Dan Gable (Photo/Iowa Athletics)As the college wrestling season gets underway, the Takedown Report has been providing an analysis of the top college wrestling coaches across all divisions -- NCAA Division I, II and III, along with NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) and NJCAA (National Junior College Athletics Association).
Now TDR editor Martin Fleming has analyzed his own analyses of champion collegiate coaches from all these divisions ... and presented it at his Takedown Report blog. Now InterMat is sharing the link to Fleming's cross-divisional analysis released this week of the all-time top college mat coaches, no matter the era or competitive division.
"In previous articles we have looked at a listing of the coaches who have led their college teams to national championships," Fleming wrote in his latest all-encompassing analysis for TDR. "They were ranked by most championships within a division. This list looks at the coaches ranked with all of their championships combined. With teams tying for championships and those with two coaches as co-head coaches the total number of championships tops 320 titles."
Five wrestling coaches across all college divisions going back more 90 years can claim at least ten national team titles.
At the top of the list is Dan Gable, who coached his University of Iowa wrestlers to 15 NCAA Division I team championships between 1978 and 1997. In second place is Central Oklahoma's David James, with a dozen Division II team titles garnered in the span from 1984 to 2007.
Going back to a much earlier time in college wrestling history ... Ed Gallagher, the coach who put Oklahoma State wrestling on the map as one of the all-time great mat programs, guided his Cowboys to eleven national team titles, starting with the very first NCAA wrestling championships in 1928, and concluding with the 1940 NCAAs a few months before his death at age 53.
Two college coaches can each claim ten team titles at two rival powerhouse programs in NCAA Division III: Jeff Swenson at Augsburg University in Minnesota, claiming championships between 1991 and 2007 ... and Jim Miller at Iowa's Wartburg College, who led his Knights to ten team titles from 1996-2009.
That's just the beginning. Takedown Report goes on to list all the other coaches and programs that have claimed at least one national team crown in any one of the college divisions.
Anyone involved in college wrestling -- as a fan, an athlete, or a coach -- will find the results of Martin Fleming's research to be fascinating and informative. To see ALL the coaches who can claim at least one national team title in at least one of today's collegiate divisions, take a look at Fleming's multi-divisional analysis at his Takedown Report blog.
Questions? Comments? Contact TDR editor Martin Fleming directly at martinkfleming@gmail.com.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now