WATERLOO — The first step toward bringing Dan Gable back home was taken Wednesday night at the Five Sullivan Brothers Center.
Now, it is up to the community to make the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum a reality.
“We need to come up with about three-quarters of a million dollars,” Mayor Tim Hurley told a gathering of about 150.
“That’s a huge figure, but not in terms of all the other things we have shown we can do.”
Waterloo native Mike Chapman is proposing to bring the International Wrestling Institute and Museum here from its home in Newton and adding Gable’s name to it.
Hurley, Gable and Chapman all spoke to the gathering about what the project is, what it offers the community and what it will take to get it here.
“I think it was a terrific event, and the right people were here,” said Hurley. “I think the event was successful in getting people thinking as one group in the right direction.
“I am very optimistic, more than I was in the first place. The seed was planted tonight.”
Chapman, who started the museum in Newton nine years ago, was thrilled at what happened Wednesday.
“It was wonderful,” the former newspaper editor and publisher said. “I was delighted with the turnout.
“It exceeded my expectations. I thought if we got 100 people on this short notice, we would do very well, and I think we have about 150 or 160.”
Wednesday was just the next step in a process that needs to move rather quickly.
Since Chapman expressed interest in bringing the museum and Gable back to Waterloo, other Iowa cities have expressed an interest in presenting packages to Chapman and his board.
“I have always been optimistic Waterloo is the perfect match, and I hope tonight will reinforce that,” said Chapman.
“I was about 65 percent sure before, and I am about 80 percent now. I am a realist. I know money is tight, but I don’t feel we’re asking for a lot to bring this quality project to Waterloo.
“We hope the community embraces this and says it is important to our youth, our educational system, and that is important for tourism. We think we are multifaceted.”
Gable told the group how important having athletes as role models had been to him while he was growing up here. He thought the museum would be one more example of excellence the youth could see.
He thinks it could be a catalyst to help inspire the youth in the area to sets their sights higher.
“I don’t think Waterloo has to be the wrestling capital of the world,” Gable said. “Maybe it used to be.”
Chapman said if the museum does move here, it will be 2 1/2 times bigger than the one in Newton. Because of that, and the local interest he senses, he would dedicate space to honoring former great Waterloo athletes in all sports.
“I will make that commitment, if Waterloo steps up and helps us,” Chapman said. “We will have at least a couple of walls, maybe a room, where we honor Waterloo’s top athletes.
“This is new. We will have some kind of special honor for Waterloo greats like Reggie Roby, Don Perkins and Fred Becker.”
Fred Becker is an East graduate who was Iowa’s first all-American football player. After playing for the Hawkeyes, he fought and died in World War I and is buried in Europe.
Hurley said he’d like to see things move rapidly.
“I think we need to jump while the idea is hot,” he said. “There are two or three other cities that want to present attractive packages to the museum. We have a short window to jump on our enthusiasm, and we need to do it now.”
Chapman wants to get things settled, too.
“We’d love to have it up and running so we can hold the Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame of Iowa inductions here April 9,” he said.
“I would like to know a decision by Nov. 15. That is only six weeks, but I think we can do it if the community steps up. The city has already stepped up.”
The city has said it will work out a favorable lease for a building on Jefferson Street that the city already owns, which is in the middle of the sports and entertainment district in the downtown redevelopment plan.
Waterloo’s Curly Hultman is the chairman of the fund-raising campaign.
Contact Kevin Evans at (319) 291-1468 or [email protected]
Wrestling Gear
