On the old board we had a pinned explainer thread for inside jokes that was fun to keep up with and add to as new material emerged. Given that I have recently seen several posters asking the meaning/backstory of some of the common obscure board jokes, perhaps we should do that here now that the boards are merged? (@Tom McAndrew)
To get it started, here are several I can think of or made note of from the old board.
3 inch binder / gold intel binder
During an interview a few years back Tom Brands excitedly claimed to have gotten a recruitment binder from Spencer Lee’s father Larry that was 3 inches thick and full of “gold intel” about how other teams (clearly implying PSU) were recruiting unfairly and tearing down Iowa. Now that Brands knew the opposition’s secrets, he would use the gold intel too (https://iawrestle.com/2017/11/09/le...-were-being-recruited-against-tom-brands/amp/)
8 Scoring Wrestlers
Several NCAA tournaments ago the poster formerly known as 21Guns insisted that if PSU did not have 8 scoring wrestlers we had no chance of winning a national title. Anyone who disagreed with him was challenged to a fight, outside a State College bar.
83%
Mark Hall did an open letter to all wrestlers going through the recruiting process and used an arbitrary percentage of 83% to represent the frequency of a particular occurrence. Others have suggested it was not arbitrary but Mark was making a deliberate “How I Met Your Mother” reference. Either way, the Iowa board jumped all over it and it became a running gag over there.
Aruba + “Tan Tom”
The Monday after the 2017 NCAA tourney where freshman Mark Hall defeated OSU’s Bo Jordan in the finals, Tom Ryan took to Twitter to complain about the officiating in the match. His location on the tweet showed he was in Aruba. This led to the running joke that Ryan made advance travel plans expecting to lose the team race, wasted no time getting out of town, and was more concerned with getting a tan than being with his team immediately following their biggest event of the year.
“Bobby Telford … from the University of Iowa”
Flo did a special on Anthony Knox’s 1st day of recruitment and which college coaches contacted him and in what order. Mike Grey was 1st to call right at midnight. Through mid-morning the next day, all the top programs had called. In all cases it was the head coach except Iowa. Rather than Brands making the call, Assistant Coach Bobby Telford called and left Knox a voicemail. He introduced himself as "Bobby Telford (awkward pause) from the University of Iowa." The pause is what made the joke. Knox didn't respond right away, leading some to think he didn't recognize Telford's name, or maybe he was pissed that Brands didn't make the call. Either way, you could see Knox's ego deflate a bit as he listened to the voicemail and, apparently, mentally remove Iowa from his list of schools.
Cruise liner / Cruise liner Nick
A poster on the Rutgers board declared during the 2016 offseason that Rutgers as going to get an unexpected PSU transfer that offseason that was so big it would make us "poop a cruiseliner." They apparently thought it was Vincenzo Joseph, then Anthony Cassar, then others. Incoming freshman Nick Suriano did later transfer to Rutgers for the 2017-2018 season. After that, posters started jokingly referring to Suriano using references to a cruise liner.
Do you have a plan?
During an interview with Cael after PSU won the Southern Scuffle in 2015, Flo’s Christian Pyles seemed to be questioning Cael’s roster choices (Zain, Nolf, and Nickal were redshirting). Cael turned the question back on Pyles and asked if “he had a plan” Cael should know about. Pyles had a deer in the headlights look.
FULL COURT PRESS!!!!
This initially started with the poster known as Spyker incessantly demanding that Cael put on a “FULL COURT PRESS!!!!” to recruit David Carr. Spyker frequently made generous use of ALL CAPS and exclamation points.
HIT THE WEIGHTS HARD!
Another Spyker-ism that started with him declaring the cure for Nick Nevills and what would make him dominant the next season.
Illegal fist to the back
During a PSU dual at Nebraska several years back, the student announcers were clearly clueless about wrestling moves, scoring, etc, and would make up terms to describe what they were seeing. Some of their more laughable calls were an “illegal fist to the back” and the ref making "stallmate" calls.
Long Bus Ride + Average Officiating
When true freshman Zain Retherford defeated OSU’s multi-time returning champ Logan Steiber at Rec Hall in 2013, Tom Ryan blamed his boy’s loss on the 10 hour bus ride to State College and average officiating.
[insert name] is beating Nico in the room
Excessive rumors (mostly from Spyker) about incoming PSU freshman Nick Suriano beating national champ and 4-time AA Nico Megaludis “in the room” led to a running joke about anyone and everyone beating Nico in the room.
George’s Barbershop references
The announcers of an early season away dual against Clarion repeatedly plugged “George’s Barbershop” and urged listeners to go in for a haircut and a shave.
Lisa Morales
Circa 2024, a new poster named GIAPet appeared on Iowa’s wrestling board to speak truth to power. At the time, the name of the board was GIA for Go Iowa Awesome. This poster, widely understood to be our own johnstownsteel, called out the egregious examples of nonsense posted on GIA and was promptly banned. Shortly thereafter, a new poster named “Lisa Morales” appeared on GIA like a vision, and took up the torch for GIAPet and carried forward his noble missionary efforts in the GIA dumpster fire. Many assumed that Lisa Morales and GIAPet were the same person, but that remains an unsolved mystery, as does the identity of the poster that showed up here several months ago named MisaLorales.
Midwest
Posters will refer to something being in the Midwest that isn’t. This goes back to Mark Hall stating in a recruitment article that he wanted to wrestle in the Midwest. Shortly thereafter he announced his commitment to PSU.
Mike Evans is not impressed
During the 2012 (?) season, Iowa wrestler Mike Evans was asked during an interview to size up David Taylor and Kyle Dake as competitors in his 165 lb weight class. He said he was not impressed with either of them. The line then made regular appearances as poll options and other posts on the board.
“Not how we would’ve handled it”
In a 2018 tweet, OSU coach Tom Ryan (aka Tan Tom/TaTo) whined about the PSU/OSU dual being held at Rec Hall rather than the BJC, suggesting it was a strategic move to ice out OSU fans rather than the actual reason that there was a conflict with a basketball game at the BJC. Here’s the tweet: “PSU does a lot right... but not with this dual. A bit confused why this dual is being wrestled in a small venue & no @wrestlingbucks fans had a chance to get tickets. Not how we would have handled it.”
Oranges
During a podcast with Jason Bryant in 2016, Kevin Dresser called the Brands brothers “oranges” (a euphemism for “pussies” that Dresser said he uses because his wife doesn’t like him using the “p” word). He accused TnT of being afraid to wrestle Virginia Tech where Dresser was coaching at the time. Iowa refused to face VT at the National Duals, even though the match was at Carver Hawkeye Arena, so Dresser publicly called Brands and Iowa "oranges." ()
Paid Iowa Hater
Refers to when Tom Brands said before the 2022 Penn State dual that "schools pay social media personalities to make up rumors about Iowa to create distraction among the team." This seems to have been at least partly directed at Pat Mineo, who had been known to frequently post critical stuff about Iowa.
"Spoiler alert” / “Ranger Dan” alert
A former poster named Ranger Dan used to get quite upset and vocal about wanting to be shielded from any spoilers about scores/outcomes from other sporting events in an unrelated thread. If people would post scores or any noteworthy info in the “wrong” thread, Ranger Dan would tell people to knock it off because he was recording the other event to watch later. His protests never gained much traction.
Tan Tom / TaTo
Tom Ryan’s nickname after the Aruba incident.
What mat Carton and Pletcher are on
During the 2017 NCAA tourney, a board poster (Spyker?) kept asking across multiple posts what mat Luke Pletcher and Topher Carton were assigned to wrestle on in their upcoming match. No one else seemed too interested in the match and the poster got increasingly agitated when no one answered his question.
To get it started, here are several I can think of or made note of from the old board.
3 inch binder / gold intel binder
During an interview a few years back Tom Brands excitedly claimed to have gotten a recruitment binder from Spencer Lee’s father Larry that was 3 inches thick and full of “gold intel” about how other teams (clearly implying PSU) were recruiting unfairly and tearing down Iowa. Now that Brands knew the opposition’s secrets, he would use the gold intel too (https://iawrestle.com/2017/11/09/le...-were-being-recruited-against-tom-brands/amp/)
8 Scoring Wrestlers
Several NCAA tournaments ago the poster formerly known as 21Guns insisted that if PSU did not have 8 scoring wrestlers we had no chance of winning a national title. Anyone who disagreed with him was challenged to a fight, outside a State College bar.
83%
Mark Hall did an open letter to all wrestlers going through the recruiting process and used an arbitrary percentage of 83% to represent the frequency of a particular occurrence. Others have suggested it was not arbitrary but Mark was making a deliberate “How I Met Your Mother” reference. Either way, the Iowa board jumped all over it and it became a running gag over there.
Aruba + “Tan Tom”
The Monday after the 2017 NCAA tourney where freshman Mark Hall defeated OSU’s Bo Jordan in the finals, Tom Ryan took to Twitter to complain about the officiating in the match. His location on the tweet showed he was in Aruba. This led to the running joke that Ryan made advance travel plans expecting to lose the team race, wasted no time getting out of town, and was more concerned with getting a tan than being with his team immediately following their biggest event of the year.
“Bobby Telford … from the University of Iowa”
Flo did a special on Anthony Knox’s 1st day of recruitment and which college coaches contacted him and in what order. Mike Grey was 1st to call right at midnight. Through mid-morning the next day, all the top programs had called. In all cases it was the head coach except Iowa. Rather than Brands making the call, Assistant Coach Bobby Telford called and left Knox a voicemail. He introduced himself as "Bobby Telford (awkward pause) from the University of Iowa." The pause is what made the joke. Knox didn't respond right away, leading some to think he didn't recognize Telford's name, or maybe he was pissed that Brands didn't make the call. Either way, you could see Knox's ego deflate a bit as he listened to the voicemail and, apparently, mentally remove Iowa from his list of schools.
Cruise liner / Cruise liner Nick
A poster on the Rutgers board declared during the 2016 offseason that Rutgers as going to get an unexpected PSU transfer that offseason that was so big it would make us "poop a cruiseliner." They apparently thought it was Vincenzo Joseph, then Anthony Cassar, then others. Incoming freshman Nick Suriano did later transfer to Rutgers for the 2017-2018 season. After that, posters started jokingly referring to Suriano using references to a cruise liner.
Do you have a plan?
During an interview with Cael after PSU won the Southern Scuffle in 2015, Flo’s Christian Pyles seemed to be questioning Cael’s roster choices (Zain, Nolf, and Nickal were redshirting). Cael turned the question back on Pyles and asked if “he had a plan” Cael should know about. Pyles had a deer in the headlights look.
FULL COURT PRESS!!!!
This initially started with the poster known as Spyker incessantly demanding that Cael put on a “FULL COURT PRESS!!!!” to recruit David Carr. Spyker frequently made generous use of ALL CAPS and exclamation points.
HIT THE WEIGHTS HARD!
Another Spyker-ism that started with him declaring the cure for Nick Nevills and what would make him dominant the next season.
Illegal fist to the back
During a PSU dual at Nebraska several years back, the student announcers were clearly clueless about wrestling moves, scoring, etc, and would make up terms to describe what they were seeing. Some of their more laughable calls were an “illegal fist to the back” and the ref making "stallmate" calls.
Long Bus Ride + Average Officiating
When true freshman Zain Retherford defeated OSU’s multi-time returning champ Logan Steiber at Rec Hall in 2013, Tom Ryan blamed his boy’s loss on the 10 hour bus ride to State College and average officiating.
[insert name] is beating Nico in the room
Excessive rumors (mostly from Spyker) about incoming PSU freshman Nick Suriano beating national champ and 4-time AA Nico Megaludis “in the room” led to a running joke about anyone and everyone beating Nico in the room.
George’s Barbershop references
The announcers of an early season away dual against Clarion repeatedly plugged “George’s Barbershop” and urged listeners to go in for a haircut and a shave.
Lisa Morales
Circa 2024, a new poster named GIAPet appeared on Iowa’s wrestling board to speak truth to power. At the time, the name of the board was GIA for Go Iowa Awesome. This poster, widely understood to be our own johnstownsteel, called out the egregious examples of nonsense posted on GIA and was promptly banned. Shortly thereafter, a new poster named “Lisa Morales” appeared on GIA like a vision, and took up the torch for GIAPet and carried forward his noble missionary efforts in the GIA dumpster fire. Many assumed that Lisa Morales and GIAPet were the same person, but that remains an unsolved mystery, as does the identity of the poster that showed up here several months ago named MisaLorales.
Midwest
Posters will refer to something being in the Midwest that isn’t. This goes back to Mark Hall stating in a recruitment article that he wanted to wrestle in the Midwest. Shortly thereafter he announced his commitment to PSU.
Mike Evans is not impressed
During the 2012 (?) season, Iowa wrestler Mike Evans was asked during an interview to size up David Taylor and Kyle Dake as competitors in his 165 lb weight class. He said he was not impressed with either of them. The line then made regular appearances as poll options and other posts on the board.
“Not how we would’ve handled it”
In a 2018 tweet, OSU coach Tom Ryan (aka Tan Tom/TaTo) whined about the PSU/OSU dual being held at Rec Hall rather than the BJC, suggesting it was a strategic move to ice out OSU fans rather than the actual reason that there was a conflict with a basketball game at the BJC. Here’s the tweet: “PSU does a lot right... but not with this dual. A bit confused why this dual is being wrestled in a small venue & no @wrestlingbucks fans had a chance to get tickets. Not how we would have handled it.”
Oranges
During a podcast with Jason Bryant in 2016, Kevin Dresser called the Brands brothers “oranges” (a euphemism for “pussies” that Dresser said he uses because his wife doesn’t like him using the “p” word). He accused TnT of being afraid to wrestle Virginia Tech where Dresser was coaching at the time. Iowa refused to face VT at the National Duals, even though the match was at Carver Hawkeye Arena, so Dresser publicly called Brands and Iowa "oranges." ()
Paid Iowa Hater
Refers to when Tom Brands said before the 2022 Penn State dual that "schools pay social media personalities to make up rumors about Iowa to create distraction among the team." This seems to have been at least partly directed at Pat Mineo, who had been known to frequently post critical stuff about Iowa.
"Spoiler alert” / “Ranger Dan” alert
A former poster named Ranger Dan used to get quite upset and vocal about wanting to be shielded from any spoilers about scores/outcomes from other sporting events in an unrelated thread. If people would post scores or any noteworthy info in the “wrong” thread, Ranger Dan would tell people to knock it off because he was recording the other event to watch later. His protests never gained much traction.
Tan Tom / TaTo
Tom Ryan’s nickname after the Aruba incident.
What mat Carton and Pletcher are on
During the 2017 NCAA tourney, a board poster (Spyker?) kept asking across multiple posts what mat Luke Pletcher and Topher Carton were assigned to wrestle on in their upcoming match. No one else seemed too interested in the match and the poster got increasingly agitated when no one answered his question.
