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Dan Holm was a top LHS athlete as well as NCAA Champion

• The following is part of an ongoing series of articles in celebration of Libertyville High School's 100th anniversary.

In coach Bob Buzzard's three years as the LHS wrestling coach - 1970-72 - his top wrestler was Dan Holm, a junior when coach Buzzard took over.

Holm had been a top athlete his first two years of high school. In addition to wrestling, Holm was on the LHS football and baseball teams, earning an All-Conference honor in football his senior year. He was named the Class of 1971 Newsom Award winner, which goes to the senior class's top athlete.

Although a successful athlete, no one could have predicted early in his high school years the success he would go on to have in wrestling.

As a sophomore, he took over the starting position halfway through the season. He took third in the varsity conference at 145, but he went 0-1 in the regionals the next week.

Taking to coach Buzzard's direction as a junior in 1970, Holm was undefeated through most of the regular season. He finished the season third in the state tournament, LHS's first All-State wrestler. His final season record was 32-5, four of those losses coming from North Chicago's Larry Johnson, the eventual state runner-up.

One of coach Buzzard's changes in the program was getting his wrestlers involved in freestyle and Greco-Roman in the off-season. Holm won the state freestyle title in the summer of 1970.

In Holm's senior year, he went 37-0 in winning the 1971 state 145-pound title, the first of three Libertyville wrestling state champions. That summer he won the Junior National Freestyle Tournament, to this day the only Junior National Champion from LHS.

Holm chose the University of Iowa from several schools that offered him a wrestling scholarship. Making the Hawkeye wrestling program attractive was new assistant coach Dan Gable, recognized as one of the two best ever USA wrestlers and coaches of all time (Cael Sanderson would be the other half of this distinction).

There was more to Holm attending the University of Iowa than just being

on a team coached by Gable. Both Buzzard and Gable were natives of Waterloo, Iowa.

Buzzard was six years older than Gable. Their parents were close friends. As Bob was being very successful in wrestling, with the Buzzard family's encouragement, Gable began wrestling despite being successful in several other youth sports, swimming in particular.

Buzzard was active in post-college wrestling when Gable was finishing his high school career undefeated with three state titles. In any book written about Gable, there is always a section talking about Buzzard's contribution to Gable's growth from a high school wrestler to taking the college wrestling world by storm the next year, winning the Midlands title as a true freshman

Holm shined at Iowa. He qualified for the NCAA tournament as a true freshman at 150 in 1972. He finished in third place in 1973 and 1974. He capped off his college career by winning the 158-pound NCAA title in 1975, helping lead his Iowa team to their first of 23 NCAA Championships.

After college, Holm was an assistant coach for the University of Illinois for a short time before beginning a career with Kraft Foods. He spent most of his Kraft career in Iowa City, Iowa. He was a longtime season ticket holder for the Hawkeye wrestling home meets. He is now retired in California with regular grandparent duties.

Courtesy of Dale EggertDan Holm (left) against his Iowa State opponent in 1975
Courtesy of Dale EggertDan Holm (top row, far left) joins his fellow 1975 NCAA Champions
Courtesy of Dale EggertDan Holm (kneeling on left) joins his fellow Iowa Hawkeyes as they celebrate their 1975 NCAA team title, the first of Iowa's 23 team titles. Assistant Coach Dan Gable is top row, far left)
Courtesy of Dale Eggert1971 Junior National Freestyle Champions (Dan Holm is top row, far left)
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