Dan McCool

August 31, 1959 – May 4, 2020

Only a handful of non-wrestlers have been inducted into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame since its inception in 1970. Dan McCool is being honored for his dedication to the sport as both a journalist and an author. This award is being given posthumously following his passing in 2020.

Dan’s passion for wrestling began in high school. He attended Clarion High School, where he developed a love for photography and writing. His journalism career started as a high school contributor for The Predicament, a long-standing Iowa wrestling publication. After graduating, Dan became a sports journalist and photographer, working for publications in Knoxville and Cedar Falls, Iowa,
as well as in North Dakota.

McCool spent 30 years as a reporter for The Des Moines Register, covering wrestling at the high school, college, and international levels. He also reported on baseball, football, and boxing, among other sports. While he enjoyed covering various sports, wrestling was always his top priority. His biggest challenge during winter weekends was choosing which wrestling tournament to attend, if he could have gone to them all, he would have. One of the highlights of his career was covering wrestling at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

For many years at The Register, Dan was responsible for publishing rankings of the top wrestlers in each class. While this was a demanding task, he looked forward to speaking with coaches each week to learn more about their wrestlers.

Dan was always committed to honoring the sport of wrestling and was hesitant to accept personal recognition. Nevertheless, he received numerous national wrestling awards, including Journalist of the Year from the National Wrestling Media Association and the Bob Dellinger Award from Amateur Wrestling News, among many others. In 2017, the Iowa Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame presented him with its inaugural media award. This award was later renamed the Dan McCool Media Award and is now given annually to a journalist in Iowa for excellence in wrestling coverage. In October 2019, he was honored with the Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award by the Iowa Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Following his newspaper career, McCool authored several books about wrestling in Iowa, most notably chronicling 100 years of the Iowa high school state wrestling tournament titled Reach for the Stars.

In 2023, McCool was inducted posthumously into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame alongside Jason Christenson, Ken Gallagher, and Cliff Moore.

High School

Clarion High School