Iowa Hawkeyes Wrestling at Carver-Hawkeye Arena
One of the most legendary programs in all of college wrestling continues to set the pace in the Big Ten Conference and in the nation. The Iowa Hawkeyes play out of Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which opened in 1983 and has a capacity of 15,056. They are coached by Tom Brands, who went 45-0 at Iowa in 1991 before winning gold as a freestyle featherweight at the 1993 World Championships, the 1995 Pan-American Games and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The Hawkeyes have won 23 team national championships, second only to Oklahoma State's 34, in addition to countless individual national championships and an outstanding 35 Big Ten championships. Iowa maintains rivalries against local foe Iowa State, and Big Ten opponents such as Penn State, Minnesota and Ohio State, as well as national rivalries such as Oklahoma State.
Iowa Hawkeyes Wrestling History
The University of Iowa wrestling program first took to the mat in 1911, and was part of the Big Ten Conference's initial wrestling tournament in 1926. The first individual national title for Iowa came in 1928, when Leslie Beers won the 158-pound class in the first NCAA championships. In 1957, Simon Roberts won the 147-pound national championship for the Hawkeyes, becoming the first African-American to win an NCAA wrestling title. Hawkeyes alum Gary Kurdelmeier became head coach in 1972, leading Iowa to their first team wrestling championship in 1975, and their first of an astonishing 25 consecutive Big Ten team titles in 1974.
In 1976, the Hawkeyes promoted assistant Dan Gable, who achieved glory at Iowa State, the 1971 World Championships and the 1972 Summer Olympics. Under Gable, Iowa won 16 national championships from 1976 to 1997, including nine straight from 1978 to 1986. Iowa continued to dominate under Jim Zalesky, who led the Hawkeyes to national titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and Tom Brands, who did so in 2008, 2009 and 2010. On November 14, 2015, Iowa City's Kinnick Stadium hosted the "Grapple on the Gridiron," where 42,287 saw the hometown Hawkeyes defeat the Oklahoma State Cowboys 18-16 in a record-smashing duel.
