Seth Duckworth
Oklahoma State had a tough Sunday afternoon in Gallagher-Iba against Iowa in front of a whole lot of people. 13,721 to be exact. The third-largest crowd ever at the arena.
That combined with a big home Bedlam crowd and a solid slate of other regular season duals gave the Cowboys what is likely their highest season average for attendance ever at 5,871 attendees per dual.
The highest since the the Mat Talk Almanac started keeping these records in 2002 was 5,226 which occurred back in 2019.
College Wrestling Attendance | Mat Talk Almanac (mattalkonline.com)
There are no complete records from before the 2002 season, but it is almost certain that this the highest average wrestling attendance of all time for Oklahoma State. Prior to December of 2000, Gallagher-Iba Arena only had a capacity of 6,381. This means that OSU would have needed near sellouts all season to hit that 5,871 mark. Even just one half-full arena for one dual would have made it impossible to have an average attendance of over 5,871. It is somewhat plausible, but very unlikely that this number was ever reached. The current version of the arena opened mid-season during the 2000-2001 year and the Iowa dual was actually held in Oklahoma City prior to that opening. Bedlam that season was a big draw of 10,802, but most of the other home duals in 2001 had fairly marginal attendance.
