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33 D an Gable hosted a call-in show four years ago and fielded a question asking what wrestler gave him the toughest "go" during his coaching career at the University of Iowa. "A kid named Kinseth," he said. e kid named Kinseth is one of six inducted into the National Iowa Varsity Club Hall of Fame's Class of 2014. Bruce Kinseth, a junior varsity wrestler as a sophomore at Decorah (Iowa) High School, relied on work ethic and love of the sport to amass a career record with the Hawkeyes of 95-17 with 41 falls. He was runner-up at 150 pounds at the 1978 NCAA Championships and won the title in 1979, pinning all four competitors in the Big Ten Tournament and all five in the NCAA Championships. is is Gable's most memorable bout with Kinseth: It was the summer of 1976 and Gable was fishing at his cabin in Lansing, Iowa. "I'm a little antsy and starting to shake because I need my wrestling workout," Gable recalled. So he phones Kinseth, who lived 35 miles away at the Cliff House, a hotel in Decorah. Kinseth was coming off a freshman season that produced an 11-4 record with three falls. "We walk down to one of the rooms, he put a key in, and there is a wrestling room instead of a bedroom," Gable said. "ey had wall-to-wall mats and we went at it. I had wrestled him several times before, but with this workout I could tell he was making progress. It was causing me to work and strain. He taxed me and I had a heck of a work out." On the 40-minute drive back to Lansing, Gable knew Kinseth had turned the corner. "He and I had a lot in common in terms of working out and wrestling and being on the mat," Kinseth said of his relationship with Gable. "I loved to wrestle, so I wrestled a lot. I would wrestle with Gable at the end of practice and go another half hour, 45 minutes, hour. Of course he would beat the crap out of me, but that made me a better wrestler." at is validated by the progression of Kinseth's career. As a sophomore he was 19-8 with five falls. He improved to 31-4 with 10 falls as a junior. During his senior season, Kinseth was 34-1, set the school record with 23 falls (a mark that still stands), earned his second team Most Valuable Wrestler award, and was named Outstanding Wrestler of the 1979 NCAA Championships. "It's about hard work," Kinseth said. "In high school I continued to improve and get better all the time. A lot of it is because I enjoyed wrestling. I loved to get on the mat and roll around. I liked the image of wrestling being a sport of people who worked hard. Sometimes people are not gied in terms of their athletic skills; it was about starting out at the bottom and getting better, better, better, better and you end up on top." With Kinseth on the roster from 1975-79, the Hawkeyes won four Big Ten and three NCAA championships. Iowa was 19-0 in 1978-79. at season Kinseth opened with 10 consecutive wins by fall. His lone blemish that season was to Dick Knorr of Oregon State; a rematch would come in the NCAA finals. e 1979 NCAA Championships was held in Ames, Iowa, and Kinseth opened with a pin against Tom Napier of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. He pinned John Stallings of Auburn. He pinned Chuck Biggert of Toledo. He pinned Charles Shelton of Oklahoma State. Kinseth's pinning style included a repertoire of bar arms and a deadly bear hug. "At nationals, I'm on a roll mentally and confidence- wise," Kinseth said. "When you pin the first one, you think, hey, my goal was to be outstanding wrestler. I pinned the second one and I kept going." Kinseth was dominant in the final, decking Knorr in 2:34. "I was totally prepared mentally, maybe the first time I was not," Kinseth said. "I had no qualms that I was going to beat him. I wanted to dominate him and trounce him. It wasn't a matter of expecting a 3-2 or 5-4 match." Gable was told that only three wrestlers had ever pinned their way through an NCAA qualifier and the NCAA Tournament: Gable, Danny Hodge, and Kinseth. "History is history. When you're in a group of three, that is pretty amazing," Gable said. Kinseth received a bachelor's degree in industrial relations from the UI in 1981 and is now executive vice president of Kinseth Hospitalities. e second generation operation manages 3,000 employees and 75 hotel portfolios, three in the Iowa City/Coralville area. "I'm in my prime time now; it's kind of like wrestling in college," Kinseth said. "You're not that good when you first start out and you get better and then you're at the top of the game. Who retires at the top of their game? I have no intention to retire." Gable delights in the person Kinseth has become. "You measure your effectiveness on the mat as a wrestler by wins and losses," Gable said. "As a coach you watch your kids beyond that. You watch their lives and I have been very happy with Bruce and his family situation and his profession. He is doing very well and that is key for me."