Kevin Jackson
Head Coach
ISU Wrestling

Former Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Champion Kevin Jackson has just completed his second season as Iowa State’s head wrestling coach. In his initial year at the helm, Jackson coached two NCAA individual champions en route to a third-place finish at the 2010 NCAA Championships.

Jackson's efforts with the Cyclone squad in his inaugural campaign didn't go unnoticed, as he was honored as Amateur Wrestling News magazine’s 2010 Rookie Coach of the Year. Jackson coached the ISU grapplers to a 13-2 overall dual record, with a perfect 4-0 mark in Big 12 action.

Jackson captured gold medals at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain and at the World Championships in both 1991 (Varna, Bulgaria) and 1995 (Atlanta). He is one of just five wrestlers in U.S. history with three career world-level titles.  Jackson is a member of the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame, the United States National Wrestling Hall of Fame (as a distinguished member) and the Iowa State University Athletics Hall of Fame (2007 inductee).

Jackson served eight years (2001-08) as the National Freestyle Coach for USA Wrestling. He was the first full-time freestyle wrestling coach for the organization and took two United States’ teams to the Olympics. Two of his athletes – Cael Sanderson (2004) and Henry Cejudo (2008) – won gold medals. His 2001 freestyle team won the World Cup, the 2003 team placed second and the 2006 squad finished third at that meet.

As a college wrestler, he attended Louisiana State and earned All-America honors three times before the school dropped the sport. He transferred to Iowa State for his senior year and captained the Cyclones’ last NCAA championship team (1987), earning another All-America award with a NCAA runner-up finish and registering a 30-3-1 record.

He earned a bachelor of sports science degree from the U.S. Sports Academy / University of Americas in 2005.

The native of Lansing, Mich. and his wife, Robin (a native of Emmetsburg, Iowa), have five children: Cole, Bailee, Trinity, Brynn and Kira.

 

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