Totally agree on Jurgens... One of the best to ever come through the program. So damn good in every position.
My shout out goes to Lee Fullhart.
My shout out goes to Lee Fullhart.
Who's your favorite...
- Thread starter GG121AND2
- Start date
Charlie Falck contributed to two team titles and gets kind of put down on here time to time because McD came after him and quickly won as a FR. I cant put a former NCAA individual champ as unappreciated so I will list a member of a recent title team.
JR year loses a semi final nail bitter to eventual champ Escobedo.
SR year he is hurt bad, Clark bad, McD bad, Nick Moore type bad. Gets tough draw and on the backside IIRC Friday morning I am front row for it, he is down like 3 points late in the 3rd and hits a move for a pin in a match he had no business winning. He could have just taken the 2nd loss and packed it up and felt sorry for how his career ended. That my friends came in handy when Metcalf losses and Iowa barely squeaks by a team title. Without that Pin by Falck not sure the team title is won. Heck of a Sat morning session by Erecksen and CO too.
Honorable Mention on same team. Beatty. Dude could have been good at 174/184 but went 197 to find a spot. When healthy wrestled way better than will ever be known for. And IIRC Including a win over future champ Cam Simaz and a 4-3 loss to Varner.
JR year loses a semi final nail bitter to eventual champ Escobedo.
SR year he is hurt bad, Clark bad, McD bad, Nick Moore type bad. Gets tough draw and on the backside IIRC Friday morning I am front row for it, he is down like 3 points late in the 3rd and hits a move for a pin in a match he had no business winning. He could have just taken the 2nd loss and packed it up and felt sorry for how his career ended. That my friends came in handy when Metcalf losses and Iowa barely squeaks by a team title. Without that Pin by Falck not sure the team title is won. Heck of a Sat morning session by Erecksen and CO too.
Honorable Mention on same team. Beatty. Dude could have been good at 174/184 but went 197 to find a spot. When healthy wrestled way better than will ever be known for. And IIRC Including a win over future champ Cam Simaz and a 4-3 loss to Varner.
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Can't like this post enough...
Lennie Z is very underappreciated.
3 time AA, twice runner-up to 2-timer NCAA champ/ World Silver/Bronze Metzger, after beating him in duals two years in a row.
Lennie had a double leg like a Pink Panther vacuum.
3 time AA, twice runner-up to 2-timer NCAA champ/ World Silver/Bronze Metzger, after beating him in duals two years in a row.
Lennie had a double leg like a Pink Panther vacuum.
Montell Marion gets my vote. He took a lot of heat for wrestling tight matches, but the guy went 2,4,2. People also tend to forget the absolute screw job he received against Kellen Russel his junior year. Then on top of it, he gets screwed against Mike Thorn in the 3/4 match. He was a 2x finalist, and very easily could/should have been a 3x finalist. He pretty much never gets talked about and is easily one of the better wrestlers of the Brand's era. Obviously the off the mat drama might play a role in this.
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Montell was one of the reasons I'm such a big hawkeye fan. I started watching during the 2009-2010 season, so obviously the team was nails that year. But the next year, when Iowa was ranked #7 (at the time) I believe and took down PSU at home in a dual meet was amazing. Marion got whipped to his back right away by Andrew Alton then came storming back and personified the Iowa style to win 11-9 in SV I think or end of 3rd period. Always loved watching the Savvy of Marion. His finals match with Dake was very good, a lot more competitive than people gave him credit for, due to Dakes eventual 4 in 4 weights.
Recent but DSJ. He got ran oob the entire period against DakeAnator That's what is being fixed now.
Loved our heavys last 30+ years wrestling for the Hawks.
Jmo
Loved our heavys last 30+ years wrestling for the Hawks.
Jmo
Gary Kurdelmeier never gets the recognition he deserves in terms of building the Iowa dynasty. He was the one with the smarts to bring in Gable, and he was a real innovator in terms of generating fan interest. No doubt, Gable was the star who kicked the program into high gear, but Kurdelmeier really started the ball rolling.
Later, Kurdelmeier moved to Atlanta and started a program at Georgia State. He operated largely in anonymity while the Iowa program -- the one he built -- dominated. He never sought the spotlight and was a humble guy. Sadly, many younger Iowa fans probably don't even know who he was, let alone the key role he played in building the greatest college wrestling program over the last 4 decades.
Nate Burak
Luke Eustice
Ben Shirk
Jessman Smith
Paul Bradley
... to name a few... Lotta underlooked...
Luke Eustice
Ben Shirk
Jessman Smith
Paul Bradley
... to name a few... Lotta underlooked...
Both Luke and Ty Eustice so close to being a national champ.
Marion got screwed out of a title good grief replay showed his take down on Russell.
Erecksen in my opinion one of many good hwts moving up from 197 and will never forget his pin of the ISU hwt in the sat morning wrestle backs.
There are many more and the Hawks will again have many more.
Marion got screwed out of a title good grief replay showed his take down on Russell.
Erecksen in my opinion one of many good hwts moving up from 197 and will never forget his pin of the ISU hwt in the sat morning wrestle backs.
There are many more and the Hawks will again have many more.
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I will never forget those screw jobs. That was terrible. The top 4 at that weight were all awesome though.
Loving this thread, lots of great memories in these names. I could type for hours about some of these guys. I don't recall reading Tim Cysewski, Mark Mysnyk, or Keith Mourlam in these lists. Might be a little too old for most on this board.
I wrestled my first freestyle match against Dan Glenn, and his brother Bob later in the same tournament. Glenn, the three I mentioned and Lennie Z and Riley were all in my general age group, from a few years older to a few years younger. Also King Mueller and Bruce Kinseth, but they were never my weight.
Keep naming 'em guys, this thread has been fun.
I wrestled my first freestyle match against Dan Glenn, and his brother Bob later in the same tournament. Glenn, the three I mentioned and Lennie Z and Riley were all in my general age group, from a few years older to a few years younger. Also King Mueller and Bruce Kinseth, but they were never my weight.
Keep naming 'em guys, this thread has been fun.
Funny you say that, TNT, because I was just thinking that Keith Mourlam needed to be mentioned. Really tough 126-pounder, and I was always impressed with him but he seemed to be overshadowed even during his era by the numerous other studs in our lineup.
Also funny you mention Mark Mysnyk, as our family "adopted" him when he arrived as a freshman from New York. He didn't spend a lot of time in the starting lineup, but his teammates loved him and he was a crowd favorite, just because of his incredible work ethic and just the fact that he was a great kid. I see a lot of Mark Mysnyk in Topher Carton -- and that's a huge compliment to Topher. Not surprisingly, Mark has gone on to great success in every aspect of his life, and he remains the same humble, hard-working guy he always was. A true role model for all young wrestlers -- and all young men, for that matter.
Here's another old school name -- Dan Wageman (167). To this day, the funkiest wrestler I've ever seen, from any school. He was several decades ahead of his time in terms of his unorthodox style. His matches typically had the crowd laughing as much as cheering, because his opponents often didn't know how to respond to his weird style.
I'd add Bud Palmer to the list, too. Not because he was necessarily a world beater, but because he was always Gable's whipping boy when it came to stalling. He was a 190-pounder who had trouble pulling the trigger, and he drove Gable absolutely nuts. Of course, Gable loved him like a son, but he had no choice but to show him tough love, and he wouldn't tolerate stalling from him. Palmer may have been the first Iowa wrestler to prompt Gable to beg the ref to call his own guy for stalling. It was pretty comical to watch. That said, he gave great effort -- just had a tough time getting to his offense.
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I'm from up that way too. Grand Haven. And it sounds like we might be similar in age. Where did you grow up?
As for my answer: Montell Marion. The guy just had the misfortune of being the clear cut 2nd best in the nation in his weight, and #1 just happened to be in the same conference. He got close though. A true fighter.
I grew up in Allendale and I still help with the team there. I ended up marrying my coach's daughter, he's still the coach. I'm currently sitting at work in Grand Haven.
PM
I always enjoyed watching John Oostendorp wrestle. Aggressive big guy who wasn't afraid to toss his opponent. Believe he was a Big 10 Champ and placed 3rd & 5th at Nationals.
LOL you get it! The fact that you were the only one to recognize Charlie Falck and every post after yours was no mention of Charlie or even a discussion kind of proves how underappreciated Charlie was. Isn't that the definition of the word? But yet its followed up by Montel who wouldn't have been underappreciated if he ever would have wrestled every match like it mattered. Montel took matches off and really turned it on when the lights came on. Sorry but I think of a bit selfish when I think of Montel.
Nobody appreciates how razor close to a title Charlie was his JR year and how hurt he was his SR year. But that JR performance was lost in the lights of Iowa winning a team title after a drought and Metcalf Hodge run, Slatons runner up etc.
Nobody ever says man it would have been nice if Charlie was healthy for his SR year, he deserved that. But its been done 1 trillion times for McD.
Chuck is my guy! A true Hawkeye family that sacrificed a lot for the program. Tremendous people.
Jamie Heidt - Main reason - the dude worked his ass off to be who he was (not like the rest of them slacked). I've mentioned this before, but i have bracket from when we were kids and he finished 4th out of 4. By grade school we split matches. By HS, he started kicking everyone's ass. Just a hard nosed, go 100% Gable type wrestler.
Also, ok, don't laugh. Mike Kemerer. Holy crap, look at the list that was posted above (http://www.hawkeyesports.com/news/2004/6/16/All_Americans.aspx?path=wrestling). See how many of our all time greats didn't finish 3rd their freshman year and we barely talk about him. Clark's unbelievable run overshadowed him and it feels like a ho hum 3rd place. Crazy.
Also, ok, don't laugh. Mike Kemerer. Holy crap, look at the list that was posted above (http://www.hawkeyesports.com/news/2004/6/16/All_Americans.aspx?path=wrestling). See how many of our all time greats didn't finish 3rd their freshman year and we barely talk about him. Clark's unbelievable run overshadowed him and it feels like a ho hum 3rd place. Crazy.
Just because people didn't mention him don't mean they didn't appreciate him. As I said before, I could go on and on about a lot of these guys. Charlie WAS the best at the weight his Jr. year, it just didn't happen. I think he split matches pretty evenly with Escobedo, just always lost close on the really big ones. He also had Robles' number (before he perfected his one-leg only style and unstoppable tilts). Charlie was another of my favorites.
Also Eric Juergens has been mentioned a lot. I had heard a lot about him his first few years of High School but had never seen him wrestle until Maquoketa was dropped to 2A his senior year. I saw him wrestle several times that year and, as I told his parents several years later, I thought he was the best High School wrestler I've ever seen in person, and that's saying something. If not for getting screwed by a false start that wasn't called, he should have been a three-time champ. Also, the only one to ever beat Stephen Abas in a NCAA tournament match, and he did it twice, as mentioned earlier.
Can't believe this thread made it as far as it did without mentioning the Big O, but that reminded me of another greatly underappreciated heavy, Mark Sindlinger. Could beat any heavy in the country and probably would have if he could have ever started a season before January. Those pesky bowl games anyway.
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Another name that hasn't come up here is Jody Strittmatter. One of the best to never win a DI title. Great wrestler great person, great coach. One prolific pinner, someone you didn't want to go under. His family are all great people too. My mom and I still exchange Christmas cards with his family. It was great to see them in I.C. last year at B1Gs.
Two other Marion matches, in addition to the comeback against Alston, that I will long remember. 2011 NCAAs in the quarters, when he took down Kennedy with a second to go to advance to the infamous match against Russell in the semis. 2012 NCAAs in the semis, when he took down the higher-ranked Maple in overtime to set up a finals appearance against Russell. Big time wrestler. He was tremendous at the NCAAs three straight years. Came as close as anyone to getting a title.
Montell beat Mitchell Port and then Boris Novachkov in the 2012 quarters before he even got to Maple. He just about pulled off the impossible . . .
Funny story - Marion lost twice in the Iowa High school finals to mop-headed Derek Moyers. After one of these loses, Montell was busting Al Garrison's nephew Jeff for losing in his finals match to Kenyeta Carter from Waterloo. Jeff looked at Montell in disbelief and replied "at least I lost to a guy with muscles."
Hey, TNT! Great stories from your HS days. My dad always talks about wrestling Lenny too. I won't put my name on here, but I'm sure you can figure out who I am if I tell you that nearly every wrestling meet I went to was either one of your season tickets or sitting behind you when my dad finally got some season tix for a couple of years. Take care.
Great stuff here, guys. I have been lingering on this site for 10 or so years under various names but never felt all that compelled to post. Those guys from the early-mid 90s and early 2000s are some of my very favorites. I'd have to add Wes Hand to this list. He was one of Lesnar's 3 losses. I remember watching Lesnar and thinking he looked like Paul Bunyun and I didn't think anyone would beat him. And then Hand did it at Minnesota.
Also underrated- Joe Williams' contact lenses. Those things were responsible for more rest in a match than any ill fitting headgear in the world.
was thinking hand myself,the underappreciated part mostly. i would throw telford in there also, would have been 4 time aa if not for 1st round injury.
