In 1916, Charles Mayser introduced wrestling to the campus of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Much like the crops that were cultivated at the small land-grant school, Mayser grew his program from the ground up. He would eventually pass his team on to other coaches, who would oversee the team’s transformation from a sprout to a giant beanstalk.

Almost a century later the school has gone through a lot of change, but the tradition of wrestling remains as strong as ever.

Last Sunday, the Cyclones defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils, 30–10, to win the program’s 1,000th all-time dual meet, becoming the first collegiate wrestling program in the nation to do so.

“Winning national championships is on the top of the list for Iowa State University,” said first-year coach Kevin Jackson. “But winning 1,000 matches is huge, it’s gigantic.”

Jackson, the seventh coach in the program’s history, has rejoined the team that he helped to a national championship as a wrestler. As a collegiate athlete, Jackson transferred to Iowa State from Louisiana State for his senior year after the Tigers’ athletic department dropped wrestling. After earning All-American honors in each of his three years at LSU, he was named senior captain of the Cyclone wrestling team that went on to win Iowa State’s last NCAA championship in 1987.

“It means so much to me being an [alumnus] and a coach,” Jackson said. “Being the coach to coach that team to the 1,000th win is very exciting to me and very humbling to me to know that I was a part of not only being an athlete in helping get some of those wins, but now, as a coach, continuing to help get those wins for the Cyclones, and it just shows that we’ve had success for a long time.”

Jackson compiled a record of 30–3–1 en route to placing second at the NCAA tournament and earning All-American honors for the fourth year of his collegiate wrestling career.

Jackson took over for collegiate wrestling legend Cael Sanderson, who left Iowa State to take the head coaching job at Penn State after the 2008–’09 season.

The mark Sanderson left on Iowa State and collegiate wrestling at large is one that will most likely never be touched. Sanderson went an unprecedented 159–0 in his collegiate career and took the reins as coach of the Cyclones in 2006. Sanderson also won the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Combining his wins as a wrestler with his wins as a coach, Sanderson is accountable for nearly 20 percent of Iowa State’s victories.

Sanderson was unavailable for comment.

Chris Bono, one of Jackson’s assistant coaches, left his head coaching job at Tennessee-Chattanooga — where he was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year three times — to return to his alma mater to coach under Jackson for the Cyclones.

During his career spanning from 1994–’97, Bono qualified for the NCAA tournament four times while wrestling in the cardinal-and-gold singlet, with fifth- and second-place finishes during his sophomore and senior seasons. He currently ranks fifth all-time in matches won with 130 victories, earning All-American honors three times in his four years at Iowa State. However, his shining moment came during his junior season, when he won the 1996 NCAA championship at 150 pounds.

“Winning my NCAA title is something I will never forget,” Bono said. “Being able to put on an Iowa State singlet and going out there and winning a title for the school and for my coaches and for my teammates is something I’ll never forget.”

Sanderson and Bono were just two of the many standout wrestlers to compete under legendary coach Bobby Douglas, who coached Iowa State to 198 dual victories from 1992–’06.

“I don’t think people really know the historical importance of winning 1,000 matches for Iowa State,” Douglas said. “The fact that they are the first ones to the 1,000 mark will certainly send out a signal to the rest of the American wrestling community about the tradition here at Iowa State, and it should be a tremendous recruiting tool and building tool for the future.”

In his 14 years at Iowa State, Douglas earned Coach of the Year honors three times and coached wrestlers who won 10 individual NCAA championships and earned All-American honors 52 times. He also coached the sport’s only undefeated wrestler and four-time national champion, Sanderson, from 1999–’02.

Douglas, however, accredits the program’s success to Dr. Harold Nichols for building the foundation for Cyclone wrestling that has now sprouted into a national powerhouse year after year.

“Dr. Harold Nichols is obviously the person that started this great tradition,” Douglas said.

Taking over for Hugo Otopalik, who coached the Cyclones for 28 years, Nichols accounted for nearly half of the Cyclones’ dual victories, compiling a record of 456–75–11 in his 32-year tenure at Iowa State. He also coached the Cyclones to six of the program’s eight national titles. He was considered a pioneer in breaking racial boundaries in the sport of wrestling, mentoring and coaching numerous groups of racial minorities. Douglas was taken under Nichols’ wing when he was hired as an assistant coach at Iowa State in his first collegiate coaching position before beginning his own career as a head coach.

“Dr. Nichols took [the program] to heights that very few people could take it,” Douglas said. “I think it’s a credit to Iowa State and it reflects diversity of the athletic program, along with a tradition of diversity of the university and its athletic program. Diversity is a very important factor in recruiting, and I think that this will certainly let America and the wrestling community know about the accomplishments of Iowa State.”

Nichols passed away in 1997 at the age of 78 in Ames.

Despite Nichols’ passing, Iowa State continues to be a leader in bringing diversity to the sport of wrestling at the collegiate level.

“One of the things that is so important here is that the role that Iowa State University has played in its leadership role in diversity has had a tremendous impact on educating minorities, such as myself, in giving them a fair chance, not only in the athletic field but in the administration and in the coaching ranks,” Douglas said.

“Iowa State leads the nation in diversity. It’s a landmark performance, and I think that [the 1,000th victory] will have a tremendous impact in the future of American wrestling program and the Iowa State wrestling program.”

Names like Dan Gable, Chris Taylor, Ben Peterson, Glen Brand and Nate Carr, along with their Olympic medals, further reinforce the winning history of Iowa State wrestling. While those names serve as a reminder of the past, they also carry on into the future with every wrestler to put on the cardinal-and-gold singlet.

With eight national championships, 14 conference championships and over a dozen Olympians, it is safe to assume that Iowa State will be a mainstay of collegiate wrestling as long as the sport is around.