Jack van Bebber
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Jack Francis VanBebber | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | (1907-07-27)July 27, 1907 Perry, Oklahoma, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | April 13, 1986(1986-04-13) (aged 78) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Wrestling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | Freestyle and Folkstyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
College team | Oklahoma A&M | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team | USA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Jack Francis "Blackjack" VanBebber (July 27, 1907 – April 13, 1986) was an American wrestler and Olympic gold medalist at the 1932 Olympic Games in freestyle wrestling.
VanBebber was born and raised in Perry, Oklahoma. He attended and wrestled at Oklahoma A&M University and was a three-time undefeated NCAA national champion. He was coached by Edward C. Gallagher. VanBebber competed at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where he won the gold medal in the freestyle welterweight (72 kg) division.[1]
In 1950, he was named one of the ten greatest amateur athletes in the western hemisphere for the first half of the 20th century. VanBebber served four years in the infantry during World War II, three of them in the Pacific theater. He then joined the Phillips Petroleum Company for 39 years until his retirement, and taught wrestling to sons of company employees and to Boy Scouts. He once wrestled Frank Phillips (founder of Phillips 66) at his home in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
For more than 50 years he was the only American-born wrestler to win three NCAA titles and an Olympic gold medal. In 1976, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member.[2]
Further reading
- A Distant Flame: The Inspiring Story of Jack VanBebber's Quest for a World Olympic Title, tells more about his life.
References
- ^ "1932 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles, United States – Wrestling" Archived 2008-06-12 at the Wayback Machine – databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on April 28, 2008)
- ^ Jack VanBebber. National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
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- 1904
Charles Ericksen (NOR)
- 1924
Hermann Gehri (SUI)
- 1928
Arvo Haavisto (FIN)
- 1932
Jack van Bebber (USA)
- 1936
Frank Lewis (USA)
- 1948
Yaşar Doğu (TUR)
- 1952
William Smith (USA)
- 1956
Mitsuo Ikeda (JPN)
- 1960
Douglas Blubaugh (USA)
- 1964
İsmail Ogan (TUR)
- 1968
Mahmut Atalay (TUR)
- 1972
Wayne Wells (USA)
- 1976
Jiichiro Date (JPN)
- 1980
Valentin Raychev (BUL)
- 1984
David Schultz (USA)
- 1988
Kenny Monday (USA)
- 1992
Park Jang-soon (KOR)
- 1996
Buvaisar Saitiev (RUS)
- 2000
Brandon Slay (USA)
- 2004
Buvaisar Saitiev (RUS)
- 2008
Buvaisar Saitiev (RUS)
- 2012
Jordan Burroughs (USA)
- 2016
Hassan Yazdani (IRI)
- 2020
Zaurbek Sidakov (ROC)
- 1904: 71.67 kg
- 1924–1936: 72 kg
- 1948–1960: 73 kg
- 1964–1968: 78 kg
- 1972–1996: 74 kg
- 2000: 76 kg
- 2004–present: 74 kg
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