Omaha to Waterloo
We spend more time in Omaha before driving to Waterloo, Iowa, where we learn about one of the most dominant competitors in any sport.
We had about four hours of driving ahead of us to reach our next ballpark in Waterloo, Iowa — where, yes, before sundown, Dad and I would be showing up for another game of baseball; a doubleheader, as it turned out.
But we had seen very little of Omaha on our first visit two days earlier, and we wouldn’t have time for sightseeing when we returned to the city six days later for the College World Series, the grand finale of our 20-ballpark road trip. We needed to make a few stops before we left town.
A Memorial to Rosenblatt
We began our day in golden morning sunlight just inside the entrance to the Omaha Zoo, where a mini-ballpark has been built on the site of Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, a legendary American ballpark. Rosenblatt Stadium debuted in 1948 and was home to the Minor League Omaha Cardinals a year later. In 1950, it was the site of the first College World Series — won by the University of Texas — a tradition that continued for another 60 years.
St. Cecilia’s Cathedral
On June 15, 1940, James Francis Burns of Spalding, Nebraska, and Mabel Mae Freidel of Lesterville, South Dakota, were married at St. Cecilia’s Church in Omaha. When we pulled up outside, it was days away from the 85th anniversary of that momentous event, when Dad’s Irish father and Czech mother took their vows. This, of course, led to our existence, which isn’t the main point but hard (for us, anyway) to ignore.
That my grandparents — whose families came from very humble origins — were married in a building so grand that it is on the National Register of Historic Places is hard to believe. What it looked like for them, however, is difficult to say: While the first cornerstone of the cathedral was laid in 1917, construction took decades, and the building was not consecrated until 1959.
Joslyn Castle
We continued on for a short stop (two words, in this case) outside Joslyn Castle, the home of George and Sarah Joslyn, who were luminaries in early 20th-century Omaha. As head of the Western Newspaper Union, George Joslyn had found a profitable niche in the booming newspaper business by supplying pre-printed news sections to smaller papers nationwide. The Joslyn’s 35-room home was built in 1903 in the Scottish Baronial Revival style — think castle towers and crenellations — and it too is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bob the Bridge
We finished our morning on the Missouri River with a view of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, aka Bob the Bridge. Kerrey was the governor of Nebraska in the 1980s, then represented the state in the U.S. Senate. His namesake bridge, fit for pedestrians and bicyclists, traces a wavy S-curve over the flowing river.
We had picked a vantage point next to Labor, a monument to the workers who built Omaha and a celebration of organized labor created by sculptor Matthew Placzek. It is the second-largest monument to labor in America. In 2011, it became a symbol of another kind when the Missouri River flooded, and photos emerged of the worker’s hand and hammer just pokiing through the surface of the surging river.
We were finished with our morning sightseeing by about 9:45 a.m., when we crossed the Missouri River into Iowa and headed northeast toward Waterloo.
Jesse James Historical Site
After an hour or so on the road, we paused at the Jesse James Historical Site just a couple of minutes off the interstate. It marks the location of the first robbery of a moving train in the American West by James and his infamous James-Younger Gang. On the night of July 21, 1873, the gang derailed a train belonging to the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, killing the train’s engineer and fireman. They expected to find a shipment containing $75,000 in gold, but their intelligence was old: The gold had been delayed and was not aboard. The gang left with just $3,000 in cash plus jewelry and other personal items collected from passengers.
Club Car
Keeping with the day’s railroad theme, we had lunch at Club Car Restaurant, in Clive, Iowa — just outside of Des Moines — which is decorated with train signage, artwork, tools, and more. I was tempted by another Pastrami Reuben and gave in to that temptation. It was pretty good but not great, and I vowed right then and there to take a break from my beloved Reubens. Dad — older, wiser — mixed in a Cobb salad and enjoyed it.
Waterloo’s Own
I stayed off the interstate after Des Moines, and we enjoyed a nice country drive into Waterloo. We only had time enough to take in one sight in town, and it was an easy choice: the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum, which celebrates the sport of wrestling and its most exalted competitor — one of the most dominant athletes in any sport — Waterloo’s own Dan Gable.
You can debate Babe Ruth vs. Shohei Ohtani or Jordan vs. LeBron, but in wrestling, Gable is without question the GOAT. He was a three-time state champion while wrestling at Waterloo West High School, putting up a 64-0 record before losing his final match as a senior in 1966. That moment fueled Gable’s intensity and focus for the rest of his career — and he was already known as an extremely well-conditioned, tough, disciplined, and relentless competitor.
Gable’s domination of the sport continued into college at Iowa State University, where he claimed two NCAA titles and tallied 117 wins without a single loss — until, once again, his final match as a senior in 1972.
Shortly before the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Gable’s older sister was murdered, and once again he had loss to draw upon as inspiration. Gable won the gold with a 6-0 record and did not surrender a single point for the entire tournament!
But his legendary performance on the mat is only part of the Dan Gable story. He took the head coaching job at the University of Iowa in 1976 and built (by far) the most dominant program in college wrestling history — 15 NCAA team titles and 21 Big Ten championships in 22 years. Gable coached 152 All-Americans and 45 NCAA champions.
Waterloo
Waterloo began in 1845 as a settlement on the Cedar River known as Prairie Rapids Crossing. It was incorporated in 1868 and by the early 20th century was known as “The Factory City” for its embrace of manufacturing and ready access to railroads. The city — the eighth-largest in Iowa with about 67,000 residents — has had to diversify during the decline of American industry. However, John Deere still operates one of the world’s largest tractor production facilities in Waterloo, complete with the John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum at its entrance.
We cruised around the handful of blocks in Waterloo’s downtown, stopping for anything that looked interesting — including Young Arena, home of the Waterloo Black Hawks, a Tier I junior hockey team playing in the United States Hockey League.
On the east side of the Cedar River, we found little Newton’s Park, which features gathering spots for people and pups — Anton’s (Beer) Garden and “Wiggly Field,” a dog park.
A sign in the biergarten described the history and contributions of German immigrants in Iowa, who were the largest ethnic group in the region for about 140 years. By 1890, nearly seven percent of the state’s residents had come from Germany — 40 percent of all foreign-born residents. We’d learn more about Iowa’s German immigration story at the German Heritage Museum in Davenport, Iowa, later in the week.
Due to our busy itinerary and long drive, we skipped Dad’s nap and my relative downtime at the hotel and went straight to the ballpark for our next game — or in this case, games. Our long day was about to become a much longer night.