"You know why I came here. I wouldn't have come here if I didn't think we could get it done. Our goal is to be the best. To win every match, every tournament, every dual, to beat our cross-state rivals. That is the goal." Photo courtesy of CycloneMania.com
Waterloo native Mike Van Arsdale remembers the first time he met Kevin Jackson.
Jackson, who was greeted with a loud, long, standing ovation when he was introduced as Iowa State’s new head wrestling coach Friday in a press conference inside the Jacobson Building, also recalls that chance meeting fondly.
“As a senior in high school, I wrestled Mike Van Arsdale at the Junior National tournament,” said Jackson, a native of East Lansing, Mich. “Do you guys know the Mike Van Arsdale I know?
“Mike is Mike. He is a little flamboyant, a little energetic. We were wrestling, and I had just won a national title in Greco-Roman. So I was probably in my 18th, 19th match.
“I’m ready to give it up. I’m exhausted, and we get to end of the first period and Mike is beating me. The period gets over, I’m exhausted and having a little mental breakdown.
“Mike walks up to the corner, looks up to the crowd, and it is an Iowa crowd, we’re in Iowa City. He looks at everyone and says, ‘I’m going to get him.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to kill this guy.’
“Fortunately, I was able to beat him, and I know he remembers it.”
Van Arsdale, a three-time ISU all-American and 1988 national champion, doesn’t dispute Jackson’s account.
“What happened is my brother and friend, Leon, were up in the balcony of the Fieldhouse in Iowa City and we were watching the Greco portion of the tournament (which Jackson won),” Van Arsdale said. “And I said, ‘When it comes to freestyle, I’m going to beat everybody out there.’
“They said, ‘You’re not going to beat Kevin Jackson.’
“And I said, ‘Yes I am. I’m going to destroy him.’ So we face off and I’m winning like 6-1 and I start talking. The next thing you know, I was thrown to my back three times and he beats me, 13-10. I was heartbroken.”
Guys like Van Arsdale and fellow Waterloo natives Bill Tate and Stewart Carter, who were teammates of Jackson’s when the Cyclones won their last national title in 1987, are primary reasons Jackson was so attracted to Iowa State’s head coaching position.
Another Waterloo native, Jim Gibbons, who coached the 1987 ISU national title squad and recruited Jackson to Ames, feels Jackson is the perfect fit for the job.
“I made him a captain after one year, so that tells you what I think of him and his leadership ability,” Gibbons said. “He was a perfect fit and the last piece of the puzzle for our championship effort.
“I think he will take a lot of those lessons from that team and try to apply them to this program.”
He remains lifelong friends with Carter, Tate and Van Arsdale. In fact, at Tate’s wedding, he served as best man.
“Bill Tate, Mike Van Arsdale, Jeff Gibbons, Stewart Carter … they were the reasons I came to Iowa State,” Jackson said.
Jackson invited Tate and Van Arsdale, along with many of his other former teammates, to Friday’s press conference.
“When Kevin got here from LSU, what I remember most is he began to establish himself as a leader right away,” said Tate, who was a redshirt sophomore in 1985 when Jackson arrived at ISU. “We became roommates, friends and training partners. I was one of his training partners when he was training for the Olympics.
“We’re just glad to have him back. I’ve been texting him back and forth every day. It was a close call. The Arizona State job was out there, and I think it was between him and Zeke Jones for both jobs. Thankfully, Iowa State made the right choice.
“Kevin understands what it is going to take to win, and he will work toward the goal of winning a national championship with a determined effort.”
After three all-American years at Louisiana State, Jackson redshirted his first year at Iowa State before helping the Cyclones snap Iowa’s string of nine consecutive national titles in 1987 by finishing second at 167, a spot that had been filled by Van Arsdale the previous two seasons.
“The plan was always to have him redshirt, and then I redshirt the following year,” Van Arsdale recalled. “It was a great situation for me because he was the guy I trained against. I remember the intensity he brought to the room and the way he pushed me. He was a big reason why I won a national title in 1988, the year after he graduated.”
Jackson will be bouncing back and forth over the next few weeks between his new job in Ames and his old one in Arizona with the Sunkist Youth program, as well as some responsibilities with USA Wrestling for the World Team trials in Council Bluffs in June. Then, he’ll be settling in permanently, he hopes, for a long and successful run with the Cyclones.
“I am truly humbled to be in this position today to lead Iowa State’s wrestling program,” Jackson said. “I’m really happy to be here.
Jackson and Pollard had a chance to talk with Wrestling 411 on Monday morning to talk about expectations at Iowa State, the hiring process and getting accustomed to coaching college kids again. Take a listen to the video below to get the details!
