Dan Hodge, Unbeatable Wrestler April 1, 1957

Dan Hodge knew he was whipped. Icy water flooded through the
broken windows of the battered Volkswagen station wagon in
which, on the night of March 15, 1976, he'd fallen asleep at the
wheel, allowing the car to veer off a bridge into a Louisiana
creek. The VW sank into nine feet of water, quickly encasing
Hodge as if in a coffin. Searing pain crackled through his neck,
and his mouth was a bloody mess of broken teeth. There he sat,
having never been taken to the mat from a standing position as a
collegiate wrestler, now pinned and helpless. What a lousy way
to go, he thought.

"I heard a voice say, 'Hold your neck,'" Hodge, 67, recalls. "It
was a guardian angel, snapping me out of my fog." Hodge did as he
was told and also managed, with his free hand, to pull himself
through a broken window. After Hodge had risen to the surface and
struggled to the creek's bank, a passing trucker radioed for help
and he was rushed to a nearby hospital. There doctors fused a
portion of his hip to the base of his broken neck. That he
survived, he was told, was nothing short of a miracle.

It wasn't the first time Hodge had faced adversity and survived.
By the time he was 10, his home had been razed by fire and his
mother, Hazel, severely burned; his father, Bill, had left the
family; and Dan had been sent to live with a physically abusive
grandfather. Then he stumbled upon a wrestling practice in his
hometown of Perry, Okla., and found an escape that became a
lifelong passion. Ten years later he ended his career at
Oklahoma with a 46-0 record, including 36 wins by pin, a
preposterous percentage. After graduation, while working as a
mud engineer for an oil company, his boss suggested he try
boxing. Within six months Hodge found himself in Madison Square
Garden, winning the 1958 Golden Gloves national heavyweight
championship. He then turned to pro wrestling, a career he
intended to pursue until age 50. That plan was curtailed by the
car accident and the arduous recuperation that followed.

Hodge returned to Perry, where he managed an all-night truck
stop, owned and operated a nightclub, and settled into home life
with his wife, Dolores, now 65. They have three children and
nine grandchildren. Still a local hero, Dan enjoys dispensing
advice to the Perry High wrestlers who often visit his house. If
the visitor is lucky, the advice comes with hands-on tutoring
from Hodge, even though such a lesson could easily leave Hodge
paralyzed. "I don't care," he says dismissively, a fresh carpet
burn still stinging his left elbow. "If I can go doing something
I love, then send me to heaven right now."

--Josh Elliott

COLOR PHOTO: A.Y. OWEN (COVER)

COLOR PHOTO: DOUG HOKE

Hodge's 46-0 record at Oklahoma included 36 wins by pin, a
preposterous percentage.