By Kyle Klingman

On Dec. 6, 2008, the University of Iowa defeated Iowa State, 20-15, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in front of 15,955 people. That attendance figure broke the national collegiate dual meet attendance record of 15,646 set by the University of Minnesota on Feb. 1, 2002.

            The classic intrastate showdown pitted the top two teams in the nation. Top-ranked Iowa had won the previous three meetings against second-ranked Iowa State and held a commanding 55-16-2 edge in the all-time series.

            With the win, Iowa upped its record by one. But the meet itself, given the history between the two teams, was by no means a classic.

            There were no pins, no thrilling come-from-behind victories, no major upsets and, with the exception of the last several seconds of the 141-pound match, where Iowa’s Alex Tsirstis scored a reversal on Iowa State’s Nick Gallick for a 4-2 win, no memorable matches.

            By the time Iowa’s Phil Keddy defeated Iowa State’s Jerome Ward, 3-2, at 184 pounds, the meet was in hand for the Hawkeyes. The final two wins for the Cyclones at 197 and heavyweight were simply window dressing. The Hawkeyes had won again and most of the record crowd left happy.

            At the press conference, Iowa head coach Tom Brands stated that the attendance record was secondary. Getting his team ready to compete on the mat was more important; it was the media and the marketing department at Iowa that deserved the credit.

            Historically, though, anyone who follows wrestling has to be impressed with what the Hawkeyes have accomplished in the stands. Iowa has been involved in the nation’s 45 largest dual crowds, hosting 29.            

            And, even more impressive, Iowa has been involved in all but one of the 45 dual crowds over 10,000.

            Bottom line: If you want to set an attendance record, you need Iowa to do it.

            To fully understand the Iowa-attendance phenomenon one must go back to a time when the Hawkeyes did not draw big crowds. Ironically, Dave McCuskey — Iowa’s head coach from 1952 to 1972 — didn’t care if people showed up to dual meets. It was the competition that mattered.

            “I’ve heard McCuskey felt wrestling was ‘a pure sport,’” said Mike Chapman, sports editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette from 1978 to 1984. “It didn’t matter if you wrestled in front of two people or 100 people. Wrestlers were there to wrestle.”

            But all of that changed when Gary Kurdelmeier — an assistant coach to McCuskey and an NCAA champion for Iowa in 1958 — took over as Iowa’s head coach in 1972. In just four years as Iowa’s top man, Kurdelmeier changed college wrestling forever.

            “I can remember sitting in Gary’s office when he was an assistant coach his last year to Dave McCuskey,” said Chapman. “Iowa used to wrestle their meets in the North Gym, on Saturday afternoons. You’d go up the steps and go to your right and pay a dollar. You’d be there on a Saturday afternoon and you’d watch the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling in front of about 250 people.

            “Gary sat at his desk and said people would be fighting each other to get to a Saturday dual. I’ll tell you what a visionary I was. I told him he was out of his mind. It turns out he wasn’t out of his mind. He had a vision and a huge part of that vision was bringing Dan Gable to Iowa City.”

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