the NCAAs. This site also has Jiu Jitsu, Beach and Belt tournaments listed. Larry Owings, Coach/Official, Canby, Oregon. Owings shows up at local wrestling practices and events more, and when people ask him about the Gable match, he no longer tightens up. The fans, said Roderick, "were in shock, as well as excited seeing history. In the days afterward he shut himself from the world. He prefers to show them, firsthand. stream More than any other sport, wrestling is rooted in self-belief and desire: being big, strong, fast and talented can take you only so far; in the end, it is about endurance, stamina, conviction. Jean was due to wrestle in the night's final match, and the PA announcer called for the match wrestlers: Jean had three minutes to get to the mat. The result, though unexpected, put the crowd of 8,500 on its feet throughout the match and gave them [the athletes] a shattering ovation when it ended, per the New York Times. It was simple: I wanted to beat the guy who beat me, says Owings. They said Id never be a wrestler because I was too fat, he recalled, much later. Find them on the corner of NW Third and Grant in downtown Canby. Owings has not talked to Gable since 1980, and that was a brief conversation to ask him to consider looking at a wrestler in his district. The night before the finals he reluctantly attended a banquet honoring him as the sports Man of the Year. Maybe it does but maybe it doesn't. An escape from Owings gave the Washington wrestler the lead, even after Gable pushed his riding time up over a minute, symbolically tying the match with time to go, but Owings wasnt done. It's also a worthwhile read to find out more about Owings, who was an interesting figure in his own right. "You can't put someone in because of one match. And thats something that still pisses me off , Owings and I, we have an interesting relationship, that I just have never lets just say weve never become close, he says. Im not going out there, Jean said. Most have never heard of Larry Owings. By the time the two wrestlers took center stage of the arena for the fourth match of the evening-- Gable in a sleeveless cardinal-and-gold jersey and separate trunks; Owings in a one-piece purple piece with U of W monogrammed on the chest -- it was so loud, with a standing room crowd of nearly 9,000 squeezed into McGaw Hall, that the wrestlers couldnt hear the ref, Pascal Perri, unless they leaned in close. And then I got greedy. Gable had pinned an astonishing 70 percent of his opponents entering the final, and now he determined to pin Owings to close out his collegiate career. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. In 1991, Gable was awarded with the Art Abrams Lifetime Achievement Award by Cauliflower Alley Club. Then, one night about 10 years ago, he had an epiphany, which he believes came from God. Great article, Mark, thanks. One day his mother finally showed up at his door and when she saw Dan, she slapped him across the face, walked away, and made the one and a half hour drive back to Waterloo. It was a name I had not come across too much ahead of time, but I began paying more attention to him. Washington's Larry Owings knocked off Iowa State's Dan Gable for the 1970 NCAA championship at 142 pounds. While Gable's record that season was 31-0, with five straight pins in the 1970 NCAA tourney, Owings was 32-1, and had four pins entering . This is where Gable thought he had the match won. Its harder and harder now for Gable to feel the fire that was in him for so long, but he becomes alive again, the old wrestler with the mean streak, when he talks about the Owings match. That loss is a key part of the creation story for the Dan Gable myth. We went at it tooth and nail.". He even had the honor of facing Dan Gable, then a sophomore at Iowa State and already a national champion. The way Owings sees it, there was his life before the match and his life after: before 1970 he was a nobody hungry to make a name for himself in the sport, though also an introvert completely unequipped for the attention that would come. Odds & lines subject to change. He had pinned everyone in the 1970s national tournament before this match, and he was considered to be the unquestionable favorite against a wrestler he beat two years prior at the Olympic Trials. It's never going to leave, that painful image of defeat. Email: [email protected], 303 Jefferson St. Smith successfully argued with the seeding committee for his wrestler, who would finish 33-1 that year, to get the second seed behind Gable. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? When Larry was on his high school team, the coach used to joke that he was so slow that theyd have to drive pegs into the mat to see if hes still moving. Energy, aggression, speed and endurance. [10], Gable has been written about in many magazines and numerous books, including Two Guys Named Dan (1976), From Gotch to Gable: A History of Wrestling in Iowa (1981), The Toughest Men in Sports (1984) and Legends of the Mat (2006), all by wrestling historian Mike Chapman.[11]. Overall Gable had lost just four matchesall of them while wrestling under unfamiliar international freestyle rules and in competitions in which he, though a promising youngster, clearly had been in over his head. Phone: (319) 233-0745 Was I annoyed? says Owings. There was no reason to think that Gable would not cruise through this final match at 142 pounds and end his career with a 118-0 record. In his international career, undefeated. 11 ranked men's hoops teams in action tonight, DI indoor T&F championship selections revealed. [7] After competing sporadically from 1974 to 1975, Gable retired and became a full-time coach. The Hawkeyes can still earn a double bye, but a lot hinges on the trip to Indiana. Dan had a lot of pressure on him. Owings started to lose his headgear, as Gable worked him from the top position; unfazed, Owings battled, finally securing the escape and notching a point only to immediately be taken down again by Gable. In the final match of his illustrious career with the Cardinal and Gold, Gable suffered what is considered one of the biggest upset losses in college wrestling history, dropping to Larry Owings of . The night before the weigh in, he had a fight with his wife, who was seven months pregnant and didnt want him to leave her and the baby behind and go to the Olympics. 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