On this episode of The Full Tilt Podcast Hatch sits down with the Olympic gold medalist and legendary Iowa coach Dan Gable for a long-form conversation about wrestling, life, and legacy in his fabled cabin. His personal home wrestling room used for training.

They go deep on:

• Growing up under West Waterloo’s Coach Siddens
• Building dynasties at Iowa State and Iowa
• Losing to Larry Owings and how that loss transformed him
• Beating the Russians, training with Chris Taylor, and chasing Olympic gold
• Near-wrist and armbar torture sessions in the Iowa room
• The mindset it takes to get back to the top and rebuild after you fall off
• NIL, the transfer portal, and the future of college wrestling
• Family, grief, and why his grandkids carry his name forward

If you are a wrestling coach, athlete, or just a fan of elite performance, this is two hours of pure gold in a location few get access to.

Chapters:

0:00 Iron Sheik stories and pro wrestling crossover
0:50 Full Tilt intro and Hatch’s over-the-top excitement
1:41 Gable flips the script and starts interviewing Hatch
2:26 Hatch’s path: from Iowa kid to coaching across the country
4:28 Falling in love with South America and the idea of a wrestling club there
5:36 Pan Am Games in Colombia and beating a tough Cuban
6:37 Cubans, Russians, Iranians, and politics in world wrestling
9:23 The grind at Iowa and why Gable’s guys could not play another sport in-season
11:11 Hatch starts coaching youth while still wrestling for Iowa
13:08 Gable admits losing discipline between titles and rebuilding the Hawkeye dynasty
19:14 What it was like coming into Iowa behind Brands, Ironside, Haddock, Hogan
20:16 The Big Ten story: Kevin Hogan, Kent and Doug Strayer, and saving the title streak
28:27 Phase 2 of Iowa dominance: Brands, Steiners, Ryans, Pfisners, Ostendorp
32:34 What Gable learned from legendary high school coach Bob Siddens
39:40 The Marty Dickey weight-cut story and back-to-back West Waterloo champs
42:17 How Siddens and Nichols shaped Gable’s wrestling and coaching styles
47:11 Freshman Gable gets pushed in the Iowa State room and decides to “upgrade”
52:59 When did Gable get good enough to wrestle everyone in the room (including heavies)?
56:18 The Larry Owings loss, the newspaper headline, and a turning point
1:00:00 Learning to finish takedowns the right way and “make wrestling easier”
1:03:54 The slap from his mom that broke the mental fog after the Owings loss
1:07:03 Wrestling Chris Taylor, broken ribs, and competing hurt
1:10:21 Beating the Russians in Tbilisi and training with “Beat the Russians” on his wall
1:12:14 Why Gable tightened his focus and cut out distractions like pre-match media
1:20:16 Confronting the Iron Sheik at the 1996 Olympics about “beating Gable”
1:22:05 The 22 minute go and how Gable structured his own training at Iowa State
1:24:38 Hatch explains why wrestling Gable was worse than wrestling the Brands
1:26:19 Near-wrist defense and how swimming the arm changed everything
1:28:48 Social director Hatch, women’s teams in the stands, and getting pinned in front of them
1:32:45 Why Gable hates the phrase “I loved being a backup”
1:34:45 Parenting, pressure, and moms calling Gable about their sons’ roles
1:36:45 NIL, the transfer portal, and the risk of losing Division I wrestling programs
1:41:20 Marriage, sacrifice, and what it really takes to sustain a program
1:43:40 Gold as an athlete vs. gold as a coach: which meant more to Gable
1:45:16 How a murder in his family shaped his drive and why family matters most now

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