THE NEBRASKA 100

Omaha wrestler Joe Scarpello seemed to be steaming toward the 1948 Olympics in London.

As a University of Iowa 175-pounder, he beat his great college rival, Glen Brand of Iowa State, for the 1947 NCAA championship. But Brand turned the tables the following year and had the better performance at the Olympic trials.

Brand won a gold medal in London while Scarpello served as an alternate.

"Joe Scarpello could have won the medal if something had happened to me," Brand said in 1984. "In fact, my toughest competition that year was not in the Olympics; the hard part was to get past the Americans I had to beat. Besides Joe, there were one or two others who could have represented the U.S. and gone all the way in the Olympics."

Scarpello moved on, finishing with four Big Ten Conference titles and another NCAA championship in 1950.

In his professional career that spanned nearly three decades, Scarpello was an ambassador of the sport. He performed all over the U.S., had big years in Ohio and was often happy to wrestle on pro shows here at home.

He even played a scene in "The Wrestler," a 1973 movie that starred Ed Asner and Scarpello's old tag team partner, Verne Gagne.

Scarpello won Class A state titles in 1941 (155 pounds) and 1942 (165).

Scarpello's love for the sport started "when he was in high school, at Central," his brother, Omahan Sam J. Scarpello, said.

— John Rodino