By Richard Hoffer

	To build on Iowa's grassroots passion, Brands (left) lured the fabled Gable back as a Hawkeyes assistant. Matthew Holst

Wrestling is characterized by nothing so much as work ethic, which is something worth celebrating and remembering in a place that requires so much of it. Iowans like their football and basketball, too, but they love their wrestling. And this passion has transferred directly into an extended excellence that neither Indiana in basketball nor Texas in football can claim. The lore is pure Americana, reminding us of a permanence of achievement and small-potatoes glory that doesn't seem possible outside places like Iowa. Would Bob Steenlage persevere in memory if he'd been California's first four-time high school champion? In Britt (pop. 2,052; FOUNDED BY RAIL, SUSTAINED BY PLOW), he remains famous, hauled out for newspaper reminiscences 45 years later.

Even Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, and Cornell College, in Mount Vernon, have won NCAA titles, giving the 30th most populous state a total of 30. Oklahoma is a powerhouse too -- between them, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma have 41 -- but other programs advance tentatively, mindful of the mystique. Minnesota coach J Robinson, who assisted Gable for 12 seasons (and who poaches an Iowa four-time state champ, like 133-pound Mack Reiter, when he can) has the No. 1 team, having crushed Iowa 29-13 in a meet last month. But he does not anticipate a reworking of wrestling mythology anytime soon.

"At Minnesota," he says, "we've got a minor sport. In Iowa, it's still a major sport. There's a different mind-set, a different attitude. Wrestling is important. I mean, [the Hawkeyes] have their own beat writer." When the Golden Gophers came to Iowa City, 8,274 fans showed up. Iowa, which has won "only" three championships since Gable left in 1997 -- his successor Jim Zalesky was replaced after finishing fourth in the NCAAs last year -- still leads the country in attendance, with 6,740 fans per meet.

Iowa State has a formidable tradition as well, and it's rebuilding, too, perhaps at a faster clip than its rival. Under Sanderson, the Cyclones are in the hunt for their first championship in 20 years. For all his success, though, the 27-year-old Sanderson remains something of an outsider, having grown up in Heber City, Utah. But he understands Iowa wrestling. "When I came to Iowa State as a freshman," he says, "and, remember, I'd been a four-time champion in Utah, somebody asked me if I thought I could have won even one in Iowa. That's the attitude."

To maintain such tradition, such attitude, in the face of increasing distractions and competition from other sports is nothing less than a marvel. There is no reason that other, more populous states, shouldn't surpass Iowa. Brands says the top high school programs right now are in New Jersey and Ohio. His best prospect, who won't be eligible until next season, is from Michigan. But he knows, all the same, that the key to success is to recruit those four-timers, the small-town legends, the hard-nosed and aggressive ones, and make them competitive at the college level. "These fans deserve that," he says. "They expect that."

To help stoke the locals' fires, Brands coaxed Gable out of his fund-raising job in the Hawkeyes' athletic department and onto his staff. There is no equivalent to this move, not in any sport, at any level, unless the Green Bay Packers somehow coaxed Vince Lombardi out of eternity to call plays from the press box. Gable's role is somewhat mysterious, in that he refuses to offer his former pupil any unsolicited advice. But his impatience with losing might provide the program with just enough impetus to regain its stature.