By Mark Palmer, InterMat Staff Writer – 10/6/2008
In the state of Iowa, wrestling is about as close to a religion as it is anywhere. And, in this wrestling hotbed state, Cresco was one of its hottest incubators for the sport — a place where mat champions were born and made.
If Cresco were any further north, it would be in Minnesota. This community of approximately 4,000 residents is located in the rolling farm country of northeastern Iowa, about halfway between Waterloo, Iowa and Rochester, Minnesota. From the 1920s into the 1960s, Cresco launched more than its share of wrestling success stories … with names likely to be familiar to even to today’s fans, including Nichols, Kurdelmeier, Peckham and Borlaug…