Doughty honored by hall of fame

Mike Doughty was born into wrestling and the life he has lived has helped promote the sport.

That tireless promotion was recently honored when Doughty received the Bill Nelson Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Honors luncheon Oct. 27.

The Bill Nelson Award was started in 2016 to honor the late founder and leader of the Iowa Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. This award is presented annually to an Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association member for their unwavering dedication and efforts on behalf of those who seek to improve wrestling for students and coaches.

'Mike has been a huge supporter of Washington High School athletics for the past 30-plus years,” Washington assistant wrestling coach Jeff Hazelatt said. 'He is also very involved with Iowa sports in general.

'He is extremely deserving of the award he received.”

Wrestling has been a tradition in Doughty's family. Doughty's dad wrestled for the Dodgers of Fort Dodge. His family moved to Washington and wrestling continued to be a family affair as Mike and his brothers wrestled for the Demons. It seemed as if there was always a Doughty on the team and one year, there were three of them on the squad.

Doughty was so driven by watching Dan Gable complete that he went on a visit to Iowa State University and decided to become a Cyclone. He wanted to go there so that he could be in the same room as Gable. Doughty was a member of the 1972 NCAA D1 national championship team at Iowa State.

During Doughty's sophomore year, Gable left Iowa State to take the assistant coaching job at the University of Iowa. Doughty transferred to Iowa to become a Hawkeye.

After college, Doughty continued to live in the Iowa City area, finding his way back into the room as often as he could to train with the Hawkeye wrestling club.

Over the years, Doughty has stayed close to the sport, always as a fan and sometimes as a coach where he has helped out youth teams. He has traveled around the country supporting major wrestling events like the U.S. Open, the World trials and Olympic trials. He has been an avid supporter of the Midlands, the Big 10 conference tournament and has been to many NCAA DI tournaments.

In 2013, when wresting in the Olympics was being questioned, he left his career in the private sector to give back to the sport and help save wrestling for the Olympics. He works for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma and for the Dan Gable museum in Waterloo as well as helping the U.S. Wrestling Foundation and a Hawkeye wrestling club.