The Hawkeye Wrestling Club was founded in 1973. Its focus is getting post-collegiate wrestlers to Iowa City to train with the best in hopes of becoming world and Olympic champions. It does this through fundraising to help athletes with living expenses, coaching and training needs.
The club was started by Rob Williams, a passionate and dedicated wrestling fan. He grew the HWC from its infancy to what it is today. He was a board member, attended 34 NCAA tournaments and worked with coaches to develop youth wrestling. He died in 2019 from a bout with cancer. His passion for wrestling and the Hawkeyes was a driving force in his life.
HWC is funded entirely by donations and fundraising efforts. While this isn’t a bad thing, it leaves the club a little short on money to do what they want. The good news is that some of the most loyal wrestling fans in the world are stepping up to the plate to help out, and this might be the biggest windfall that the club has ever experienced.
It was a simple conversation on a message board that set off a flurry of fundraising activity for the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. HWC board member Randy Novak began a discussion on the Hawkeye Report Wrestling Forum about what the club does, how it is run and its costs. He wasn’t asking for much, but he was simply trying to educate the faithful Iowa wrestling fans about what the club does and how it could do more.
A few posts later, he had started a thread on the forum with a simple link to their donation page. The goal was $100,000, and it seemed like a lofty one at the time.
However, the community rallied around it and the fund raised blew past that amount. Novak didn’t expect the support that he received, but it was more than enough to help the club grow even further.
The HWC is a huge support system for Iowa’s post-collegiate wrestlers. Its athletes normally receive about $2,000 a month from the organization, and this combined with sponsorship deals and funds from other clubs they participate in, gives them a comfortable lifestyle.
HWC has a long tradition of success, dating back to the days of legendary Dan Gable. Gable’s team put five wrestlers on the podium at a single NCAA tournament in 1997, including future world champions Jesse Whitmer and Mark Ironside. They also had multiple All-Americans in Lincoln McIlravy, Joe Williams and Lee Fullhart.
After Gable left for the University of Minnesota, three-time national champion Jim Zalesky took over the reins and kept it going. His squads finished second in 1998 and 2021, with multiple All-Americans in Ryan Morningstar, Phillip Keddy and Dan Erekson. He also led the Hawkeyes to a tight win at the 1999 Big Ten Championships, beating Minnesota by 13 points behind five nationally ranked wrestlers on a day that was billed as a battle for the ages.