The most important guy you've never heard of

Five people in history have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Martin Luther King Jr.
Nelson Mandela
Elie Wiesel
Mother Teresa
Dr. Norman Borlaug

One person in history has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and been inducted into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Dr. Norman Borlaug

Note: rumours that Dr. Borlaug defeated Mother Teresa in the consolation wrestle-backs of the 1930 State Tournament are COMPLETELY false.

I'm proud to say that I actually knew who Dr. Borlaug was before any recent media reports when he joined the select group of five listed above. I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I only knew of him in context of wrestling in the State of Iowa.

This past March, I was reading a wonderful article about Iowa's relationship with the sport of wrestling in Sports Illustrated. I was surprised to see that Cresco, IA "Iowa's Year Round Playground" (current population of 3,900) has produced an astounding 63 individual state wrestling champions. This is second only to Dan Gable's alma mater, Waterloo West.

One of Cresco's state qualifiers was none other than Norman Borlaug. Although Dr. Borlaug was not one of the exalted State Champions, he did go on to compete as a Big Ten finalist for the University of Minnesota. Oh, and he managed to fight hunger on a global scale and win the Nobel Prize too.

Dr. Borlaug is the father of the Green Revolution and is credited with saving a BILLION lives through his efforts -- spanning from the 40's to the 70's -- to bring modern agriculture techniques and high-yield grain variants to Mexico, Pakistan, and China. Essentially, he was a one-man rebuttal to the infamous 1968 book 'The Population Bomb' by Paul Ehrlich.

So here's a well deserved Huzzah! to one of Iowa's own.