Wrestling
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The NCAA wrestling championships began as a regional qualifying tournament for the 1928 Olympic trials without any official team scoring. It has grown into one of the best attended of all the NCAA championships. Since 1934 it has been a dual purpose tournament, crowning a team champion and individual champions at the different weight classes (currently 10). In 1974, the NCAA split the wrestling championships into Divisions I, II and III. Until 1991, high place winners in Divisions II and III also qualified for the Division I championships. Since its inception, the team race has been dominated by colleges in Oklahoma and Iowa. Oklahoma State ruled college wrestling for the first four decades winning 24 of 37 team championships when there was team scoring. The Cowboys were led by a series of legendary coaches, Edward Gallagher, Art Griffith and Myron Roderick. The pendulum swung to the state of Iowa by the late 1960s with first Iowa State and then Iowa ruling the roost. Dan Gable played a key role at both Iowa schools, first as a team leader of the 1969 and 1970 Iowa State squads and then winning 15 titles as the Iowa coach. The pendulum now seems to have swung back to Oklahoma State which has won three consecutive team titles under two-time NCAA and Olympic champion John Smith. Since 1969, when freshman became eligible to wrestle, two wrestlers have won four individual titles. Pat Smith of Oklahoma State did it first winning at 158-pounds in 1990-1992 and 1994. Then in 2002, Cael Sanderson capped a perfect 159-0-0 career with his fourth individual championship (three at 184-pounds, one at 197-pounds) and fourth Outstanding Wrestler award. Today over 220 Divisions I, II and III NCAA member institutions sponsor wrestling allowing participation by over 4,000 student-athletes.