• Where: DMACC Campus Conference Center,
  Building #7, Ankeny, Iowa
  
• When: Sunday, November 14th, 2010
  
• Schedule: Social Hour: 12 noon to 1pm
                  Lunch served: 1pm
                  Awards: 2pm
  
  
• Honoring: Les Anderson, long time Legendary Iowa State coach and National Wrestling Hall of Fame Member
  
  Les Anderson is truly one of America’s legendary coaches. Very few in the sport of wrestling have even come close to matching the accomplishments of Coach Anderson. His impact on Iowa State wrestling spans nearly four decades! He made his impression on Iowa State’s storied wrestling program as a competitor, coach and administrator. Anderson competed for and assisted legendary ISU Hall of Fame coach Harold Nichols to help facilitate one of the greatest wrestling dynasties in NCAA history.
  
  As a wrestler for ISU from 1958-60, Anderson, a native of Clarion, Iowa, was a three-time All-American, two-time national champion and two-time Big Eight champion at 130 and 137 pounds. Anderson was Nichols’ first NCAA champion in 1958, winning the 130-pound NCAA title. He was the NCAA runner-up at 130 pounds in 1959 and closed out his senior year by winning the 1960 137-pound NCAA title. ISU was runner-up national champions in all three of Anderson’s seasons as a wrestler.
  
  After graduation, Anderson coached at the prep level for four years before returning to Iowa State in 1964 to form one of the most successful coaching tandems in NCAA wrestling history. As an assistant from 1964-74, Anderson and Nichols coached ISU to five NCAA team titles, three second-place finishes and tutored 20 individual national champions and 47 All-Americans.
  
  Anderson, who earned both his BS and MS degrees from Iowa State, left ISU in 1974 to become the head wrestling coach at Washington. He mentored the Huskies until 1978 and then returned to his alma mater to assist the Cyclones again. His second stint as an ISU assistant was from 1979-92, helping Iowa State win another NCAA team title in 1987 and tutoring 14 individual national champions. ISU wrestlers earned All-America honors 67 times from 1979-92. He spent his final two years at ISU in 1993 and 1994 as a compliance director and athletic coordinator. Anderson was named Amateur Wrestling News Assistant Coach of the Year in 1985.
  
  He was one of the first coaches to implement summer wrestling clinics, a concept that became the norm. For seven years he was on the Board of Directors for the National Wrestling Coaches Association and helped initiate the first annual coaches convention. He served as director of five NCAA and one AAU National tournaments and participated in the formation of the United States Wrestling Federation, serving three years on the Board of Directors of USA Wrestling.
  
  He was inducted into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1984 and was a 2004 inductee to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

  It is with great respect that we honor Les Anderson inducting him into the Excel Wrestling “Hall of Heroes” for 2010. Coach Anderson becomes the 16th Excel “Hall of Heroes” inductee in 10 years joining Rulon Gardner, Brandon Slay, Lincoln McIlravy, Terry Steiner, Steve Fraser, Kevin Jackson, Scott Frohardt, Tom Clum, Mike McArthur, Henry Cejudo, Arno Niemand, Larry Nugent, Eric Swanson, Mike Chapman and Rob Koll.
  

• Information: Tickets are $20 each (Excel wrestlers receive a complimentary ticket). The afternoon will begin with a social hour at noon and lunch following at 1pm. Raffle tickets will be available for $20 each - all funds raised from the Iowa Team EXCEL Fall Tribute Luncheon go toward supporting financial need scholarships for wrestlers in the Iowa Excel Junior Olympic Program.

Please contact the Excel Wrestling office for table sponsorship, individual and group ticket info at 515.331.4419

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