EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,075 words- 0:00 – 15:00
(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast,…
- NANarrator
(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music plays) Is that ... You were s- so you were telling me that this mask is ... This is a wrestling ... Does this have anything to do with your museum?
- DGDan Gable
Yes. It's the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, but this is the one out of Stillwater, Oklahoma. And the w- the one we have is a subsidiary one. It's called the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum-
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah.
- DGDan Gable
... in Waterloo, my hometown, but they own it. And see, Oklahoma and Iowa, big rivalries in wrestling over history and this, these museums kind of help bring us together.
- JRJoe Rogan
Huh.
- DGDan Gable
So, uh, it's pretty, pretty interesting. So, um, so the ma- mag is ... These, these actually masks are just the ones out of Stillwater. I don't know if we have the ones in Waterloo or not but ... But, uh ...
- JRJoe Rogan
Lex Friedman told me that you have a hard time even walking around in Iowa, that people swarm you. (laughs)
- DGDan Gable
You know, when they don't swarm me is when I'm gonna have to worry about it, you know.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
Because I'm for the sport of wrestling.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- DGDan Gable
And I love that sport and it's been my life and I can ... I want it to continue to be and it's a little bit difficult sport, so you know, it's something that keeps me, um, appreciative but it also ... I promote it out there and as long as people ... I- I'm okay with it. It might irritate my family a little bit once in a while, but they love the sport too, so they gotta expect some of this stuff.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, eh, coming from a guy that has accomplished what you've accomplished and has become this legendary feature in the sport, it, it, it comes with the territory. There's no way around it. I mean, you're a beloved character-
- DGDan Gable
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... in the sport of wrestling to the point where I told people that you were gonna be on my podcast and their eyebrows raise up like ... People get very excited.
- DGDan Gable
Well, (laughs) you know, I'm glad you said that because every time I tell somebody, their eyebrows do the same when I'm going on this show. And so of course, you know, I- I knew about this show, but I had to do a lot of homework just to see, wow, you know, it's pretty big, so ... You know, I'm excited to be here 'cause I know the effect it can have, not just on me because, you know, but on the sport, you know? And I love the sport and it's ... My hometown of Waterloo was ... That's why I got started in it because it was just dominating wrestling at the time. And you know what's funny is that just from a world situation, sport brings people together and, you know, it's like who better than a sport with Russia or Iran or North Korea because, you know, it's like ... Or Turkey, you know. They just, especially the first two, you know, they just, um ... We're always in conflict-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- DGDan Gable
... it seems like with them but when it comes to wrestling, we have something in common. And we usually end up losing to both Russia and Iran, but sometimes we beat 'em too and we are well-known for good wrestling and that has helped, I think, the country be better off.
- JRJoe Rogan
I had Jordan Burroughs on and he was describing to me what it's like to wrestle in Iran and how massive the sport is over there and he's a giant star over there. And he's like, "And people are so friendly and so inviting and so accepting and just so happy to see great wrestling." And just wrestling is just an enormous sport over there and i- im- immensely popular.
- DGDan Gable
Well, when I won the Olympics in 1972, their most popular athlete was the guy in my weight class.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- DGDan Gable
The Iranian. And I'd been in the Worlds a year before, but before that, he had two World ti- he had two Olympic titles and every World title in between. And all of a sudden, he became so popular that the government was a little concerned about him, that the people were more appreciative of him than the government.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- DGDan Gable
And so when he went to the Munich Olympics, even though he had lost the year before, because I was there and I won the weight class, we didn't get to wrestle, but he was there and representing Iran in '72 and he won his first match by about 15 points. But he pulled out of the Olympics and he ended up going to the United States.
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah.
- DGDan Gable
Because of his being so popular, they were scared they might do something to him.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well-
- DGDan Gable
At the government level.
- JRJoe Rogan
I'm sure you're aware of what happened recently with the wrestler who was killed.
- 15:00 – 30:00
Right. …
- DGDan Gable
YMCA because it gave me a chance to learn something away from home. I was home with my mom, I was home with my dad, home with my sister who was four years older than me. But, you know, it's, it's just something... I call it going for help. And I think my mom and dad realized at that time that they needed some help with this kid, and I think that's a really good thing to think about as, as people in the world when you have kids growing up. And if you're not giving them what you need to give them, why not go for help? And there's organizations out there. Now, you gotta be careful, you know, who you're putting them into or even if you give them to a babysitter or whatever like that. But, you know, if you, if you're, if you're pretty confident that you have a good place to get some help, you get some help. And I, and I, uh, same way with me as a coach. Same way with me as a husband. I mean, I got my wife, I got my family, I got m- I had my assistant coaches, and I, I got my fans. I mean, uh, god, I always had 'em looking out for me. I built that kinda trust with them, or more than even trust, just they wanna help. And that was a way. Now, you can't go overboard. You still gotta make sure that the help you're getting is the right help. But the YMCA was perfect for me because, uh, I mean, I can remember the first day, uh, uh, uh, they took us to a wrestling room. We had a little wrestling room at the YMCA. And I was already wrestling before that because my dad was a w- a wrestler. Not a great wrestler but his, his friends were. So when they c- when they came to the wrestling, learning this sport, my first wrestling room was at the YMCA there even though I had been in a wrestling room because these older guys had drug me around to the wrestling rooms but, in Waterloo. But I can remember wrestling a kid and I, I, I handled him pretty good because I had already been wrestling on my carpet at home, wrestling outside in the grass, and, and these people had had a, had a little experience with me. So, but the kid, you know, kind of got mad. And so I was waiting for my mom and dad to, uh, uh, pick me up after the, um, the wi- af- after the Y's... couple hours where y- you spend there. And this kid came out and he goes, "You know, you can... You know, maybe you beat me in wrestling up there." But he goes, uh, "How about a street fight?" And I said, "Whoa." (laughs) You know, I th- I was probably eight, nine, eight years old at the time. And, you know, uh, it, it was downtown Waterloo, Iowa, tough town. I was on one side of the river and he was on the other side of the river, uh, growing up and, and so he probably had been in more st- fights than me. But I didn't, wasn't gonna really... I wasn't gonna fight him. I was waiting for my dad pick me up, and all of a sudden he, he punches me. And so, you know, what do you do? You gotta fight. (laughs) I mean, either that or run. You know, and I, I fought and I did all right. I mean, just like in the wrestling room, I did all right. And so I was... I had, I had some of that in me too. But when I g- I had the guy on the down and I, uh, kind of let him up, we both looked over...... my dad was there standing watching me, and that guy's dad was standing there, and my mom, my dad and his were talking to each other. And so, you know, that's part of a x- experience that you kind of grow up in. And s- I don't know if they even knew each other, but they were kinda supervising, yet we didn't know they were there.
- NANarrator
Right.
- DGDan Gable
And that was kind of one of my first experiences, uh, with, uh, understanding a little bit about, um, competition outside the organized sports, you know?
- NANarrator
Yeah, raw competition.
- DGDan Gable
Right. Yeah.
- NANarrator
Yeah. Primal.
- DGDan Gable
Yep. (laughs) Yeah.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
So, you know, a- and actually, uh, speaking of the story there, it was a really good one, uh, this is about my mom and dad, my mom and dad were great people, but they liked to drink a lot of beer and smoke a lot of cigarettes and that's why b- they probably didn't live so long and they probably had a lot of, uh, had- had some trouble at home. And by that I mean the cops visited home quite often just to break up fights or my mom would probably call the cops on my dad, and, uh ... So, the first time I ever really took notice was when they came the first time and they took my dad away. And, you know, he had been rough with my mom so I probably understood, but I saw him kind of, um, throw a handcuff on him, they just, I think they just threw one on and kind of took him out the door. I didn't really see from there. So, uh, he came home that night later on. He got ou- he- he was did- he just, you know, I don't know, they- they brought him back later. But so the next day I went to school and the cop that had ki- the policeman that had come and picked him up was actually a neighbor down the street, just lived about a block in from us, and I was really mad, you know, at the police taking my dad away, even though probably it was a good thing (laughs) . B- but I didn't really understand what was going on at that time, and this, and this is different today, probably wouldn't go on, but the- the- the neighbor policeman about a- a block away had a son in my class at school. So after school that day, I- we were both walking home and I was really mad and I pulled out of my pocket a wire and I took this kid down on the ground and I wired his wrists together, and not real hard but like, like they were handcuffs, and I grabbed the wire and I said, "This is what your dad did to my dad last night and I'm gonna do it to you and I'm gonna take you and I'm gonna take you home this way." And (laughs) I took him home 'cause they lived about a block away and I untook the things off and let him go in. But (laughs) he was about probably fourth grade, but h- e- the- my dad found out about that and wow, what did I get in trouble. I mean, he hit- he used to hit me on top of the head with a ring, probably why I don't have much hair but, but, um, and, um, and he looked at me and he, he said, "You know what? I was intoxicated last night. It was good they took me out of here. But you know what they did to me when I d- got me down to the police department?" He said, "I played pool with him. They had a little billiards room down there and they played pool with me until I sobered up and then they brought me back." And, uh, "And you did that to his son?" I said, "Dad, I- I- I (laughs) I was just protecting you," I thought, you know? But, and everybody understood. But it's kind of funny how things are and I don't, I don't think ... And that's the old days, good old days, uh, compared to, I don't ... Now they'd probably, uh, do a lot more, you know, they'd lock you up probably but, uh, they don't give you too many breaks but, uh, uh, it's kind of funny how that's the kind of house, you know ... The difference between 40 years ago, 50 years ago, 60 years ago, I'm, uh, I forget.
- NANarrator
What do you think is better though? Like, the good, are the good old days the good old days or is it better today?
- DGDan Gable
I think, uh, I think I like the good old days.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
I mean, I got picked up one other time and it was my, um, former, um, I was back, a- home in- from college and, and he, um, he was my gym teacher in eighth grade and, uh, Mr.- Mr. Blue, and he, uh, he ended up being a policeman so when I came home from college, so that was about in seventh grade, so we're talking six, seven and eight years later when I was home for the weekend and, and I was driving and he picked me up and I probably had a beer in the car or something and, you know, he- he actually, um, let me go. But he picked me up again the same night (laughs) . So he took me down a second time and he put me in his office in the police station and we talked for quite a while, but he let me go too. But, you know, uh, you just can't get away with it. I mean, there's just more rules, regulations and if people find out it's like, whoa, whoa. You know, I- I think the good old days probably gave you a chance to actually realize things better than you can today. You can actually get a second chance maybe and, you know, that type of thing. So, um, today is not the best day to ask me about the good old days just because today is, I would say, definitely the good old days because these days are, we're divided, you know?
- NANarrator
Yeah.
- DGDan Gable
That's the way it is. And so it's not as much fun and you're almost scared to talk, you know, what did I, um ... Now I'm gonna put on my ... I was- I came here on an airplane and I, out of the airplane, uh, magazine, I picked up something because I thought it was interesting and it'll probably help me 'cause I don't want to get in trouble, you know? I- I don't wanna get in trouble. And it said, uh, "Curious about using..."... this article. And it was- it was in the, uh, said, "Curious about using gender-neutral language in your everyday life?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
And so I- I started-
- JRJoe Rogan
Are you curious about using gender-neutral language in your everyday life?
- DGDan Gable
I ... Well, I just caught a- you know, some guy just texted me the other day after a speech and gave me really a lot of hell.
- JRJoe Rogan
A guy you knew? He texted you?
- DGDan Gable
Yeah. Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
A friend of yours?
- DGDan Gable
Well, I haven't seen him for about 30 years, but-
- JRJoe Rogan
What'd he give you hell about?
- DGDan Gable
He said I used the word she and he and all this kind of stuff. And I said-
- JRJoe Rogan
You can't use she and he?
- DGDan Gable
I don't know. But, you know-
- JRJoe Rogan
You can.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Tell that guy to fuck off.
- 30:00 – 45:00
(laughs) …
- DGDan Gable
eating and I had my ha- mask in my hand and I was l- uh, and I was l- I- I- I was looking down at the cash register and this- the girl that was there said to me, she goes, um ... And I didn't look at her. She ... 'Cause, uh, I was looking down reading the bill and she said, "Put that mask on." And I'm looking down and I'm not looking up. I'm not looking up, but I lost my cool.... and I put my mask on, 'cause I had it right there, and I was gonna put it on anyway, but I just hadn't put it on yet. So I put it on, and I said, "You really pissed me off." (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
And she just didn't know what to say. She didn't say a word. Well, she, you know, be- it wasn't her place, she was just working there and stuff like that, but, you know, and, uh, pretty young gal, and so, and then she gave me the bill, and she didn't say anything and I didn't say anything, and, and I s- I, I gave him the right tip, 'cause it was, it was a different lady.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DGDan Gable
And I was like... Right. So, so then I finally looked up and I said, "I never forget." (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
That's what I said to her. And, and the funny thing is, it's, uh, uh, I didn't mean to, you know, do harm to her, but-
- JRJoe Rogan
Probably scared the shit out of her.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah, I know.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
So I said yes, you know, so at the, 'cause I, the, the manager, the owner is probably pretty decent friends of-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, I think there's a way to say it that's nice.
- DGDan Gable
... my family and all that. Yeah, exactly.
- JRJoe Rogan
Is really, "Sir, could you please put your mask on?"
- DGDan Gable
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Then you would say, "Oh, I'm sorry."
- DGDan Gable
I would've.
- JRJoe Rogan
Because you forget sometimes. It's not a normal thing. It's a, I mean, it's become normal over the last year, but it's not a normal thing to remember to put a mask on.
- DGDan Gable
No, it's not, especially when, um-
- JRJoe Rogan
You've lived-
- DGDan Gable
... when, when you're w- working out every day too.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DGDan Gable
And, you know, 'cause you don't really want to wear a mask when you're working out.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's ridiculous.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. No-
- DGDan Gable
So...
- JRJoe Rogan
It's, and p- so a lot of people have to at gyms, like, ugh, you know, it's, I can't wait for this fucking thing to be over.
- DGDan Gable
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
You know, but there's the, that's the thing with the mask thing. I'm not saying that in this case, I mean, this lady was at work and she probably does feel nervous about people not wearing masks.
- 45:00 – 1:00:00
Yeah. …
- DGDan Gable
in his 50s now and he's doing really well. Good wife, good kids, you know, here I am, I have a beer and we're probably gonna drink a beer here sometime but, but, um, you know, but some people can't drink.
- NANarrator
Yeah.
- DGDan Gable
That's just the way it is.
- NANarrator
It is just the way it is. Yeah. And th- so this guy just figured it out?
- DGDan Gable
Well, let me tell you. Going into his senior year he got in trouble and my AD called me in, his name is Bump Elliot, he just passed away a couple years ago, he's a great, great AD and he said, "Gable, you're winning all these titles. You don't e- you don't, you don't need this kid on your team. He's been in trouble too many times and I, I want you to kick him off." Not, I don't know if he said "kick," "I want you to take him off the roster." And right there I just, I, I just froze 'cause I knew this was his only thing and if i- if this is his only thing that's holding him together, we gotta figure something out. And I told my athletic director about his history; where he'd come from, he's got a twin brother, his twin brother's not getting into any wrestling and he's all kinds of, you know, this and that, and I, you know, I, and I said a few things and I said, "The one thing in his life that is good is wrestling." I said, "Do we want to take that out of him?" And after actually talking to a guy that would listen, he looks at me and he goes, "You know, I'll buy that, but let me tell you, this is what we gotta do. In-house treatment for 30 days in a hospital and if you can't do that, and he can't successfully come out, then he's off."
- NANarrator
Hmm.
- DGDan Gable
And he went in, 30 days, and he came out and never drank since and that was 1988, 1987 or '88 and here it is 2021, he's got a nice wife, nice kids and, uh, he's doing well in his life and, um, some good decisions by coach and an athletic director.
- NANarrator
That's awesome.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah.
- NANarrator
I love hearing stories like that.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah.
- NANarrator
'Cause some people really can't drink.
- DGDan Gable
And Brad was right with Rico, you know-
- NANarrator
Mm-hmm.
- DGDan Gable
... and Roy Salzrider, that's another name that's crazy and, uh, these guys were, were hellions but they could kick butt on the wrestling mat but they liked to went down, liked to go downtown and that's when those days, that was the hard days on me because I had to go downtown and kick them out of the bars. Well, they actually warned the bar people that owned the bars that I would be coming in at 12, so they would be hiding out the back, so let us know and we'll run out the back door.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
You know? So, so, you know, those days they should have probably had, but I shouldn't have let it go that far but when you're winning seven, eight, nine straight national titles, you know, sometimes you give a kid a break too and, uh, so- and it comes back to haunt you. So, uh, you know, so, um, it became a kind of ritual for me to go leave home about 11:30 every night to go downtown to Iowa City to walk into bars to see where some of the guys were and try to, uh, get them home and, you know, that was probably not the right way to go about things. I should have had them to where I didn't have to do that but, you know, you just, you have... You're winning the Big 10s every year, you're winning the National every year, sometimes you just, you lose control and, uh, it's kind of like how I lost my last match in college and that's another whole story but...
- NANarrator
Yeah.
- DGDan Gable
You, you, you win a l- you win a lot and sometimes you think you can cut corners.
- NANarrator
Well, you had gone undefeated your entire college career until your last match.
- DGDan Gable
Entire high school career and entire... so seven years and that was in Scholastic wrestling, not freestyle wrestling because I, I didn't start wrestling freestyle until...... I, in college, but that's the international style. But, and I did lose there, but, but for scholastic wrestling, high school I was undefeated and then I was undefeated in, in college until my last match. But, you know, my coaches, and here I'm gonna be- I was gonna become a coach. I didn't really know it for sure, but I didn't know anything else, (laughs) you know, 'cause I was always a team captain, team leader and all these kind of things. So I'm going into the national championship and it's like, "Wow. I'm, I'm the show." I mean, I couldn't look at a newspaper 'cause I was on the front page of the Chicago Tribune and, you know, sports pages. It was in, uh, Ev- Ev- Evanston, Illinois. And, and every place I'd go p- people, you know, would s- come up to me and all this kind of stuff. And so I, I, um, you know, from a coaching point of view, if, if my coaches had to do it over again, and they actually apologized to me years later, but it was like, nobody know- thought I was gonna lose, except for one guy. One guy actually said I can beat him. But he didn't tell me. He forgot to tell me.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
So I didn't take him for granted. I took him for granted. And so I always went through routines warming up, getting ready mentally. We weighed in five hours before a match, from then on you ate and drank a little bit, and then focus, focus. Rest, focus, focus. I was doing interviews with Wide World of Sport right during the national finals and I wasn't a talker. Like I, I could talk pretty good now 'cause I learned to talk. But at that time, off the mat, I couldn't talk to anybody. And so when they put a mic in front of me and they wanted to know about, "Hey, can you... Just say this. Say, 'Hey, I'm Dan Gable. Come watch me next week on Wide World of Sport as I finish my career 182 and O.'" And I hadn't wrestled a match yet. And so I- I was supposed to say that, but do you think I could say that? Hell no, I couldn't say that. I kept stuttering and not saying it and they kept redoing it, so finally after about 15 takes, they wrote it out on big cards.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
And so I took about seven takes with that one. I think I got it done in about 22 takes, but then I, when I got it done, it wasn't good either. They just finally said, "Oh, that's good enough. Get out of here." So I turned, I'm on deck.
- NANarrator
Ugh.
- DGDan Gable
(laughs) I'm on deck. So they already went through the 118, 126, 134, and I was 142 at that time. So 134 is just, uh, wrestling and I always warmed up for, you know, a good 45 minutes to an hour. So I hit a quick warm up and went out in that match and there, I f- and I didn't realize there was gonna somebody that actually thought they could beat me. (laughs) And even though before I always, we did the routine, I went through it, but I'll tell you what, you skip once, you're vulnerable. For only time in my life that within a minute into the match, I could hear the crowd. A minute into the match, I could feel how I felt and I was feeling tired and weak. I mean, I never knew how you felt in a wrestling match until the match was over and once it was over, yeah, sometimes I felt good, but sometimes I felt weak and tired, but I didn't show it because I didn't think about it, I didn't know it. But the one time you didn't prepare and the guy thinking that he could go with you, and he could, you know, you f- you, you take on everything. So you take on way more than just your opponent and so I talked myself into wrestling after minute one. I kept saying, "I gotta, I gotta keep going. I gotta keep working hard." And so I got a early lead, just quick first take down, but I kept feeling my, how tired I was and I kept hearing the crowd.
- NANarrator
Why do you think you were so tired?
- DGDan Gable
'Cause I didn't warm up. I was doing talking. I was not focusing on my match.
- NANarrator
And had-
- 1:00:00 – 1:15:00
(laughs) . …
- DGDan Gable
and there was a lot of bl- blood all over our house and- and, uh, they didn't want to move back in. But I convinced them that- that we should move back in. It was... And, uh, one of the ways I convinced them was, about a month after the murder, when we did move back in, so it was probably second month, they were up arguing and I was in bed and I- I heard my mom say something that I thought was really stupid. She said, "I wish I would have raised her a whore, because she didn't give in. She would- she could have gave in. She would still be alive." When I heard that, I got up and I came out.And our home really hadn't become a home again. It had been a house. We, we moved back in it, but it hadn't gone. That, her bedroom was, like, just there. It was just there, and it was always ... The door was always closed. And so, I looked at him, and I said, "You know what? I'm tired of this fighting." And I just heard the conversation that was going on. "I am moving out of my bedroom. I'm moving out right now. I'm going into her room, and her room's gonna become my room, and I'm staying there, starting right now." So I went in, opened the door, went in, closed the door, and went to bed. Got underneath her covers, went to bed. That room probably hadn't been ... Nobody had been in that room for 30 days, probably 45 days. And about 10 minutes later, I seen- I s- I heard the door, uh ... They thought I was sleeping. They looked inside and saw me s- sleeping in there, but I wasn't sleeping. I don't think I slept that night at all. But that is the turnaround for the Gable family in that house. We stayed in that house. And I never thought they would stay married, and so that was one of the reasons why, besides my sister, I just give them something to really focus on and con... So, when you went away, you know, they could go to all these events and ... Hell, my dad, when I won the world championship, in w- ... He didn't ... It's the only time he didn't go to my event that was a major event, my mom and dad, because it, it was in Communist bulk- Sofia, Bulgaria. And when I won the world championship, he was down at the Waterloo Courier paper with the editor down there, and it was, it was odd hour, and he was waiting for the teletype or the machine to come over s- and say how I, see how I did in that event. It wasn't that easy to find out. So, all of a sudden, it comes over, it's type, and it was a headline across the, um, the paper. It said, "Dan Gable Wins World Championship." My old man ripped that, um, the paper right off that teletype machine, and he, and he ran outside and it was early morning and there were people coming to work and he was running down the street swinging his ... that little newspaper, yelling, "Hey, my kid's a world champion! My kid's a world champion." And, uh, you know, that, that kind of stuff is, is just ... You can't, you can't make that kind of stuff up. And it's just, it's just, uh, it's just amazing, uh, that, um ... But anyway, so what happened is I found out once I went to college that my mom and dad really liked each other. I never knew that.
- NANarrator
(laughs) .
- DGDan Gable
Because now, they only had each other. And I wasn't there. But they could follow me, and they followed me for every ... And I, and, and they, they, um, they wrote me every day. So I could go to the m- ... I'd get mail every day. I'd go to the mailbox and I'd have a letter from my mom every day. Seven days a week when I was gone. Only 90 miles. And in those letters, she ... We, we used to drink a lot of Hi-C, and if ... when you take the labels off, you could send seven or eight of them in and they'd give you money back. So my mom would send me in, in little ... She'd have a little letter and she'd say, "Here's your ... Here's some money from the Hi-C" and "How y-" uh, "How you doing?" or something like that. And there'd always be a quarter, a nickel, a dime. You know, that type stuff in there. So, it's, it's pretty amazing. Uh, and she did that ... I'm, I'm, I'm ... Three or four times a week, I would get change in the mail. But, you know, not a whole lot. I was getting a full-ride scholarship. You ... That days, you got 25 bucks a month for, uh, whatever w- you wanted to spend it on from, from the school, and then my dad gave me an extra 20 a month, and that was all he was c- costing him, 20 bucks. Well, he did more than that 'cause he bought me a car, nice little car, and, uh, to send me off to college, and, uh, you know, that type of stuff. But, you know, it's pretty amazing that, you know, what ... when you find out stuff, that they really like you, but yet they still need some common person to follow. And I was that guy. You know, when I, when I was in, um ... when I was in high school, I, um, I was a state champ as a sophomore, which is the first year of high school. Then I won state champion as a junior, but I was wrestling ... My weight was 95 as a sophomore and 103 as a junior. In college, the first weights were 118, and my dad thought I should get, be getting bigger, plus, I wasn't really ... I was pretty skinny. And so, my dad says, "You know, I want to get you a job this summer going into your senior year, because I ... The job you're gonna get, you're gonna want it, because you, you know, you like working out hard and stuff like that. But this job's gonna be a workout all day long. It's gonna be with a cement crew." He says, "You're gonna be hauling bags, 94-pound bags of Portland bang- of cement. You're gonna be digging and shoveling cement. You're gonna be dig- digging sh- and, and holes. You're gonna be h- you know, doing this, all this hard work, carrying, uh, uh, buckets of, of, of mud," and by then they called it cement. "And so on and so forth. You're gonna swing in a sledgehammer, uh, 'cause you're gonna be dealing with a lot of basements," 'cause my dad was dealing in the house business, and, uh ... And so, he got me a job. When I was 16 years old, it was, uh ... I was still 16 yet in the summer of my junior year. So, he got me a job. Little did I know ... Again, it's the old days. This is what's good about the old days. That you had to be 18 to get the job. It was one of those, you know, um, where you had to be 18. And I was 16, but he ... It was a house ... My dad was a house builder and he'd always hire this guy to build the basements. And the guy, he told the guy he wanted me to get a job and the guys says, "Well, I can't really put him on the books." So he says, "I'll keep him off the books. We'll hire him anyway." But he says, "You know, we'll just pay him under the ... cash under the table." But my dad says, "You don't even have to pay him. I'll pay you." So, after about three days of work, 'cause I, I ... My dad had scared the daylights out of me telling me how hard I'd have to work. I didn't realize there was people that were just-... they were putting their hours in, some of them. And I was working arms and legs around these guys, carrying, running. And, and the people kind of looked at me funny for a while, but then they realized I was on a mission. And finally my, uh, the, the owner of the cement company, Martinson Construction, Jerry Martinson was his name, called my dad after three days and said, "Mr. Gable, you're not gonna pay your son. We're gonna pay your son. We'll just do it under the table, as well." (laughs) "We're, we're gonna pay him. We're not gonna let you pay him. You're not gonna have to pay him. He's working everybody under the table. He's getting along with everybody. In fact, at, at lunches, when I, before we eat lunch, he always wants to wrestle everybody on the crew. And the first day, these guys-"
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
"... they're old-timers, but they're big guys and he's weighing, uh, you know, he's, uh, he's w- wrestled 103, so he'd probably be up to 125 right now. And he's 125 pounds, and these 250-pound guys are wanting to ... they, they can't beat him." He said, "He's kicking the shit out of, uh, every one of them. And they love him, and they're having a great time with him. In fact, every, all the hard work, they're giving him all the hard work. In fact, when he moves those 94-pound bags of cement off the truck to where they're supposed to go, that's not enough for him. So they tell him to move them, move those bags again to the other side of the house. So it's just crazy, and they're all loving it. And they ... And, uh, so, you know, we're gonna pay your son. We're gonna pay your son." So, you know, my dad was looking out for me. They looked out for my dad. That's the good old days. The police were looking out for my dad. You know, it's, uh, you just ... some- I don't know if we're looking out for many people today. Uh, and if we are, it's probably of the like. And you know what? We all need to be of the like.
- NANarrator
So you used that job as a workout.
- DGDan Gable
O- eight hours a day.
- NANarrator
Did you gain, gain any weight from that?
- DGDan Gable
I couldn't, but I gained strength.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
'Cause I, you know ... Y- you know what? I wasn't carrying 94-pound bags. I put three of them on there. So you take 94 times three, and that's what I was carrying as a 125-pound kid.
- NANarrator
Jesus.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah. So I was unloading them, because they'd load them up on me, on my arms, then I'd carry them over to where they're supposed to be. Couldn't pick them up all at one time, but ... So, you know, I was crazy. L- I was crazy. I was definitely crazy. And I used to run to work sometimes, and it was a couple miles away, then run home. But guess what? I always had a fi- So we'd get home about 5:30. My high school had an open practice for wrestling from 5:30 to 6:30 every night after that work. So I'd go to work all day l- weight lifting all day, then I'd go to wrestling practice for an hour. It was independent wrestling practice, just open mat, and there's be ... Somebody would always show up. I would always show up, and somebody would always show up that I could wrestle. So I was getting all that work, eight hours of weight lifting in, str- in a hard type, because I would go crazy.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- DGDan Gable
I'd run back, get the bags, run between things, and then I'd go to wrestling practice for an hour. So then I'd go home and eat. I'd go to bed. So I was sleeping by 8:00, 8:30 every night, 'cause you had to get up at 6:00 in the morning to go to work. But I'll tell you, made you tough, made you tough. And, uh, there's a lot of things that you, you, you did back in those days that you c- now know that maybe you can't d- you shouldn't. There's easier ways to ... Not easier way, smarter ways to do things that you probably wouldn't take ... give you some more longevity. Because, you know, I've worn out my hips. I mean, I've got six hips, you know. I've got my own two and I've got four others. And who, who-
- NANarrator
Now, you've, you've had how many hip replacements? Let's have some of your beer.
- DGDan Gable
Uh-
- NANarrator
You've got some, uh, Gable Beer.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah. Hey, you know what? That's some of the rewards you get, people name, um-
- NANarrator
Cheers.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah. People name, um, beer after you.
- NANarrator
Yeah.
- DGDan Gable
I got a, I got a nutrition drink. This Gable Beer comes out. S- it's a brewer- brewery one half a block from the Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.
- NANarrator
What's the name of the brewery?
- DGDan Gable
Single Speed, Single Speed Brewery. Guess who, guess who owns it though? Dave Morgan. Guess who Dave Morgan is? State champion wrestler out of New Hampton-
- NANarrator
Well, there you go.
- DGDan Gable
... uh, about 30 miles north of, uh, of Water-
- NANarrator
That's a good beer.
- DGDan Gable
It better be.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- 1:15:00 – 1:16:58
Well, I own my…
- NANarrator
many hip replacements have you had?
- DGDan Gable
Well, I own my own two, 'cause I was, you know, had two pretty good ones. But when I was, uh, let's see, (sighs) when I was 48... Well, actually, I went out to run when I was 38, and all of a sudden, my hips started hurting. So I ran through the, my hip for 10 years. If you run far enough, you didn't have a hip pain. The pain of the, the, the running-
- NANarrator
Arthritis, right.
- DGDan Gable
Right.
- NANarrator
Yeah.
- DGDan Gable
The, well, the pain of running, just the hurtness of your... you can't breathe, you know, you're running hard. So for 10 years, I, I did... it was stupid, because I didn't really know what it was and I didn't really pay any attention. So fi-
- NANarrator
You just gutted it out.
- DGDan Gable
Yeah, so finally, when I was 48, I jumped out of bed one morning, and when I jumped out of bed, I collapsed. And I felt something crunch, couldn't get up. It was my last year of coaching, actually. And I didn't know it was gonna be my last year of coaching. But... So I went to the doctor, and the doctor, Dr. Marsh, a great doctor, orthopedic surgeon. Actually, he was a surgeon, oh, actually, he was a, uh, when you get in an accident, I can't remember the term. They, they... crisis, not a crisis, but a certain doctor where they're, where you bring him in when there's a big accident. And, uh, they brought me into his place. And, uh, he looked at it and he says, "Wow. You got a bad hip. Really bad. You, and you just fractured it. It's just splintered. It splintered when you jumped out of bed this morning." It has been so fragile, it just splintered. And I had been kind of working through the pain for 10 years, so I had to get it fixed during my, that season. And so when I got it fixed, immediately it felt good. Immediately. But then I, I didn't realize my other one was hurting.
Episode duration: 2:53:14
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