Gust missed his Olympic moment

Four Minnesotans were among the eight Greco-Roman wrestlers on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team. Dan Chandler was the city kid from Anoka. There were interesting connections among the other three.

Brian Gust was the 125-pounder. He came from Canby, which meant he had competed in the same small school conference -- Little Sioux -- as did Olympic teammate Brad Rheingans from Appleton. And, Gust and Bruce Thompson, a teammate from Prior Lake, were first cousins.

"Brian and I were wrestling partners for six, seven years," Thompson said. "When we started out, it was in the North Tower at Memorial Stadium. It was a nasty, old wrestling room, but the workouts were tremendous. Any time Brian was on the mat, you were going to get in your work."

Canby has been one of Minnesota's wrestling hotbeds for decades, and there was a long line of Gusts.

"Brian was the smallest of them," said Jerry Jingels, Canby's ultra-successful former coach. "He came in as a 95-pounder and never got much bigger.

"He wasn't real coachable. If he made up his mind, he wasn't about to change. But pound for pound, he was as tough a kid as I've seen."

Five years ago, doctors diagnosed a cancerous tumor in the right side of Gust's throat. It had metastasized and the prognosis was grave.

Ultimately, he came up with his own treatment plan: an organic nutrition regimen that he had used to great effect as a wrestler. Gust had the cancer in retreat for a time, but it came back strong recently.

Brian, 59, died last weekend. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. today at Rosemount Baptist Church. He will be buried at Fort Snelling. He was a Green Beret and served in Vietnam.

"Brian came home and got back to wrestling," Chandler said. "Greco-Roman was perfectly suited for him. He was stocky, solid as a rock. He had a great style; he was a great thrower. He would get chest-and-chest and throw people on their back.

"He was a very physical wrestler. In the Pan-Am Games, he was in the finals against a Cuban wrestler. The Cuban beat him, but when the match was over, the Cuban couldn't walk off the mat."

Gust was the No. 1-rated 125-pounder in the United States in 1976. A week before the national championship, he tore cartilage in his right knee and was unable to compete. He was given a shot in the Olympic Trials, but he had to start at the bottom of the competition ladder and lost in the finals.

Chandler, Rheingans and Thompson were all members of the U.S. Greco-Roman squad that summer in Montreal.

Gust was 27 with his wife, Rae, and had two children. It was a time when the Amateur Athletic Union, not known for being athlete-friendly, oversaw amateur sports in this country.

"The AAU people were complete jerks," Chandler said. "They would kick guys off a team if they happened not to like them. But Brian never backed down. Every chance he had he would tell people what was wrong with the AAU.

"Guys like Brian are the reason we finally got rid of the AAU ... finally got a system in this country where Olympic athletes were supported financially and with training."

Gust and his wife scrounged their dollars and he kept competing with an eye toward the '80 Olympics. He made the team and, at 31, was viewed by Rheingans as a serious medal contender.

"That was a tough weight class, but Brian was right there with them," Rheingans said. "He could've done something big in Moscow."

Except, President Carter decided to have the United States boycott the Moscow Games because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

Chandler, Rheingans and Thompson had their Olympic experience from four years earlier. Gust never got his.

There's a book called "Boycott," written by Tom and Jerry Caraccioli, in which Gust is characterized as being in support of whatever decision a president felt was necessary. Or maybe not.

"Brian was like the rest of us -- very upset," Chandler said. "Carter brought the Olympic team to the White House. You never saw so many irritated guests."

There's a photo in the book of Gust shaking hands with Carter. Gust is either smiling or gritting his teeth.

"That's an unusual sight -- Brian not telling someone exactly what he thought," Chandler said.

Patrick Reusse can be heard 5:30 to 9 a.m. weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP. • preusse@startribune.com.