The Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Arizona State Sun Devils have a storied history in collegiate wrestling. This article delves into their past encounters, highlighting key matches, standout athletes, and the overall legacy of both programs.
The #4 Oklahoma State Cowboys (5-1) continued their West Coast trip, visiting Arizona State (0-2) Sunday afternoon in Tempe.
On Nov. 23, [YEAR], the Cowboys faced Arizona State at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona. The attendance was 4,049.
Key Match Results
Here are the results from a notable dual match between Oklahoma State and Arizona State:
- 125: No. 8 Troy Spratley (OSU) dec. No. 33 Damian Moreno (ASU), 4-1
- 133: No. 29 Kyler Larkin (ASU) dec. No. 17 Richard Figueroa II (OSU), 10-5
- 141: No. 2 Sergio Vega (OSU) dec. No. 30 Pierson Manville (OSU), 8-3
- 149: No. 2 Kaleb Larkin (ASU) TF Cutter Sheets (OSU), 19-4
- 157: No. 2 Landon Robideau (OSU) MD No. 24 Chance McLane (ASU), 16-5
- 165: No. 17 Nicco Cruz (ASU) dec. Kody Routledge (OSU), 10-9
- 174: No. 16 Alex Facundo (OSU) MD Cael Valencia (ASU), 18-8
- 184: No. 9 Zach Ryder (OSU) dec. Azizbek Fayzullaev (ASU), 4-0
- 197: No. 9 Cody Merrill (OSU) TF Maxi Acciardi (ASU), 22-6
- HWT: No. 8 Konner Doucet (OSU) dec. No. 23 David Szuba (ASU), 5-2
In a recent battle, Sun Devil Wrestling fell 25-11 against No. 4 Oklahoma State. No. 17 Nicco Ruiz, No. 29 Kyler Larkin, and No. 2 Kaleb Larkin were victorious in three bouts for Arizona State (0-3, 0-1 Big 12) in a resilient effort versus the top-10 ranked Cowboys (6-1, 2-0 Big 12).
Read also: A Look at OSU Wrestling
Individual Performances
Nicco Ruiz rallied for a hard-fought 10-9 decision over OSU’s Kody Routledge, as he landed a massive takedown with just 16 seconds remaining to push him over the hump. The Larkin brothers continued their perfect starts to the season, with freshman Kyler picking up an electrifying 10-5 win by decision against former Sun Devil national champion Richard Figueroa II. At 149 lbs, No. 2 Kaleb Larkin continued to prove his position on the national scale. Redshirt sophomore Kaleb dominated OSU’s Cutter Sheets with a 20-point TF to notch his seventh win of the season.
Historical Context
For more than a half-century, the NWCA All-Star Classic has been an annual event on the college wrestling calendar going back to 1967.
Although the All-Star event has been a fixture of college wrestling since 1967, it hasn't always been the season-opening event. In fact, the NWCA All-Star Classic has been the kickoff event for only a decade-and-a-half ... going back to 2005, when the event made its first appearance at the beginning of the collegiate season when held at the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville in metropolitan St. Louis.
In the early years -- 1967 through 1971 -- the All-Stars had been the capstone event of the college wrestling season, taking place a week or two after the conclusion of the NCAA wrestling championships.
For just over three decades -- from 1972 through 2004 -- the All-Star Classic took place pretty much in mid-season ...
Read also: A Storied Wrestling Rivalry
For two decades -- 1967 through 1987 -- the All-Star Classic used an East vs. West format, with individual wrestlers placed on either an East or West team.
At the 1967 East-West Classic, each team had two legendary college wrestling coaches. The East team was led by Cliff Keen of the University of Michigan, and Lehigh's Gerry Leeman.
Referee for the 1967 East-West Classic was Rex Edgar. A decade earlier, Edgar had wrestled for the University of Oklahoma, winning a Big Seven title and NCAA All-American honors, placing third in the 167-pound bracket at the 1957 NCAAs.
The 1967 East-West Classic was held Saturday, April 8 at Gallagher Hall (now Gallagher-Iba Arena) at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. A near-capacity crowd of 6,700 fans gathered to see the top college wrestlers of the era do battle.
At the 1967 East-West Classic, matches were wrestled in ascending order -- lightest to heftiest, starting with the 115-pounders, and concluding with the unlimited class, better known as heavyweight.
Read also: A History of Penn State Wrestling Arenas
Notable Wrestlers at the 1967 East-West Classic
- 115 pounds: Glenn McMinn (Arizona State/West)
- 130 pounds: Mike Caruso (Lehigh/East)
- 137 pounds: Gene Davis (Oklahoma State/West)
- 145 pounds: Jim Rogers (Oklahoma State/West)
- 152 pounds: Lee Ehrler (UCLA/West)
- 160 pounds: Joe Domko (Southern Illinois University-Carbondale/East)
- 167 pounds: George Radman (Michigan State/East)
- 177 pounds: Don Parker (University of Northern Iowa/West)
- 191 pounds: Tom Schlendorf (Syracuse/East)
Oklahoma State Wrestling: A Legacy of Excellence
The Oklahoma State Cowboys rule Stillwater, and the wrestling team is largely responsible for creating this brand. This Oklahoma State brand is one of winning, of tradition, of legacy.
The most successful wrestling program in NCAA history, Oklahoma State has won 34 NCAA titles, while 467 athletes have earned All-American honors. Of those 467 All-Americans, 142 of them won national titles.
Current head coach John Smith is largely responsible for the modern success of the program, as he has coached 32 NCAA champions, 134 All-Americans, and 120 conference champions.
The Cowboys success though started long before Smith, with then head coach Ed Gallagher leading the team to its first NCAA title, and the first NCAA title in college wrestling history, in 1928.
Oklahoma State wrestling has won a total of 34 national championships, including back-to-back titles from 1948-1949, 1958-1959, 1961- 1962, and 1989-1990 as well as consecutive titles from 1928-1931, 1933-1935, 1937-1946, 1954-1956 and 2003-2006.
Oklahoma State is tied with Iowa for the longest unbeaten win streak. Both teams have won or tied 84 duals in a row. The Cowboys are tied for sixth in consecutive national titles won across all sports.
The Cowboys also crowned the first four-time NCAA champion in Pat Smith.
Oklahoma State wrestling has had 32 Olympians since 1924.
Early NCAA Championships
In the inaugural version of the modern day NCAA tournament, Oklahoma A&M, now known as Oklahoma State, put four wrestlers on top of the podium and added one additional All-American, a performance that would come to define the program.
After winning the first NCAA championship in 1929, the Aggies continued to add accolades to the program history books, winning the 1930 championship with four champs and two additional All-Americans.
The tournament included team scores for the first time in 1929, and Oklahoma A&M took the definitive win by an eight-point margin over Michigan.
The 1931 championship marked the fourth year in a row that Oklahoma A&M had not only won a title, but also crowned at least three NCAA champions. No other team in the country put more than one wrestler on top of the podium in 1931, while Robert Pearce, Leroy McGuirk, Jack VanBebber and Conrad Caldwell all took gold back to Stillwater.
The Aggies missed out on taking home the NCAA title in 1932, but they came back fighting in 1933 to push themselves back into first place, tying with Iowa for another national title.
The Aggies' streak of titles would end again after the 1935 championship, but Gallagher's team finished this particular year with another series of champions and All-Americans to add to the mystique and success of the program.
The 1930's were a special time for Oklahoma A&M with the Aggies winning all but one of the ten championships that decade.
The Ed Gallagher Era
The Ed Gallagher era at Oklahoma State came to an end in the most Ed Gallagher way possible: with a win. For a coach that never wrestled, Gallagher's 136-5-4 record with Oklahoma A&M, 11 team titles and 22 individual NCAA champions made him into a wrestling figure that the program would never forget.
Oklahoma State's home arena, Gallagher-Iba Arena bears the name of this historic coach.
Art Griffith's Leadership
In a sport dominated by dynasties, Oklahoma State and Iowa top the list of all-time great Division I wrestling programs.
The Aggies tradition and reputation of success came about because of the coaching success of Ed Gallagher, but in 1940, following Gallagher's tragic death, the program needed a new leader.
Art Griffith stepped up to the role and proved that even under a new coach, the team could be just as successful.
With eight place-winners, Oklahoma A&M topped Michigan State by 11 points while Whitehurst brought home Oustanding Wrestler honors.
Art Griffith showed the world in 1942 that his first title with the team was anything but a fluke, and he would continue to extend the Aggie winning tradition throughout his tenure with the program.
Olympic Wrestling Team 🇺🇸 🤼♂️ This 16 person Team was stacked with 6 Hall of Fame Members & Coaches Cliff Keen & Art Griffith.
The Aggie wrestling program produced NCAA champions year after year after year, but the team also pushed forward its fair share of Olympians, and 1948 marked a particularly memorable year for Oklahoma A&M.
Art Griffith became particularly good with routine at Oklahoma A&M. He just kept winning.
After the win, the wrestlers carried Griffith off the floor. The Aggies’ 1954 championship restored normalcy to Stillwater as Art Griffith guided his club back to another championship after suffering a losing season in 1953 and also missing out on titles in 1950, 1951 and 1952.
The team went undefeated in 1954 though and finished with three champs, including future three-time NCAA champion and future championship coach Myron Roderick.
In 1954, Art Griffith once again coached his team to a national championship, this time led by Myron Roderick and Fred Davis.
The 1956 season marked the end of an era for the Oklahoma A&M Aggies. Following their 19th national championship as a program, head coach Art Griffith retired after coaching the team to eight NCAA titles and coaching individual Cowboys to 27 individual titles, 64 All-American honors and a total dual record of 78-7-4.
In July 1957, several months after the NCAA tournament, the school name, Oklahoma A&M, was officially renamed Oklahoma State.
Myron Roderick's Era
Mryon Roderick needed just one year to find his footing as the head coach of his alma mater, but by 1958, he had put the team pack on top.
The 1958 title would be the first official title for Oklahoma State, and while the team name may have been new, the success was anything but.
Roderick knew how to win after spending his career under the coaching leadership of Art Griffith, and his 1958 win made him the youngest head coach to ever win a title at the age of 23.
Myron Roderick won his first back-to-back national titles as a coach in 1959 when he guided the Cowboys to a 22-point win over Iowa State at the national championships for gold.
The team's winning ways started in the dual season when they laid the foundation for what would become an 84-match winning streak, the longest in NCAA history.
The 1961 championship marked Myron Roderick's third national title in four years as a head coach of the Cowboys, and his season came on the heels of a successful Olympic performance from two Cowboys in 1960.