Three-time all-American senior Leroy Vega

The Gopher wrestling team chipped away at the University of Iowa wrestling dynasty for years, taking pieces here and there but never wresting away the NCAA title, which the Hawkeyes have won 20 times since 1975. In 1998 Minnesota beat Iowa in Iowa City for the first time in decades. The following year the Gophers ended Iowa’s 25-year reign as Big Ten champion. After four years of finishing second or third, in 2001 Minnesota won the NCAA tournament.

Although now the undisputed best in the land, head coach J Robinson says he would have been OK if it had never happened. He learned to adopt that attitude in 1999, when the NCAA title was as close as the flip of a coin, when an opponent won the chance for an escape and instant win in an overtime match. "People don’t realize how close we really came," he says. "We lost the flip, the other guy got away, and we lost the tournament by two points."

Did that bitter loss motivate him to keep trying? "That’s the story everybody wants to hear," Robinson says. "To me it was like, ‘OK, God. All right. My life will be OK if I don’t ever win this. It’s almost like an acceptance that I can live my life without it. I think it made me be able to focus on it more relaxed. . . . But don’t get me wrong. I didn’t like it."

As the last statement indicates, even when Robinson turns introspective, he finds it hard to suppress his steely will and competitive drive. A member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic wrestling team, Robinson feels that his biggest mistake as a competitor was not setting even higher goals. He and his coaches have also garnered a reputation for their intense preparation and tough workouts. His drive and self-assurance compel him to speak about his feelings on issues like administrators’ spending priorities and Title IX (see accompanying article).

The Minnesota program rose slowly and deliberately in Robinson’s 15 years, starting with individual success, like that of Marty Morgan, now head assistant coach, who was a 1991 NCAA champion. "Over the years our training philosophy has changed quite a bit," Morgan says. "We’ve learned to train a little more systematically, smarter, and to be more individualized with the wrestlers. I keep a pretty tight journal of everything we do and I know I spend a lot more time than before preparing and working with individuals."

That preparation paid off in 2001 as, en route to the NCAA title, the Gophers became the first team ever to have an all-American wrestler in all 10 weight classes. Yet just seven years ago, "[Men’s Athletics was] going to let people into meets for free," Robinson says. He proposed using volunteer ticket takers and ushers and letting the wrestling program keep the gate. The administration agreed. After bringing in about $8,000 that year, receipts grew until they reached $90,000 last year. The athletics department is running the meets again.

"Instead of complaining, we said, ‘If the University won’t do it, then we’ll take care of it ourselves,’" Robinson says. "We started our own TV program. We started own season-ticket sales. We started a meet program that now makes money. We started marketing our own matches."

That spirit has sometimes caused Robinson to run afoul of administrators. He is now under investigation for requiring attendees at his wrestling camps to write anti–Title IX letters and for using University resources to promote his opinions about Title IX. Yet that very spirit has also proven attractive in the autonomous and hard-working world of wrestlers.

"The easy part now is that kids want to come here," Morgan says. "The hard part is still finding the right kinds of kids who are talented, have the work ethic, and fit in with our team."

Last year Robinson knew that his

Senior all-American Owen Elzen

team could win only as a team, since he didn’t have many wrestlers with legitimate shots at winning national titles. "I knew we could do it if we had 10 all-Americans," he says. "What’s the saying? ‘The strength of the pack is the individual and the strength of the individual is the pack.’ That’s where we are. Our strength is our individuals but our individuals are also part of a tight, collective team."

As the three-day NCAA meet progressed last March in Iowa City, things were going perfectly. Near the end of the second day, all 10 Gophers had earned top-eight finishes and all-American status. Six were still alive in the championship semifinals. The first five lost. Then heavyweight Garrett Lowney’s match went into overtime. The coin was flipped to determine who would have the first chance to escape and win. It rolled around the mat with Lowney’s green side up, Robinson says. Just before settling it flipped to red. "I thought, ‘Oh no. Here we go again.’" The opponent escaped and the discouraged team went back to the hotel. "The coaches took turns talking to them, telling them that we could still win this. We reminded them that we had trained all year specifically to wrestle hard on the third day. . . . Then they went out and did it."

They won in Iowa City in front of a strong contingent of Gopher fans. But when the national champions returned to campus, they found no welcoming rally, no banners, no budget bonus. "We haven’t gotten anything from this University for winning," Robinson says. "Really, though, the reward is for us—that feeling of knowing that you were on a team that set NCAA records and won an NCAA title, something that is very rare at the University of Minnesota. Those are things that can never be taken away from you. . . . Success comes from outside, the things the world puts on you, but excellence comes from within. We want to win again because we want to be the best regardless of what we get for it."

To win again appears to be a realistic goal. Minnesota returns eight all-Americans: senior Leroy Vega of Portage, Indiana, who took third at 125 pounds last year; senior Chad Erickson of Apple Valley, Minnesota, eighth at 141; junior Jared Lawrence of Sand Point, Idaho, sixth at 149; junior Luke Becker of Cambridge, Minnesota, fourth at 157; sophomore Jacob Volkmann of Henning, Minnesota, fourth at 174; sophomore Damion Hahn of Lakewood, New Jersey, fifth at 184; senior Owen Elzen of Eyota, Minnesota, third at 197; and Lowney, a sophomore from Appleton, Wisconsin, who ended up third.

Into one open spot, 133 pounds, steps junior Ryan Lewis, who was an NCAA Division II all-American for North Dakota State in 2000. At 165, a junior-college national champion and a pair of three-time Minnesota state champions are contenders. Among underclassmen waiting their turn are a pair of four-time Minnesota high-school champs, several high-school all-Americans, and the Minnesota record holder with 209 high-school wins.

"This year the emphasis is going to be on individual champions, individual finalists," Robinson says. "The expectations have changed. We have 10 all-Americans and now you have to be an all-American; that’s the bottom line. . . . The younger guys look at them and say, ‘When I get my chance, I can do that.’ It’s not just expectation now; it’s reality."

The Gophers have felt excellence and want more of it—at an even higher level. "We won’t know this for maybe six or seven years, but the way we’ve got things set up, we could become a dynasty," says Robinson, who was an assistant and interim head coach at Iowa before coming to Minnesota. "Who doesn’t want to be part of that? I was part of it, and there is no feeling like it."

Chris Coughlan-Smith is senior editor for Minnesota.