Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On January 9, 1981, Iowa State Heavyweight Dave Osenbaugh shocked the wrestling world when he pinned Iowa’s Lou Banach in front of a frenzied Hilton Coliseum crowd. The pin helped Iowa State stun the top-ranked Hawkeyes.
Harold Nichols and his Iowa State grabblers entered the meet ranked third in the country and rode a five-dual meet win streak. Dan Gable’s Hawkeyes headed to Ames with a 23 dual meet win-streak dating back to the previous season. The meet opened with the teams trading wins: first, Cyclone Mike Picozzi beat Barry Davis 13-5 before Hawkeye Tim Riley beat Adley Parker 15-6. Dave Brown and Nate Carr took the next two match-ups for the Cyclones before Jim Zalesky, Mike DeAnna, and Ed Banach took decisions for the Hawkeyes. John Forshee beat Pete Bush 5-2 to set up a showdown of heavyweights. Banach needed to capture 12 points to secure a come-from-behind tie in the meet.
With 13,192 looking on, the two heavyweights took the mat with the CyHawk rivalry wrestling title on the line for 1980-1981. Banach systematically took a dominating lead over the first two periods of the match and led 9-0 going into the third. As Banach fought for a pin, Osenbaugh shocked the rowdy crowd by tossing the Hawkeye heavyweight on his back. Referee John Raber slapped the mat with about a minute to go in the match, and the Cyclone faithful exploded as Iowa State captured the victory 25-14.
“This is probably the most satisfying meet of my career,” remarked Nichols. “Deep down, I thought we’d be able to hang on and come out on top - but not necessarily that way.” #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
