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Waterloo native and journalist Mike Chapman is a self-proclaimed loner. Over the past 40 years he has combined his love of history and the sport of wrestling into a fulfilling career.
“I was a loner and I’ve always been a loner,” Chapman said. “Everything I do is by myself. Writing is a lonely pursuit. Wrestling is a one-on-one sport. I’m not a team player.”
Chapman founded the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum in Newton, Iowa, in 1998 following a 35-year newspaper career. The non-profit museum moved to 303 Jefferson Street in Waterloo in 2007. Filled with wrestling displays going back hundreds of years, it is a facility dedicated to preserving the history of man’s oldest sport while recognizing today’s outstanding wrestlers.
Chapman’s love of wrestling came later in his youth. He played basketball in junior high school. In eighth grade, he got beat up. “I was president of the eighth grade. I was going home and a kid picked a fight with me and beat me up. I was out for basketball, but dribbling a basketball didn’t help me when someone wanted to beat me up.”
He also became immersed in the world of fantasy, missing a father who traveled frequently for his job, and not getting along with an older brother. Movies introduced him to Tarzan and he was an avid comic book reader. When told the local library did not have available a book about Tarzan, he was given “The Wrath of Achilles” instead. Both Tarzan and Achilles became his heroes. Why?
“The physical nature of it,” Chapman said. “Tarzan could whip any person and animals, yet he was such a wonderful person. I’ve been friendswith seven (actors who played Tarzan in the movies). Tarzan is the protector of animals and people who can’t help themselves. He’s always true in principle.
“So is Achilles. The no. 1 thing a Greek warrior wants out of life is arête (meaning goodness, excellence, virtue). But he’s not willing to sell who he is for it. So I admired the physical prowess of Tarzan and Achilles, and I do to this day.”
Chapman has an entire wall of Achilles books in his Newton home. He taught a class on the Iliad and the Odyssey at Kirkwood Community College two semesters. He and his son spent five days at ancient Troy two years ago.
He can’t explain why he didn’t wrestle in high school, opting to play guard on the Waterloo East High football team. He was a serious weightlifter by the time he was a senior in high school, however. He’s been a non-stop lifter since he was 16, which helps to explain why now at the age of 65 appears years younger. He also has competed in judo, earning a Brown Belt, and submission wrestling, a form of Russian Judo, or Sambo.
After graduating high school in 1961, Chapman served in the Navy three years, making the all-Navy wrestling team. He enrolled at the University of Iowa upon his return and was expected to compete at 190 pounds. However, he lost a finger in an industrial accident while working during a school break. He dropped out of school, moved into the YMCA in Cedar Rapids, took a job delivering furniture, met his future wife, Bev, on a blind date, and got married three months later. The couple has been married 40 years. The son also is an avid weightlifter. Two daughters served as Mat Aids at Iowa State and the University of Iowa.
“I had to make a living and didn’t want to deliver furniture for the rest of my life,” Chapman said. “I just started writing. Got on with a couple of newspapers and found a niche in wrestling. It had become my favorite sport.”
Majoring in history with a minor in religion in college, he never had taken a journalism course. His only exposure to journalism was at East High when a teacher made him write about the football team. In the Navy, his superiors didn’t want him engaging in a lot of physical work because “they wanted me to have energy” for wrestling. Asking what else he could do, he told them he could type a little bit. “Sports are big in the service - it’s a good way to promote and market,” Chapman said. A ship’s newsletter was created and he did all the writing. “I guess I’ve always had an affinity towards writing and story telling.”
Chapman began his newspaper career as sports editor for the weekly in Eldora, IA. After six months, he spent a year-and-a-half at the Waterloo Courier as a feature writer, thenmoved to Dixon, Ill., where he spent 10 years, most as editor. He followed that by moving to Fort Collins, Colo., where he was sports editor; on to managing editor at Woodstock, Ill.; the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and USA Wrestling. His final newspaper stop was in Newton, where he eventually became publisher. “In journalism, you have to move around to get ahead,” he said.
Raising a family with three children, he always was looking for ways to supplement his income. He started writing a lot of articles for magazines, then expanding to books. He’s written 21 books. His first book, “Two Guys Named Dan”, was published in 1976 and tells the story of wrestling icons Dan Gable and Dan Hodge. Of his 21 books, most are wrestling related. Several discuss the toughness of sports personalities, several more are written about Achilles and the Trojan War, and the celebrities surrounding the Tarzan series. His latest effort, “The Life and Legacy of Frank Gotch”, was published in 2007.
“I submitted one chapter of ‘Two Guys Named Dan’ to a publisher. I remember them calling me up and saying, ‘we’d like to see the rest of the book’. I sent the rest of the manuscript to them. They bought it. It was a real rush - felt good that I had done this for myself, for wrestling, and the paycheck was good,” Chapman said.
“Why write about basketball or football?” he said. “There’s millions writing about that. I’ve been a writer all my life and I always wanted to promote and market the sport of wrestling.”
Two of Chapman’s books’ rights are owned by Empire Film Group in Hollywood and currently are in the pre-production phase of becoming full-length feature movies. “Lowell Park” is based on former president Ronald Reagan’s years as a lifeguard at the age of 22. Lowell Park is located outside of Dixon where Chapman was editor. His novel “Gotch, An American Hero” also was sold to Empire.
One of Chapman’s dreams was to open a wrestling museum. “There is another museum in Stillwater, Okla., but I didn’t think Iowans and people from Minnesota should have to drive that far to see the history of the sport,” he said. “It started out as a hobby. I thought my museum might be open maybe on Fridays and Saturdays. It became a tar baby - I couldn’t extricate myself. So for a year-and-a-half, I was publisher of the newspaper, we were printing seven other papers and other jobs, I had 66 full-time and 80 part-time employees, I’m running a museum full-time, and I’m writing books.”
Chapman retired from the newspaper business in 2002, running the museum and doing his other writings. He’s written for “Strength and Health Magazine”, “Black Belt Magazine”, and “Karate Illustrated”. He started “WIN” magazine but later sold it. He’s been named National Wrestling Writer of the Year five times by four different organizations. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award two years ago from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater. He’s a member of the Cauliflower Alley Club, a group of former boxers, wrestlers and movie actors, who bestowed him with another Lifetime Achievement Award. He’s a member of the East High Hall of Fame due to his book writing, and is a member of the National Sambo and AAU Wrestling Halls of Fame.
“Wrestling’s always been my safe harbor, I guess,” Chapman said. “And I did find a voice in the market place when I was trying to make extra money as a sports writer. Wrestlers are really good people -basic people. They are pretty simple. They really appreciate when you write about them, because they’re not basketball or football players. They fly under the radar and don’t get much recognition.
“It’s all about pain and forging through. That’s how we got the museum up. I believe in the work ethic that wrestling does, I believe in the values, I believe in the hard work, the discipline, the drive, the dedication, and I also like the fact that I can and have made a difference. I’ve made a difference in the sport of wrestling.”
Chapman isn’t done yet. He’s currently working on two books - “Growing Up in Waterloo” about what life was like in the 1950s - and “Triumph and Tragedy”, the stories of Fred Becker, Jack Trice, Nile Kinnickand Johnny Bright. He also started a magazine called “Iowa History Journal” that publishes six times a year. The first issue debuted in January. “I don’t golf, I don’t fish, Idon’t hunt. The only things I do for recreation is work out and write. I love to write.”
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