[NU Sports] one of the best nights as a fan ...

[Brad Wilson]

I have ever had was in McGaw Saturday when our
marvelous wrestling team beat Iowa for the first time
since 1968. 

I was in Chicago for a winter music weekend and noted
Iowa was in to meet the 'Cats, and, as a huge
wrestling fan, couldn't pass that one up. I figured
we'd win two matches (Lang and Herbert) and, well, I'd
take that. It was IOWA after all. 

(I also thought about going to the basketball game Sat
AM but turned out my time was much better spent seeing
the last set at a Chicago blues bar and sleeping late
that watching bouncy-ball turn into the McGaw
Bricklaying Co. again.)

And, wow. First, an electric atmosphere, helped hugely
by a loud student section -- some of whom actually
wore singlets, something in 20 years of watching
wrestling I have never seen before. It got louder and
louder as it became more and more clear the 'Cats
could win. It was a huge lift for the 'Cats to have
this kind of crowd.

Second, I cannot say enough about the clutch
performances delivered by our guys. There was no
margin for error and they delivered every time they
had to beat the nation's most high-profile wrestling
team, Dan Gable's school, a team we hadn't beaten in
37 years! 

Clutch doesn't describe John Velez, wrestling with a
bum shoulder in the final bout to win the match (he
was so injured the coaches had weighed in an
alternative wrestler); Herbert and Lang with the big
wins; Matt Delguyd pounding out a major decision;
freshman Dustin Fox's escape with 15 seconds to go
beat the No. 10 heavyweight in the country and, most
of all, true frosh Mike Tamillow -- from Fenwick, from
where a lot of fans showed up to watch him -- rallying
from behind with a last-second takedown to beat the
No. 5-ranked 184-pounder, a Midlands champion!.

We've talked about the lack of clutch performances
from football and hoops at times. Perhaps they could
learn from what these kids did Saturday night because
the wrestlers redefined clutch. 

The celebration was wild, with stunned bumblebees
staggering away in horror (ohhh, TOO BAD!!!) as it
was, truly, a Purple Haze in McGaw! Just a week
earlier the Cats had broken a five-year Big Ten losing
streak on the mats and now they'd beaten Iowa!

I know this isn't a huge wrestling list but this is,
for wrestling, equal to, perhaps even better, than
beating Ohio State was for football. I know you're all
NU fans, and, believe me, had you been at Welsh-Ryan
Saturday you would never, ever be prouder of a bunch
of 'Cats than of our glorious wrestlers.

I'll never forget it; it was one of the greatest
nights as a sports fan I have ever, and will ever,
have. And it's hard for me to say just how pleased and
proud and happy for our wrestlers I am. Go 'Cats!

Brad Wilson






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"Life is more delectable/When it's disrespectable." -- Lorenz Hart 

"Quis ipsos custodes custodiet?" -- Juvenal


	
		
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