Ben Askren reflects on wrestling years

The senior will study sports psychology in graduate school.

By Ryan Huber

Published April 17, 2007

On most Saturday afternoons in the fall, the MU campus echoes with the sound of cheers filling the air from Faurot Field. At the beginning of the game, players race onto the field through a cloud of smoke with the sound of the Big MO drum rumbling and fans screaming throughout Memorial Stadium.

In the winter, the men's basketball team basks in the limelight thanks to rivalry games against Kansas that are televised across the country.

But Missouri's most recognizable athlete finds his home on the fourth floor wrestling mats inside the Hearnes Center. His illustrious career at MU has catapulted both Missouri's program and the sport of collegiate wrestling into the national spotlight while projecting an image of class, competitiveness and funk. He is Ben Askren, arguably Missouri's finest wrestler ever.

"We knew we were getting a big time stud," wrestling coach Brian Smith said of Askren's decision to come to Missouri. "When he first came in, I knew with his personality, he would be special."

But how special was yet to be determined.

"I could have been an average Division I wrestler," Askren said. "I lost 10 or 11 matches my freshman year. Not to say I had a bad season, but I was frustrated because I didn't want to be average. I wanted to be the best."

So how did this young man go from being a middle-of-the-road 174-pounder to having a list of accomplishments about as long as his curly, trademark hair?

With an 8-2 victory in his final collegiate match, Askren laid claim to his second-consecutive national title, pushing his winning streak, which dates to the start of his junior year, to 87.

He received his second Dan Hodge Award — wrestling's equivalent to the Heisman Trophy — and attained All-American status for the fourth-straight year.

"When I am in that competitive mode, I am a different person," he said. "I seek to kill. I see red. I just want to destroy everything in front of me."

For Askren, winning his first national championship remains his fondest memory from the past five years at MU. But for Smith, his greatest memory dates back much earlier. It was at the beginning of Askren's redshirt freshman year when the Tigers played host to the Missouri Open.

"I was there at 6 in the morning setting things up at the head table," Smith said. "(Askren) walked in across the way and saw the 12 mats and the bleachers. It was just a little tournament at home compared to the national tournaments, but the glow on his face of just, 'wow.' It was like he had walked into heaven."

Yet strangely enough, Askren said he is in no way the most talented Division I wrestler.

"I don't have a huge amount of talent," he said. "I have a fair amount... but my work ethic and commitment are what put me over the top. I am willing to work harder than anyone in the nation. If I have to come in and work out three or four times a day to be a national champ, then that's what I will do."

But winning isn't all Askren does. He also performs well in the classroom and was named to the Big 12 All-Academic Team three times. He plans to study sports psychology in graduate school, something he said is essential for him as an athlete.

"One of the things I hate most in life is people with blind faith," he said. "They believe it just because. Everything I do, I like to have a reason behind it."