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No joking, Dan Hodge featured on Sports Illustrated cover 56 years ago today

Posted: Apr 2nd 2013 By: mikeiles

Just over a half-century ago, Dan Hodge entered a club so exclusive, he?s still the only member.

On April 1, 1957 ? April Fools? Day -- the University of Oklahoma wrestler graced the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine? and, as of this writing, remains the only amateur grappler to be featured on this national sports magazine?s cover.

In the 56 years since Hodge made the SI cover, no other wrestler has been featured on the front of the magazine. Not Dan Gable. Not John Smith. Not Cael Sanderson. Not Rulon Gardner. Not Alexander Karelin. Not Bruce Baumgartner. Not Jordan Burroughs? nor Jake Varner, the two most recent U.S. wrestlers to win Olympic gold medals. Not Kyle Dake. Not (fill in the blank with your favorite wrestler).

In fact, in the sixty years there?s been a Sports Illustrated, Hodge is the one wrestler to have made the cover as a wrestler. (That?s an important distinction, as every once in a while someone will say, ?What about (insert name of pro football star)? He wrestled in high school and was on the SI cover back in ?89.? That?s all well and good? but, unless said NFL star was shown in a singlet, it doesn?t count for purposes of this argument.)

First, a quick introduction to Daniel Allen Hodge. Born in Perry, Okla. in 1932, Hodge won an Oklahoma state title his senior year in high school, then served in the U.S. Navy for two years before enrolling at Oklahoma in 1953. In his three years wrestling at 177 pounds for the Sooners (back then, freshmen were ineligible to compete), he compiled a flawless 46-0 record. In fact, Hodge pinned 36 of his opponents, for a 78% pin percentage, which still ranks among the all-time highest in NCAA history. He won three Big Seven (predecessor to today?s Big 12) conference crowns from 1955-1957, and three NCAA titles those same years. He owns the distinction of being one of two NCAA three-time champs who pinned all three of his finals opponents (the other being Oklahoma State heavyweight Earl McCready, 1928-1930).

Hodge faced the best 177s of the era. Among the top-ranked wrestlers he defeated included Oklahoma State?s two-time NCAA champ Ned Blass and 1949 NCAA champ Jim Gregson, Iowa?s 1958 NCAA champ (and future Hawkeye head coach) Gary Kurdelmeier, and Oregon State?s John Dustin, Pacific Coast Conference champ. The powerfully-built Kurdelmeier, who was pinned by Hodge more than once, said, ?When you knew you were wrestling Hodge, you didn?t get too many good nights of sleep.?

Because of his dominance, Hodge was often referred to in newspaper accounts as ?Dangerous Dan? and ?Homicide Hodge.?

If that weren?t enough, while he was in college, he earned a silver medal in freestyle at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. (A number of historians think he was jobbed out of a gold medal on a too hastily-called fall.)

Back to the 1957 SI cover. It showed Hodge in his Oklahoma Sooner uniform ? red tights, no shirt, no headgear. (It would be more than a decade before singlets would be allowed by the NCAA, and years before headgear would be mandatory.) The cover story, titled ?The Man to Beat,? was written just before the 1957 NCAAs, to be held at the University of Pittsburgh. (It would make history as being the first NCAAs to have an African-American champ, Iowa?s Simon Roberts, and, with Pitt?s Ed Peery winning his third title, joining his older brother Hugh and father Rex as three-time NCAA champs.)

The story takes readers into the Oklahoma wrestling room, where sportswriter Don Parker goes one-on-one with Hodge? then follows Hodge and his fellow Sooners to the end-of-season Bedlam Series dual meet at Oklahoma State, where he makes short work of his opponent, Jimmy Harding.

When Hodge is asked if about his career plans are after graduation, the married father on an infant son replied, "Professional wrestling? Not for me. I want to be a teacher.? That said, after earning a degree in industrial arts education, Hodge engaged in a brief stint in boxing, then made a pro wrestling career that lasted nearly two decades, until a near-fatal car accident put an end to it.

It?s rare nowadays for any mainstream publication or website ? let alone Sports Illustrated ? devote nearly 3,000 words to a profile of an amateur wrestler, even one of the most talented and accomplished.

Hodge is one old-school wrestler that even today?s wrestlers and fans recognize as one of the all-time greats. He?s still a fixture at a number of major amateur wrestling events, and has appeared on ESPN NCAA broadcasts, demonstrating his legendary grip strength by crushing apples into applesauce. His name also reappears this time of year, as WIN (Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine) announces the winner of its annual Hodge Trophy, presented to the best college wrestler in the nation. (Just last week, four-time NCAA champ Kyle Dake of Cornell was announced as this year?s Hodge winner.)

Perhaps someday another college wrestler will take his or her place on the cover of Sports Illustrated. In the meantime, Dan Hodge will continue to hold the unique distinction of being the magazine?s only mat champ to make the cover.

Read the Sports Illustrated story: The 1957 Hodge profile is now available online, thanks to the SI Vault.

Want to know more... about Hodge? To read more about Dan Hodge and the trophy that bears his name, check out articles on the subject from College Wrestling Examiner. And for photos and info on "Dangerous Dan" -- including a gallery of Hodge Trophy winners -- visit Fans of Dan Hodge Yahoo group.