The latest installment opens with this bold but accurate statement: "After World War I halted college athletics, Oklahoma A&M returned to the mat with a vengeance in the 1920s." (The Big 12 school located in Stillwater was known as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College until adopting its present name in the late 1950s.)
Legendary coach Ed Gallagher -- who had taken the reins of the wrestling program in its second year, in 1917 -- took his wrestlers to new heights in the Roaring Twenties, opening with a 50-0 shutout of cross-state rival Oklahoma in the long-running Bedlam Series. In 1921, the Cowboys started a dual-meet winning streak that lasted until 1932.
The Cowboy wrestling website's look back at the 1920s focuses on four mat champs who found their way into eventual induction into the nearby National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Guy Lookabaugh, the first athlete to be labeled "Super Aggie", was a star on the mat and the football field who was the school's first Olympic wrestler (in the 1924 Paris Games). "Looky" was welcomed in to the Hall in 1983. Canadian native Earl McCready became the United States' first three-time NCAA champ, winning the heavyweight title in 1928-30; one of his finals matches was over in just 19 seconds, a record that stands to this day. "Moose" was inducted into the Hall in 1977. Jack VanBebber, a three-time NCAA champ for the Cowboys (1929-31), went on to win the gold medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, and was part of the Hall's inaugural class in 1976. Conrad Caldwell was recruited by coach Gallagher out of a gym class… and, despite never having wrestled before, won the 165-pound title at the 1929 NCAAs in his first season on the mat. (He went on to add two more NCAA titles in 1930 and 1931.) Caldwell was a member of the Class of 1981 at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Find out about the inspirational story of Jack VanBebber who overcame a near-fatal childhood accident to become a wrestling champ, read this InterMat Reads feature . And to learn more about Ed Gallagher and the Oklahoma State wrestling program from 1916-1940, check out this InterMat Rewind historical feature on the legendary Cowboy coach.
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