Why these two years? In 2023 we will crown two new 100%ers (I refuse to contemplate otherwise). The last time that happened was 1957.
With Spencer Lee and Yianni Diakomihalis 100% guaranteed (guaran-damn-teed, some may say) to finish their careers having won 100% of the NCAA titles they are eligible for, I decided to see how often this has happened. There have been four other occasions where two wrestlers completed perfect NCAA tournament careers.
In 1931, Conrad Caldwell and Jack van Bebber did the deed. Followed by Rex Peery and Ross Flood in 1935. In 1939, it was Joe McDaniel's and Stanley Henson's turn. Finally, in 1957 Ed Peery and Dan Hodge each won their third consecutive title.
The 1930's was a whole other animal when it came to the NCAA tournament. The tournaments were much smaller than they are today. Participation was almost always fewer than 100 wrestlers across seven or eight weights. Travel was a big issue so there were generally fewer than 30 teams and almost all of those came from the center and eastern two thirds of the country.
In 1957, Ed Peery won an 18 man bracket at 123, going 4-0 as the #1 seed. He won the final by unanimous referee's decision in overtime (I always find these referee's decisions to be odd). That was also the Peery family's unprecedented ninth title as his father and brother were also 100%ers in their day. I wonder what ever happened to the third generation.
Dan Hodge won a 24 man bracket at 177, pinning 4 of his 5 opponents (2 in under a minute). In his three tournaments Hodge pinned eleven of his thirteen opponents. Only Don Wem and John Dustin were able to go the distance in those three years.
The 1957 tournament was the largest up to that date with 213 wrestlers (that total would not regularly be eclipsed until 1963) from 62 teams.