Former Olympic wrestler Glen Brand is one of nine people to be inducted into the Iowa State Hall of Fame this fall. Brand, a native of Clarion, Iowa, compiled a 51-54 record and pinned 30 opponents while wrestling for the Cyclones.

As a freshman in 1946, Brand pinned all of his opponents but one and went on to a third place finish as a heavyweight at the NCAA meet.

Through the 1947 and 1948 seasons, he wrestled through 12 straight dual meets without a loss. In 1948, he won the NCAA title at 173 lbs. This, combined with a solid performance during his junior year, earned him ISU Athlete-of-the-Year honors.

In 1948, Brand also qualified for the U.S. Olympic team and went on to win the gold medal in middleweight freestyle wrestling in London.

Brand was sidelined through the 1949 season with a shoulder injury. In 1949, he started his season with a 7-0 record, but an appendectomy ended his amateur career.

Brand said his whole story started when he was stationed in Guam at the end of World War II. He was to be discharged in two weeks when one of his friends asked him what he would do next. Brand said he was considering being an engineer and his friend said that Ames has the best engineering school in Iowa.

On January 3, 1946, Brand enrolled at ISU to study engineering. The next day he went to watch the wrestling team practice. Brand said the coach asked him if he wanted to practice with the team for a while. His first meet was January 10.

Throughout his career at ISU, Brand made an engineering degree his first priority. He told his coach that he would quit the team if wrestling interfered with his studies.

Of his time at ISU, Brand said, “It was the best thing I ever did in my life.”

In 1948, he wrestled at the Olympic qualifying trials which were held at ISU. Brand said, “It was really harder for me to win in the United States, than it was for me to win in London.”

During these trials, Brand faced the man who had defeated him in the 1947 NCAA finals, Joe Scarpello from the University of Iowa. The match between the two best wrestlers in the United States was a huge event. According to the August 5, 1947 edition of the Daily, 3500 people went to the State Gym to watch the match. Brand emerged from those trials as the best of 32 wrestlers in his weight class.

Once he was in London, Brand said he was a little apprehensive because “no one had ever seen a European wrestling tournament.” He said the last Olympics had been held in 1936, so little was known of the European wrestling style.

Brand was fortunate in that he was scheduled to wrestle last in his weight class because he could watch how well the other men wrestled. Brand said that as he watched his opponents he became more and more confident that he would be able to beat them. He said that by the time he wrestled his first match, he was aware that he had a good chance at becoming an Olympic champion.

Brand advanced easily through the field and finally defeated Erik Linden of Sweden to become the 1948 Olympic champion in the 174 pound class.

After graduating with his degree in engineering, Brand moved to Omaha, Neb., where he started working for a company that made hydraulics for front-end loaders on tractors. Soon, he quit that job and designed and tested a special hydraulic valve for tractors.

He started a small company that steadily grew, and now Brand has a company that employs 80 people and distributes parts all over the United States and to 20 foreign countries.

Now Brand said he works only on projects that interest him and spends some afternoons golfing. “It has been fun all the way,” he said.