For years the Iowa State wrestling team has been in national contention for the NCAA title.

But the presence of Iowa wrestling, and specifically Hawkeye head wrestling coach and former ISU wrestler Dan Gable, has often stood in the way.

Now, after 21 years of coaching and 15 NCAA titles, Gable is going to be absent from the Hawkeye attack.

Jim Zalesky, an Iowa assistant who wrestled under Gable, will be acting coach for the 1997-98 season. If Gable decides not to come back, the school will seek a permanent replacement, Iowa athletic director Bob Bowlsby said.

“I’m taking a leave of absence,” Gable said. “Unless something really changes my thinking, it might be a permanent leave of absence from coaching.

“I’d like to be able to satisfy a lot of people who would really like to see me coach longer. I’ll take a look at it from that point of view, too, but my intentions right now probably aren’t real strong in the area of coming back.

“One thing I’ve been good at is reading my team. That’s why we’ve been able to make decisions at proper times. But I’m reading myself right now, and I really read myself as necessary for me to step down.”

Early rumors of Gable’s retirement brought mixed reviews from coaches around the country.

“I look at it as a good and a bad void,” Drexel coach Jack Childs said.

Childs was runner-up up to Gable in voting for Rookie Coach of the Year honors in 1977.

“The bad part is we would not have him to emulate; we would not have him to chase after,” he said. “On the flip side, it will certainly start to make things more equitable.”

This is the second time Gable has handed the coaching job down to an assistant.

The 1983-84 Hawkeye team was coached by then-assistant J. Robinson so Gable could spend more time to work with the United States freestyle team to prepare for the 1984 Olympic Games.

The step away could also give Gable time to test the ropes of retirement. To many, retirement may seem easy, but after coaching for 21 years, it may be an uncomfortable change for Gable.

“He deserves an opportunity to relax a little bit,” Boston University coach Carl Adams said.

Adams was a teammate of Gable’s at Iowa State.

“Maybe he’ll take advantage of that. He’s done everything anyone could ask of a man as far as promoting wrestling — being a goodwill ambassador.

“He’s given us more than we really could ask of anyone, so he doesn’t need to stay involved. If he wants to, it will be fantastic,” Adams said.

Central Missouri State coach Robin Ersland, a longtime friend of Gable’s, believes the publicity of the sport may suffer with such a dramatic loss of a public figure like Gable.

“I don’t know that Gable’s (retiring) will hurt wrestling because I think the name will always be there, but I think it might hurt from the publicity side because he’s the guy that Sports Illustrated and all those people love,” Ersland said.

And what about the wrestlers at Iowa? Many of the athletes come to Iowa choose to wrestle because of the image and to be coached by one of the greatest coaches who has ever lived.

“A lot of [the] time, guys don’t understand where a coach is coming from,” Iowa assistant Tom Brands said.

Brands is a three-time NCAA champion, 1993 world champion and 1996 Olympic champion.

“Gable can get inside your head and turn the right nuts and bolts. The big thing is, he gets the athletes to like him,” Brands said.

The wrestling world will just have to wait to see how the Gable-less Hawkeyes — and the sport of college wrestling — will do without its famed leader.

But Gable’s farewell speech gave an inkling that he won’t be too far away from Hawkeye gold and black.

“I think this will give me a chance to stay real close to the sport and not have to be on the mat as much,” Gable said.

“I’ll be working with guys that just need fine edges instead of needing a lot of different edges.”

Gable’s presence alone should allow the Hawkeye program to succeed in the future, just as it has in the past. Zalesky is counting on it.

“Coach Gable kind of implemented the expectations of the program and they’re not going to change any,” Zalesky said.

“With him being an arm’s length away, that will be a very big advantage for us,” he said.

“If we have any problems, we can consult with him. He can give me all the advice he wants because I’ll listen.”

Gable, who was a three-time All-American at ISU, a 1972 lightweight Olympic gold medal winner, a 1969 NCAA national champion and a 100-match winner at ISU, certainly has enough experience to earn the ear of any wrestling coach in history.

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— The Associated Press contributed to this story.