Nov 18, 2016
Episode 6 of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame's LEGENDS
podcast features 1986 Distinguished Member Ben Peterson.
A high school youngster from Wisconsin, competing in the 1968
Olympic trials, caught the eye of veteran coach Harold Nichols. Ben
Peterson would become one of Iowa State's greatest wrestlers, and
then one of America's brightest stars. He won nearly 100 collegiate
matches, was a three-time Big Eight king and a three-time
All-American. He captured NCAA championships in 1971 and '72.
Encouraged--you might say pushed--by his friend and teammate, Dan
Gable, Peterson blended athletic skills with determination and
strong faith. Over the next decade, he won seven national Freestyle
titles, placed twice in the World Championships (with a bronze
medal in '73), and won gold in the 1975 Pan Am Games. During this
era, he was joined by his brother, John, to forge one of
wrestling's great family legends.
In the '72 Olympics, Ben struggled to a draw with Gennady Strakhov
of the USSR. When they emerged as the only survivors at 198 pounds,
Ben earned the gold with more falls. John's silver at 180.5 was
almost as sweet. The brothers returned to the Olympics in 1976 at
Montreal, for equally rewarding but oddly reversed success. Levan
Tediashvili, the superb Soviet who had blocked John's bid at
Munich, limited Ben to a silver medal. But John captured the gold,
and the Peterson brothers became the third and fourth two-time
Olympic medalists in U.S. history.
Ben made a third Olympic team in 1980, only the fifth American to
do that, but was thwarted by the boycott.
Faith has been a hallmark of Ben Peterson's life. Since 1976 he has
coached and taught at Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Wisconsin,
and has directed a summer camp to teach his skills and his way of
life to young wrestlers. In 1985, one of Ben's students, Mike
Houck, became the first American to win a World Championship in
Greco-Roman.
As a wrestler of outstanding achievement and as a golden example of
sportsmanship and leadership, Benjamin Lee Peterson is honored as a
Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
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