2024 WIN Show – Mike and Bev at Their Final WIN Show

Monday, March 4th, 2024 | Book Signing, Books, WIN Magazine, Wrestling | No Comments

Once again, Mike and Bev will have tables full of wrestling books and memorabilia for sale at the WIN/Fan Expo during the Division 1 NCAA Championships. The Expo will be held March 21-23 at the Kansas City Convention Center a few blocks from the wrestling arena, and 20,000 fans are expected to attend the Fan Expo over the three days.

It will be the final WIN Show for Mike and Bev, after creating it back in 1992 to offer fans a good place to gather between sessions of the tournament, the biggest showcase for amateur wrestling in the U.S. The first WIN Show had four exhibitors and drew about 600 fans. The special guests were two true legends – Dan Hodge of Oklahoma and Verne Gagne of Minnesota.

The show continued to grow rapidly through the years, and among the great guests they brought to the event were Doug Blubaugh, Bill Smith, Dan Gable, Randy Couture, Kurt Angle, Lee Kemp, John and Ben Peterson, Wayne Baughman, Wade Schalles, and many more!

“Bev and I have been honored to be a part of the show for over three decades, and we have truly enjoyed meeting all the fans that have made their way to our tables,” says Mike. “But the time has come for me to call it a day. At age 80, it’s just too difficult to prepare and set up. Kansas City will be our last WIN Show”.     

They will have many of Mike’s 32 books for sale, along with various wrestling items, some quite rare.



Their special guests on Saturday will be Ed and Lou Banach, the legendary brothers who played a huge role in the success of the Iowa program in the early 1980s, during the glory years of the Dan Gable era.  Ed was a three-time NCAA champion and four-time finalist, at 177 and 190, and still today is the career Iowa leader with 73 pins. Lou was a two-time NCAA champion and three-time All-American at heavyweight despite being outweighed in almost every match.

Both used a wide-open, go-for-broke style that made them fan favorites all around the country. Lou pinned such great wrestlers as NCAA champions Bruce Baumgartner and Tab Thacker, and four-time All-American Steve “Dr. Death” Williams. Thacker weighed over 400 pounds when Lou pinned him in the 1983 NCAA meet.

To top off their sensational careers, both of them won gold medals in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Ed at 198 pounds and Lou at 220.

The Dan Hodge Trophy, which Mike created in 1995, will also be on display at their table. It is often called “the Heisman Trophy of wrestling” and over one million fans have seen it presented in person, at wrestling banquets and college football games.

Tags: Dan Hodge Trophy, Ed Banach, Lou Banach

2023 WIN Expo / Fan Fest – March 17th and 18th

Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 | Book Signing, Wrestling | No Comments

Mike and Bev will be hosting a booth at the WIN Expo/Fan Fest during the NCAA tournament at the Tulsa Convention Center. They will have their many books and posters for sale, and their special guests are Curran Jacobs and John Hanrahan, who have tremendous stories to share. Curran is the director and star of the new documentary called “For the Love of Catch” and John has written a best-selling book called “Wrestling With Angels.” Come visit John, Curran, Bev and Mike!

Mike to be featured speaker at 2022 annual Tarzan Dum Dum – June 3 and 4

Thursday, April 7th, 2022 | Book Signing, Books, Speaking, Tarzan | No Comments

For the fourth time in the last 20 years, Mike will be a featured speaker at the annual Dum Dum, which will be held at the Drury Plaza Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, June 2 – 4, 2022. The annual event is hosted by the Burroughs Bibliophiles to honor the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan and John Carter, Warlord of Mars.  Burroughs wrote 24 Tarzan books and the character has been featured in over 50 films.   The convention is open to the public both days for a $5 ticket. The Huckster Room will have over a dozen exhibitors with many rare Tarzan memorabilia items on display and for sale. At the closing banquet on June 4, Mike will talk about two movie Tarzans and the books he wrote about them — Herman Brix (aka Bruce Bennett) and Glenn Morris. Brix was a silver medal winner in the shot put in the 1928 Olympics and was a football star at the U of Washington, playing in the Rose Bowl. He made his two Tarzan films in the mid 1930s, portraying the ape-man as an intelligent and literate jungle hero, like in the books. He changed his name to avoid being typecast and starred in nearly 100 movies as Bruce  Bennett, including blockbusters “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and  “Mildred Pierce.” Mike spent 5 days interviewing Bruce in his Hollywood home and wrote the book, called “Please Don’t Call Me Tarzan”  in 2001.  Glenn Morris won the gold medal in the decathlon in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and played Tarzan in 1938. He served in World War II and suffered post traumatic stress disorder. Mike wrote his biography, called “the Gold and the Glory” in 2003. He will have both books and other Tarzan items for sale.

Details on the event can be found here: THE ERB DUM DUM DOSSIER (erbzine.com)

Tags: Bruce Bennett, DumDum, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Glenn Morris, Herman Brix, Tarzan

Upcoming Events – Fall 2021

Tuesday, September 28th, 2021 | Book Signing, Books, Speaking, WIN Magazine, Wrestling | No Comments

October 16 – Mike and Bryan Van Kley, publisher of WIN magazine, will present the Dan Hodge Trophy to Hawkeye wrestling star Spencer Lee during halftime of the Iowa-Purdue football game October 16 at Kinnick Stadium. Mike created the Dan Hodge Trophy in 1995 as a way to honor the nation’s top college wrestler each season, similar to the Heisman Trophy in football.  In fact, the Hodge Trophy is often called “the Heisman Trophy of wresting” by media outlets. The trophy is sponsored by WIN magazine and Culture House, a company owned by Mike and Bev, and is presented by Asics.  To date, over one million sports fans have seen the Dan Hodge Trophy presented at football stadiums around the country. Spencer Lee also won the trophy in 2020 and will be going for his 4th NCAA title this season. 

November 11 – On Veterans Day, Mike will be the featured speaker at the  “One Nation Under God” banquet hosted by the Cedar Falls Exchange Club, at the Hilton Garden Inn, 7213 Nordic Drive, Cedar Falls, with social hour starting at 5:30 and dinner at 6:30. His talk will center on the lives of Hawkeye stars Fred Becker and Nile Kinnick. Becker was Iowa’s first All-American football player (in 1916) and lost his life fighting during World War I on July 18, 1918. Kinnick, Iowa’s only Heisman Trophy winner, lost his life on a training flight on June 2, 1943, during World War II. Both Fred and Nile were just 22 years of age, and Mike has written about them in his book “Triumph and Tragedy”. Mike has been asked to bring many of his books for sale, as the event is just a few weeks before Christmas. Tickets are $30 and the pubic is invited but reservations must be made by Oct. 31st. Any questions, please call Dennis Kehoe at 319-464-6336 or email kehoe3@yahoo.com. 

November 12 – The Becker-Chapman American Legion Post 138 at 728 Commercial Street is hosting a dinner and an event to honor Fred Becker and Carl Chapman, the two military heroes for whom the Post is named. Mike has written a booklet telling the story of both Fred, a gradate of East High, and Carl, a graduate of West High. Fred Becker was the first All-American football player in the history of the University of Iowa, and then enlisted in the Marines to serve his country in World d War I. He was killed in heroic action along the Western Front on July 18, 1918, and was awarded the American Distinguished Service Cross, the French Coeur de Guerre, and the Belgian War Cross.  Carl, a pilot, was killed  on May 3, 1918.  Mike has donated his time and effort in writing the booklet, and will be signing copies of the booklet during the dinner. The booklet tells the stories of these two warriors and will serve as a donation for the Post. The cost is $10 per booklet.

Tags: carl chapman, Fred Becker, Hodge Trophy, Nile Kinnick, Spencer Lee, Triumph and Tragedy