A lot has taken place since the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute & Museum was flooded on June 10th. I want to thank the hundreds of supporters of our great sport for their monetary donations and to everyone who has helped in the clean up efforts and working with various organizations to move the process along to have the museum up and rolling again by next month.<\/p>\n
On October 6, Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin, along with Congressman Bruce Braley toured the museum (see photo) to lend their support to our cause. Fortunately, as a not-for-profit organization, we were able to secure a large grant from FEMA to help with the majority of the costs to rebuild the museum.<\/p>\n
Magee Construction Company, out of Waterloo, has been busy since early October rebuilding the museum, which has been a large task. As most of your aware, our basement (5,000 square feet) was completely full of water and three feet of water covered the main floor of the museum. New walls, flooring, carpeting, painting have been installed and Magee looks to be completed with the remaining tasks in the next two weeks.<\/p>\n
Executive Director, Mike Chapman, estimates we lost 20% of the memorabilia that was on the main floor of the museum. Our staff will be working diligently throughout December to get all the pictures back on the walls, display cases ready and everything else that needs to be accomplished to have the museum open to the public again by the first week of January.<\/p>\n
Our grand re-opening will take place on Friday, January 9, 2009, and the museum will be open from 9:00AM until 10:00PM that day. The NWCA National Duals are at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, IA, just a ten minute drive from the museum, on January 10 and 11 with over 80 college teams competing. We will have an autograph show at the museum from 3:00 – 5:00PM on the 9th. The current list of attendees includes: Olympic champions Dan Gable, Ed Banach, Ben Peterson, Bill Smith, Randy Lewis, Doug Blubaugh and two-time NCAA champions and Olympians Chuck Yagla and Ben Askren. University of Iowa All-American tight end and two-time NFL pro bowler Marv Cook will also be participating. The National Duals are a tremendous showcase for the sport of wrestling and if you are able to attend, hopefully you will be able to visit the wrestling museum that weekend as well.<\/p>\n
This fall we lost we lost two legends from the wrestling world, Gerry Leeman and Glen Brand. Leeman and Brand were both NCAA Champions and were teammates on the 1948 Olympic team where Brand won the gold and Leeman the silver. Both Gerry and Glen were generous and caring men in addition to their athletic accomplishments. Glen Brand was a substantial contributor to the museum and each April we induct six new members into the Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame of Iowa. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with both families.<\/p>\n
The 2009 Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame of Iowa inductions ceremony will take place on Saturday, April 18 at 1:00PM at the museum. This year’s class includes Vic Marcucci, NCAA Champion at Iowa State University and national freestyle champion; Jim Craig, NCAA Champion at Iowa and successful coach, Mike Chapman, wrestling’s leading historian, promoter and founder of the museum and author of 21 books; Eric Voelker, two-time NCAA Champion at Iowa State; Champ Martin, legendary coach at Algona (IA) High School and NCAA runner-up at Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI); and Franc Freeman, NCAA runner-up at Iowa State Teachers College and coached Bettendorf (IA) High School to two state titles.<\/p>\n