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If the person who picked me up hitching said, "You are going to be part of four national
championships." (Announcer) Davis wins it at 118 pounds and The University of Iowa has
clinched a national championship. (Kelly) You are going to wrestle in the Iowa-Iowa
State meet. (Announcer) Well, here we go. 142 pounds. (Kelly) You are going to get three
degrees. You are going to be professor of the year at Iowa.' I would have thought they
were insane. I've got nothing but him to thank for it. When I look at the big picture of
all of this, you know, I grew up in a house of seven people, eight counting my mom and
there were times when our toilet didn't work. My mom was a bartender so we had this much
money, so you either get food or you hire a plumber, so you get food. You go from that
part of the world to hitchhiking to college with a dream like hey I want to wrestle for
Dan Gable. And I talked to Coach Gable, we were in a middle of a workout, which at the
time I didn't know I should talk to him then, but I talked to him anyway. (Gable) I usually
make them sit in the stands for awhile so they can see what takes place and really whether
or not they want to be a part of it. Once I get the feel for them, I pretty much tell
them they can't quit. That doesn't mean they won't, but I don't like it when they do, but
this guy didn't. (Kelly) I'm kind of a late bloomer I think in wrestling and academics,
and that has a lot to do with my childhood I think, but I pretty much stepped up to whatever
was in front of me and liked the challenge. (Gable) I've always like gravitated towards
a certain person. He was tough in practice, people liked to work out with or didn't like
to work out with him depending on just how tough they wanted to go. He was one of these
guys that was motivating in the room to everybody else and helped out even though he wasn't
the starter, but he got his chance and he capitalized on that chance. (Announcer) It's
Mitch Kelly for Iowa down at 142 again while Greg Randle takes care of that bad hamstring
and Michael Carr for Iowa State. This should be a real run and gun. They both know how
to throw. (Gable) Well he surprised me, I mean he really stepped up. (Announcer) Here
again is a throw! (Gable) He was strong, he was throwing people around and doing some
great things. (Announcer) He says two now. (Kelly) I held on and got a 15-11 win and
we ended up winning 18-15 and if I had lost we would have lost 18-15. If you are going
out any other way, that's a hell of a way to go out as a walk-on. (Gable) He probably
didn't surprise himself as much as he surprised a lot of people. People didn't really know,
I didn't really know. I learned lessons from certain things, you don't know what you have
until you put them out in front of the lights. (Kelly) I actually probably would not have
got my advance degrees without this guy here, because he hired me as a grad assistant and
I was able to do that and teach at at the College of Ed and earn my advance degrees
that way. So, I really didn't go into any debt which would have been hard to do where
I started, so it is a really great thing. I didn't even think of him as a mentor really
when I was working for him, he was a coach for me and then as I started coaching with
him I started to see him more that way. As the years have progressed it's like we are
just kind of like friends, but also no matter what he's always a teacher and always a coach.
I just think it is all about relationship building and I think I learned a lot from
Dan Gable and I think maybe from my mom and I you know anything she needs I want to help
her. The reason is because she taught me to be that way and she did that for years and
years and years. Then I meet him and he is the same way where he took care of me way
more about my social needs or getting beat up in here so much that I'm crying in the
corner. He'd wait until he thought moment was right and come over and talk to me and
build me up for the next day or whatever. When someone does that for you I just feel
that you almost owe it to them to perform well, or to try hard, or to work hard and
not give up. I think the same way with my teaching it's like I want my students to feel
like I care enough about them that they don't want to let me down. (Gable) You don't just
focus on your ten kids that make your starting lineup, if you've got 40 kids like he said
in the room, you've got to focus on all 40 of them. I think good coaches, good teachers,
they get everybody to understand what is going on. The ones that have a lot of problems are
usually the ones that don't really establish those relationships and build that communication
to make sure everybody knows just how important everything is.(Kelly) It's like you learn
things from your mentors and you kind of see what works and what doesn't and what you like
and what you don't like. I consider anytime I win any award or I get good feedback from
a student that I had an impact on their lives, I think about him pretty much right away.