Editor’s Note: In a series of articles, Kyle Klingman, the Associate Director of the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum in Waterloo, Iowa, looks back at the sport’s most significant college dual meets. In the next issue, Klingman will feature the 1983 Oregon State-Southern Oregon dual.

By Kyle Klingman, W.I.N. Writer

In hindsight, it was a dual meet that featured eight NCAA champions, five finalists, and five Olympians, but the Iowa vs. Iowa State dual meet that took place in Ames on January 19, 1981, is best remembered for two matches. The first occurred at 134 pounds and it pitted junior Jim Gibbons of Iowa State against senior Randy Lewis of Iowa.

Although he had lost to Lewis by scores of 18-12 and 20-7 the year before, Gibbons entered his match against Lewis even. Several days before the dual meet Gibbons was on the verge of defeating Lewis — a two-time NCAA champion who made an Olympic team earlier that year — at the Midlands tournament but fell short in the closing seconds. Gibbons lost a point for stalling when he began celebrating the victory before the match was over.

In the rematch, Gibbons took Lewis down with a fireman’s carry in the opening seconds and held a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period. At the start of the second period Lewis escaped immediately and tied the score 2-2.

Lewis held a 4-3 lead late in the period, but with less than 30 seconds remaining Gibbons was in deep on a high crotch and was in the process of bringing Lewis to the mat for a takedown. When Lewis posted his left arm to counter the shot, his elbow completely snapped. It remains one of the most gruesome injuries ever witnessed in a wrestling match.

“Gibbons would sky me a lot and I had two different ways to counter it,” said Lewis. “I slipped up the side, trapped their arm and rolled them through or I hit a switch. Generally they both worked pretty good. He skied me a few times before and the switch would work.

“I remember being in the air and changing my mind, starting to slide off, and then deciding to go with the switch instead of the slide. I remember going for the switch and thinking ‘why aren’t I on top, why didn’t I get the takedown’ and all of a sudden I felt tremendous pain and I looked over and I thought my arm was completely broke off.”

“I remember asking them to give me some drugs to knock me out. A few swear words might have leaked out. I joke with Jim Gibbons that you can clearly hear me saying ‘Hey, just pop that back into place and let me kick his butt,’ but on television it may appear that I said ‘give me some drugs, knock me out.’”

Gibbons won by injury default after leading the match 5-4. Iowa State received six team points for the victory.

Lennie Zalesky, who wrestled immediately after Lewis, looked hesitant in his 10-4 loss to Dave Brown. He said recently that he never wanted to post his arm after what he saw happen to Lewis.

The matches following the Gibbons-Lewis match were good, but this night belonged to one wrestler: Iowa State’s Dave Osenbaugh.

Osenbaugh (290 pounds) entered his match against Iowa’s Lou Banach (220 pounds) as the wrestler least likely to win. The Cyclones held a five-point lead so Banach needed a superior decision (a win by 12 points or more) to tie or a pin to win.

Banach went for the win … and the fall.

Banach tried everything to put Osenbaugh to his back. Midway through the third period, the Hawkeyes’ heavyweight built a commanding 9-0 lead and had over four minutes of riding time accumulated. A Banach victory appeared inevitable, but could he get the pin?

“I can just remember Lou locked up a leg and a head on a cradle. He tried to roll across the way you don’t roll on a cradle because all the guy has to do is post a hand,” said then Iowa coach Dan Gable. “He obviously got caught there being the undersized guy. He basically did a hold that you just don’t do. You don’t roll with a post arm.”

The result of Banach’s mistake became one of the most talked about upsets in college wrestling history. Osenbaugh broke Banach’s grip and caught him on his back. An exhausted Lou Banach and a 70-pound weight advantage for Osenbaugh proved to be a winning combination for the Cyclones.

After the pin was finally called, Osenbaugh came to his knees for a brief moment until he was bull rushed by the Iowa State bench. Nate Carr — Iowa State’s 150-pound wrestler — reached Osenbaugh first and speared him to the ground. Other wrestlers and fans to followed, forming a massive pig pile on top of Osenbaugh.

“Nate Carr and I were the first ones to get on top of him and I looked at him down there and he was darn near blue,” said Jim Gibbons, who won the NCAA championship at 134 pounds later that year. “We had our robes on so it was like throwing several blankets over his mouth. We had him down there and it was like we were suffocating him.

“That was just an unreal sequence of events. Lou was working so hard that match. Lou was working for the team and he looked pretty tough. Osenbaugh, when he put his mind to it, was a pretty difficult guy to pin. He was really limber and he was a big guy and he held in there long enough. He rolled him over and Lou had a tough time getting him off his back at that point.

“Dave Osenbaugh never had to do another thing for Iowa State wrestling and he’ll be remembered for that moment.”
Many people in attendance, including former Iowa State basketball coach Johnny Orr, point to this dual meet as the loudest moment in Hilton Coliseum history.

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