Eager to see the totally renovated National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum ... but not able to make the trip to Waterloo, Iowa right now? Now you can take a look inside the facility which just reopened last week after having been closed since last September for a $1.4 million makeover ... thanks to your choice of videos available online.
The long ...
For an in-depth look inside the new-look Dan Gable Museum, take a look at the video on Trackwrestling.com, featuring your own personal 17-minute tour conducted by museum director Kyle Klingman and Trackwrestling's Andy Hamilton.
The tour starts just inside the front door, with a new lobby mural featuring images of Dan Gable, Helen Maroulis (first U.S. woman wrestler to win Olympic gold), Dremiel Byers (described as one of the "most prolific" U.S. Greco-Roman grapplers) and Kurt Angle (1996 U.S. Olympic freestyle gold medalist who is about to conclude a 20-year pro wrestling career). "It really sets the tone for the museum," said Klingman, who then demonstrated one of the museum's new electronic kiosks which lets visitors access profiles of honorees on easy-to-use touch screens.
Another high point of the Trackwrestling video tour is a visit to the Dan Gable area, with displays highlighting his stellar high school, college and Olympic wrestling careers ... as well as his success as head coach at the University of Iowa.
Klingman then takes viewers into the new theater which allows visitors to watch their choice of films from NCAA wrestling championships going back to 1937 ... using a touch-screen to instantly access specific matches.
The Trackwrestling video tour concludes in the Dan Gable Learning Center, the bigger-and-better wrestling practice/training room ... providing more opportunities for young wrestlers to practice and receive instruction.
"We want the museum to be a symbol of excellence and a source of pride in the community," Dan Gable said in the museum's press release announcing its recent reopening. "These improvements will make the museum more modern and appealing and a place you want to go, but more importantly, they will give us the ability to impact more young lives and make a big difference in their future."
... and the short of it
Short on time? Check out the three-minute news story on KWWL-TV , the ABC affiliate in Waterloo, where a local reporter serves up a quick inside look at the new-look Dan Gable Museum ... with none other than the man whose name graces the facility, the one and only Dan Gable.
"Some people think it's about me, but no, it's about wrestling," said the Waterloo native who went on to win the gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
"I tell you what, it blows my mind coming in here," said Gable. "Before it seemed like a small museum. Even though we didn't add any size to it, the remodel makes it look like a big place."
As with the longer video from Trackwrestling, the KWWL-TV news story takes viewers inside the Gable Museum's newly expanded and upgraded wrestling room.
"This is absolutely what's going to drive us into the future because we get to develop wrestlers through this wrestling room," said museum director Kyle Klingman.
The KWWL-TV story concludes with mention of a coming attraction -- a Phase 2 project that will honor high school wrestlers in the state of Iowa, male and female. Expected cost of that display: $200,000.
The National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum is located at 303 Jefferson St. in downtown Waterloo. Want to know more? Check out the official website ... email dgmstaff@nwhof.org ... or call (319) 233-0745.
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