As so many of our discussions often center around our four time champions, Pat Smith, Sanderson, Logan Stieber & Kyle Dake it makes me wonder how many wrestlers came within a nosehair's length of achieving that ultimate pinnacle?
First off I realize this is going to be an extremely subjective subject. A potentially sensitive one & I have no doubt a controversial one. I swear to you that I'm going to be as objective about this as I can be.
Matter of fact I'm swallowing my pride on a few wrestlers. I love Johnny Thompson of Oklahoma State. He's my all time favorite. I'll argue till the cows come home that he could have been a three time NCAA champion. However, I cannot in honest conscience believe that his freshman year that he was going to beat Eric Jeurgens of Iowa.
As to Greg Jones of West Virginia, who I list as one of the most disrespected three time champs of all time, it's hard to put him on the list with the hiccup of a tournament he had in 2003. Throughout all but two days of an entire collegiate career, he was a God on the mat. I still want to list him as one that could have easily won four titles but I have to respect why others may not. Getting eliminated from the 2003 tournament by two guys, neither of which were ever Division I All Americans is a fairly big strike.
Then there is Mark Schultz who pretty much had his way with everyone he stepped on the mat with between 1981 & 1983 wrestling for Oklahoma...BUT who as a true freshman went 0-1 competing for UCLA. Trust me I so badly want to put Dave Schultz on the list as well. 15 medals between the Olympics, World Championships, Pan-American championships & World Cup speaks for itself. Yet he's missing a year & could he have beaten Mark Churella in 1978? That's the real question. It's already a fact that he could have beaten Ricky Stewart who pinned him for the title in 1981. He beat him weeks earlier in the finals of the BIG XII. Yet with that in mind, he also lost to Mike Sheets in the finals of the BIG XII before upending him for the NCAA title in 1982. This stuff can really mess with your head if you think about it.
With that said the greatest opponent against wrestlers not winning four titles??
Would've Been Four Had it Not Been For.....Eligibility
There are a lot of guys that I believe could have been four time NCAA Division I champions but weren't for the simple fact that they weren't allowed to compete as freshmen.
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| Yojiro Uetake Oklahoma State |
No one was beating Uetake, that's just all there was to it. He wasn't a technician on the mat, he was THE technician. For crying out loud the man won an Olympic Gold medal shortly after winning his first NCAA crown in 1964. He went unchallenged the next two seasons in NCAA competition, picking up a second Olympic gold in 1968. Had he wrestled collegiality in 1963, he'd have been an NCAA champion.
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| The Peery Family Hugh - Pittsburgh Rex - Oklahoma State Ed - Pittsburgh |
The Peery family. Yes, all of them. Father Rex never knew defeat during his three title reign at Oklahoma State. Strong belief he would have won an NCAA title as a freshman. Hugh was 56-1 during his career & Ed was 51-1 during his. Both having three NCAA titles, I feel safe thinking they both could've won four.
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| Dave "Buddy" Arndt Oklahoma State |
To the testimony of just how tough Buddy Arndt was, the guy won NCAA titles in 1941 & 1942 before going off to serve our country in World War II. He came back in 1946 to claim a third title. Do I think he could have won one in 1940? Yes, I do.
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| Bill Koll Northern Iowa |
As down right mean as Bill Koll was on the mat, it's hard to imagine him not winning an NCAA title as a freshman had he been given the opportunity.
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| Danny Hodge Oklahoma |
The guy was 46-0 during his collegiate career at Oklahoma. 36 of those victories came via fall. There's no argument here. Had Hodge been allowed to compete at the NCAA's as a freshman in 1954, he'd have won a national title.
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| Stan Henson Oklahoma State |
He lost once during his collegiate career to Bill Keas of Oklahoma whom he later beat. That one loss does make me question whether or not Henson could have won an NCAA title in 1936. I think he could have, but respect arguments to my stance.
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There are other names I thought of listing here as well. Oklahoma State's Ross Flood, Oklahoma State's Conrad Caldwell & Iowa State's Larry Hayes among others. There were a lot of legends during the time of non-eligible freshmen.
Would've Been Four Had it Not Been For....Injury
This is one that I really, really hate with deep passion. To know that someone could've won four NCAA titles had it not been for an injury. In 25 years of following the sport I've come to know that there is a ton of heartbreak. Nothing is worse than an injury keeping someone from the greatness they otherwise would have had.
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| Bill Nelson Northern Iowa |
Nelson won an NCAA title as a freshman in 1947 & was destined to become our first four time NCAA champion. Many, including your's truly believe that had it not been for getting injured as a sophomore in 1948, he would have been. Nevertheless he came back strong to win two more titles in 1949 & 1950.
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| Randy Lewis Iowa |
Okay...okay...okay...truth is Randy Lewis didn't win four titles because of a dislocated elbow & because of Iowa State's Mike Land. Land beat Lewis 13-5 in the 1978 NCAA finals. So a title as a freshman may not have been feasible. However I'm 115% positive that had it not been for that dislocated elbow, Lewis would've won a fourth BIG 10 title & a third NCAA title. The guy still achieved All American status despite only wrestling with one arm. Had he had two, he'd have won it.
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Here's where it gets interesting. Now we're looking at wrestlers who were kept from NCAA titles due to that one wrestler (or wrestlers) that gave them fits. This is where I think I'll get the most rebuttal. Either for leaving off those that fans believe belong on a list like this or for having someone on the list that they don't feel belongs. All I can do is my best.
Would've Been Four Had it Not Been For....Vincenzo Joseph of Penn State
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| Isaiah Martinez Illinois |
Isaiah Martinez was 116-3 during his illustrious career for the Fighting Illini. All three of those losses came at the hands of Penn State. Two of them to Vincenzo Joseph. (The third to Jason Nolf). Here's the thing, Martinez defeated Joseph. In fact in route to winning four BIG 10 titles, Martinez had to go through Joseph twice. Yet when the two met in both the 2017 & 2018 NCAA finals, it was Joseph who stood on the mat with his arm raised in victory. At 1-1-2-2, Martinez gets my vote as one of the best to not win four titles.
Would've Been Four Had it Not Been For.....Mark Schultz of Oklahoma
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| Ed Banach Iowa |
I once had a life long Iowa Hawkeye fan say to me on a bus ride from Des Moines, Iowa to St. Louis, Missouri that he honestly thought that it would take another school putting a Grizzly bear in a singlet in order for Ed Banach to ever get beat. Oklahoma didn't have a Grizzly bear but they had the next closest thing, Mark Schultz.
After winning titles as a freshman & sophomore in 1980 & 1981, the black & gold faithful had every right to believe that Banach would become the first four time NCAA champion. Had it not been for Schultz, that was likely to have happened. Banach despite having fits with Mike Mann of Iowa State all season, did edge the Cyclone for a third title in 1983.
Would've Been Four Had it Not Been For.....Steve Marianetti of Illinois
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| Lincoln McIlravy Iowa |
With Ed Banach, the Hawkeyes barely missed out on having the first & with McIllravy they barely missed out on having the second. His loss to Marianetti was a case of being scouted combined with phenomenal strategy/game plan of the Illinois coaching staff. I think it's a match that if wrestled 100 times, McIllravy would have won 99 of them. That's how close the business in the front, party in the back native of South Dakota came to winning four titles.
Would've Been Four Had it Not Been For.....Two Guys with similar sounding names
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| Pat Milkovich Michigan State |
Milkovich most certainly deserves to be on a list like this. After winning an NCAA title as a true freshman in 1972 he won another title as a redshirt sophomore in 1974. In a wild tiebreaker of a match he was stopped short of a third title in 1975 by Penn State's John Fritz who in his own right finished third twice before capturing that title. As a senior in 1976, Milkovich would once again have to settle for runner-up honors witha 7-4 loss to two time NCAA champ Mike Frick of Lehigh. What's even more fun is that within each other's small amount of losses, Frick & Fritz wrestled one another on more than one occasion.
Would've been Four Had it Not Been For....Oklahoma State's Chris Pendleton
| Ben Askren Missouri |
He did lose in the finals of Vegas to Purdue's Ryan Lange so to say that he'd have gone undefeated is a lie. However to think that he could have gone through his entire career with only one loss had it not been for Pendleton is quite logical. Iowa's Tyler Nixt & Lehigh's Brad Dillon both seemed to give Askren a smidgen of trouble, but nothing to where he was ever in danger of losing either match. Pendleton was like the pesky math teacher who gives what would have otherwise been a 4.0 student that little minus next to the A so that he'll graduate humble with a 3.9 GPA. Had it not been for the Cowboy, this Tiger would've won four titles.
Would've Won Four Had it Not Been For.....Ben Heizer of Northern Illinois
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| Jake Rosholt Oklahoma State |
I see myself getting some crap for this one. Rosholt always had losses during the season & albeit some really strange ones. Casey Kaputska & Greg Gifford come to mind. He also only won one BIG XII title. So I get the criticism, but let's face the music. When it came to the NCAA tournament Rosholt showed up to wrestle. He won titles as a freshman in 2003, junior in 2005 & senior in 2006. In 2004 he finished in third place. His only loss was a two point loss to Northern Illinois's Ben Heizer. Which some may point out as an ugly loss considering Heizer's best finish up to that point was sixth. With that said, keep in mind that during Greg Jones' unreal two year undefeated run in 2004 & 2005, Heizer was the closest to beating him. He took Jones into the tiebreakers & narrowly missed riding him out for the victory as Jones escaped with about 15 seconds left on the clock.
Would've Been Four Had It Not Been For.....Iowa
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| Nathan Tomasello Ohio State |
After winning an NCAA title as a freshman in 2015, Ohio State's Nathan Tomasello finished in third place three years straight. Each of his losses came at the hands of an Iowa Hawkeye. Here's the thing, he had victories over all of them. A four time BIG 10 champion, he defeated two of them in finals matches. While he did not meet Thomas Gilman at the 2016 BIG 10 tournament he defeated Cory Clark 5-4 in 2017 & Spencer Lee 3-2 in 2018. Yet at the NCAA tournament, it would be them getting the W. Somehow or another the black & gold figured out a way to defeat the Scarlet & gray when it mattered most. With that said Tomasello still ranks high on the list. Those three bronzes could have easily have been golds.
Would've Been Four Had It Not Been For...Kyven Gadson of Iowa State
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| Kyle Snyder Ohio State |
Being a tad bit younger would've favored Snyder during his career at tOSU. Gadson was on a mission that season (ironically enough his solo loss on the season was to Nebraska's backup) & he wasn't going to be denied the national title. I do believe that had Snyder been a year younger & Gadson had already graduated, he would have won four NCAA titles.
Would've Been Four Had It Not Been For.....Vern Gagne of Minnesota
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| Dick Hutton Oklahoma State |
Had it not been for moving from Amarillo, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the world of amateur wrestling may never have known one of its greatest HWT's of all time. Dick Hutton of Oklahoma State won three NCAA titles during his career & finished as the runner-up once. In 1948 as a sophomore he defeated Minnesota's Vern Gagne 2-1 but then lost to the Golden Gopher 2-2 tiebreaker in 1949. He came back to win a third title in 1950. No doubt that his second match with Gagne could have gone the other way & had it, Hutton would have been our first four timer.
Would've Been Four Had it Not Been For.....Derek St. John of Iowa
| Alex Dieringer Oklahoma State |
Dieringer went 133-4 during his phenomenal career at Oklahoma State & three of those four losses were to Iowa's Derek St. John. The other in case you are wondering was a 2-1 tiebreaker loss to Penn State's Jimmy Vollrath at the Southern Scuffle. To be perfectly honest I never understood the trouble Dieringer had with St. John. Yet, in three meetings he could never figure him out. A 8-4 loss & a 3-2 tiebreaker loss as a freshman, a 2-1 loss to St. John as a sophomore would be the last one he ever faced. Had there been no Derek St. John, Oklahoma State would be the only school to have two four time champions.
Would've Been Four Had It Not Been For.....Chuck Yagla of Iowa
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| Lee Kemp Wisconsin |
Yes Iowa's Chuck Yagla shows up on this list once again. In Lee Kemp's standout career he went 143-6 & I know that two of his losses (BIG 10 & NCAA finals) were to Yagla. I believe he also lost to Yagla in a dual as well. With that said do I believe that Kemp could've won four NCAA titles? Yes without a doubt.
Would've Been Four Had It Not Been For.....Isaiah Martinez of Illinois
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| Jason Nolf Penn State |
What goes around comes around I suppose. As a Penn State wrestler is the reason as to why Isaiah Martinez is not a four time NCAA champion, Isaiah Martinez is the reason why this Penn State wrestler isn't a four time NCAA champion. In my opinion of course. Yet based on stats & results, I feel safe believing that had Martinez not been around, Nolf would've won four titles.
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I know there are other names that I'll see pop up that I didn't include. I have my reasons why I left them off. As I justified as to why some made the list, I can justify as to why others did not.
Duane Goldman of Iowa
Tom Brands of Iowa
Eric Jeurgens of Iowa
Joe Heskett of Iowa State
Jake Varner of Iowa State
Daryl Burley of Lehigh
Mark Churella of Michigan
J'Den Cox of Missouri
Mark Branch of Oklahoma State
David Taylor of Penn State
Bo Nickal of Penn State
Cary Kolat of Penn State/Lock Haven
Carleton Haselrig of Pittsburgh-Johnstown (We're talking specifically DI titles here people)
Depending on the criteria used & the standards and benchmarks used to evaluate decisions, all of these names might qualify as easily as the names I did list.
It's also important to note in the section of "Not eligible" that perhaps sometimes we're a little too Utopian in our belief that wrestlers who won NCAA titles as sophomores, juniors & seniors would have all won their freshman year. While I do hold my ground on guys like Danny Hodge, I'm not 100% sold on everyone else. Too much evidence to suggest otherwise.
Ricky Bonomo of Bloomsburg a three time champ, did not place as a freshman.
Nate Carr of Iowa State another three time champ. Was one match shy of placing as a freshman.
Jimmy Jackson of Oklahoma State? Three time champ that went 0-1 as a freshman.
So you have that too.
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The point of this post was to illustrate a couple of different things. First & foremost how difficult it is to win four NCAA titles. Secondly as we worship the likes of Pat Smith, Cael Sanderson, Kyle Dake & Logan Stieber to keep in mind how incredibly close some of the other legends in our sport got.
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