I was hoping they would podcast the interview. Gable had quite a few interesting things to say about ASU.
Dan Gable and the future of college wrestling
Thursday 05-15-2008 10:52am CT
Des Moines' Sports Station - 1460 KXNO
The college wrestling world took a hit with Tuesday's announcement that Arizona State's wrestling program was one of three programs being dropped by the school for financial reasons. This is especially sad news since the Sun Devils, under then-head coach Bobby Douglas, captured the NCAA Division one wrestling title in 1988.
This move reduces the number of Division 1 wrestling programs to 87 with just 15 of them west of the state of Iowa.
After hearing the news, Douglas, who left the Iowa State wrestling program two years ago, began to sound doom-and-gloom warnings regarding the future of collegiate wrestling. Douglas was quoted as saying that "wrestling's days were numbered a long time ago. Iowa will not be able to keep it alive, the Big Ten will not be able to keep it alive. This snake will swallow its tail".
While not at all pleased by Arizona State's decision, wrestling legend
Dan Gable doesn't paint as bloomy a picture. On this morning's "Cotlar and Company", Gable said that wrestling is still strong nationwide except in Division 1 and that makes it imperative for those programs to band together to keep other Arizona State incidents from occurring. He lauded Stanford's Bob Bowlsby, formerly at Iowa, for his insistence that wrestling will remain a constant at Stanford.
Arizona State athletic director Lisa Long has said that the ASU wrestling program could be reinstated if it can raise enough money to make the program self-sufficient. Gable says it's up to the entire wrestling community to do what it can to help ASU in those fundraising efforts.
As far as wrestling programs here in Iowa, Gable lamented about the lack of a wrestling program at Drake and said that there has been talk of the elimination of some athletic programs at Northern Iowa, including wrestling, for budgetary reasons. He said he was surprised when someone at Iowa State even brought up the notion of financial hardships maybe someday doing away with the program at Gable's alma mater.
Gable said for college wrestling to continue to be a viable entity, it needs the support of administrators nationwide. Between that and with the wrestling community working together, he believes Division 1 might even be able to increase its numbers down the road.
That's DFan Gable, always outspoken but ever optimistic.
'til next time, "cotman"
dan gable and the future of college wrestling 
Linear Mode
