University of Minnesota’s “Brockfast of Champions”
poster featured Brock Lesnar with “tale of the tape”
call-outs pointing out the measurements of various
body parts.
Think the UFC rivalry between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir is intense?
A decade ago, the current UFC heavyweight champ had a powerful, ongoing rivalry as the University of Minnesota heavyweight vs Wes Hand of the University of Iowa.
In January 1999, Brock Lesnar burst onto the big-time college wrestling scene when the Bismarck State College big man started wrestling for Minnesota, one of the top-ranked NCAA Division I wrestling programs in the nation. He generated considerable buzz because of his muscular physique (6’3”, 265 pounds)… and for dominating opponents of similar poundage.
In that first month at Minnesota, Lesnar gained a headline-making victory that really put him on the radar of wrestling fans outside the upper Midwest. At the 1999 National Duals, held at Carver-Hawkeye Arena — the home for the Iowa Hawkeye wrestling program — Lesnar pinned Iowa’s Wes Hand in front of the home crowd… launching an intense mano a mano between the two warriors that lasted two years.
While Lesnar resembled a bigger, scarier version of blond movie muscleman Dolph Lundgren, Wes Hand looked more like the big, burly Iowa farm boy that he was. The dark-haired, hairy-chested Hawkeye stood 6’1” and tipped the scales at about 250 lbs.
Brock Lesnar’s college rival, Wes Hand of the University of Iowa, shown here with his singlet straps down.
The third mat meeting between Lesnar and Hand had some of the pre-match hype more like WWE or UFC 100 than a typical college dual meet, even between rival schools like Minnesota and Iowa. Before the meet – the last of the 2000 season — Hand had made some bold predictions about what he and the Hawkeyes would do to the Gophers… which riled up Lesnar, his team and its fans. Especially considering Hand had lost to Lesnar in their two previous matches.
On February 20, 2000, over 13,000 fans jammed Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota – at the time, the largest crowd ever to see a college dual meet on that campus. By the time of the heavyweight match – about halfway through the dual – the team score was 13-10 Gophers. The team that won the dual meet also won the Big Ten team title.
Here’s how the Minnesota Daily — the student paper at the University of Minnesota — described the action BEFORE any actual wrestling took place:
Tension in Sunday’s round began mounting before the two even stripped to their singlets. During pregame introductions, Hand walked over to Minnesota’s side of the mat waiting to shake Lesnar’s hand.
Lesnar emerged from behind his teammates and ran past Hand, making his way to center circle while indicating to Hand that center circle was where the two should meet. Hand went to center circle, acting like he would wish Lesnar good luck there and shake his hand.
In a 1999 match, Brock Lesnar (maroon singlet) throws Iowa’s Wes Hand
But Hand fooled all, running to center circle and right past Lesnar. The Gophers heavyweight simply waved good-bye.
It wasn’t all fun and games. In the first period, Wes Hand stunned everyone by scoring a takedown… then putting Lesnar on his back. The Hawkeye wasn’t able to pin his opponent, but held the gigantic Gopher long enough to score near-fall points, and rack up a 4-0 lead at the end of the opening period. Lesnar battled back, but was unable to grab the lead. The third-ranked Hand upset No. 1 Lesnar, 5-3.
Perhaps even more importantly, the rest of the Gophers line-up seemed to have been rocked by Lesnar’s loss, giving up their lead to ultimately lose the dual meet to Iowa 20-12 in their own gym. Thanks in large part to Wes Hand’s upset, the Iowa Hawkeyes won the 2000 Big Ten team title.
Brock Lesnar and Wes Hand wrestled two more times in college. Two weeks after the Minnesota-Iowa dual meet, the two met in the heavyweight finals at the 2000 Big Ten conference championships… with Lesnar avenging the loss, beating Hand, 2-1, in a bruising bout. Two weeks later, at the 2000 NCAA Division I championships at St. Louis, the two battled again, this time for the national heavyweight title. This time, the match went into overtime, but Lesnar came out on top, 3-2 OT.
Final score of the Lesnar-Hand rivalry: 4-1 for the Minnesota muscleman.
A few months after winning the NCAA crown, Brock Lesnar signed a developmental deal with the WWE… and, the rest is history.
Resources
Examiner.com: Brock Lesnar’s college days
Minnesota Daily write-up of the February 2000 Lesnar-Hand bout
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