07/09/2026
Nobody beat Dan Gable more times than Bobby Douglas.
9 times in his career and 5 times in one day was Douglas victorious over the mighty Gable.
Bobby was a two-time state champion for Bridgeport High School in Ohio.
After high school, he attended West Liberty College, where he won an NAIA title as a freshman and finished as runner-up at the NCAA Division 1 tournament.
He then transferred to Oklahoma State University and won a Big Eight Conference title, helped the Cowboys capture two conference championships, and the 1964 NCAA team championship.
Bobby then went on to have an outstanding senior-level freestyle career.
He competed in his first Olympic Games in Tokyo 1964 and finished in fourth place in the featherweight division.
At the 1968 Olympic Team trials, Douglas defeated the up-and-coming Dan Gable 11-1 and claimed the spot for Team USA to compete in Mexico City.
Two years later, he again faced Gable at the US World Team Trials.
Bobby won the first two matches in a best-of-three series.
However, the coaches were not satisfied and had them wrestle again.
Douglas won the third match. Still not satisfied, the coaches had them wrestle a fourth time.
Again, Bobby won.
In fact, he defeated Dan Gable five times that day.
Eventually, Gable’s Dad had seen enough and called an end to the series.
Douglas had rightfully claimed the spot for Team USA.
Douglas went on to claim a silver medal at the 1969 World Championships and a bronze medal at the 1970 World Championships.
In 1970, Douglas was named the USA’s outstanding wrestler.
He retired later that year and focused on his coaching career.
Bobby began his coaching journey at the University of Oklahoma in 1967, where he led the team to three consecutive Big Eight Conference titles.
His success continued at Arizona State (ASU), where he served as head coach from 1975 to 1992.
Douglas led ASU to nine conference titles and the school’s first national championship in 1988, followed by runner-up finishes in 1989 and 1990.
In 1992, Douglas took the head coaching position at Iowa State (ISU) and continued there until 2006, when he handed the program over to Cael Sanderson.
At ISU, Bobby coached 10 NCAA champions and 52 all-Americans.
In total, during his coaching career, Douglas won over 400 dual meets, coached 13 NCAA champions, and 110 all-Americans.
He also coached Cael Sanderson to an Olympic gold at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
Douglas was inducted into the Ohio Wrestling Hall of Fame, the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1985, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Arizona Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1999.
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