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Of course the words “National titles” and “Big Ten championships” are identifiable enough that even those outside of the wrestling world are able to grasp them with ease. An individual athlete who dominated the entire NCAA three times over? Also easy to grasp. Yet one accomplishment that might not jump off the page, however, is Nickal’s 2019 Hodge Trophy.

A relatively new award, first handed out in 1995 to North Carolina’s T.J. Jaworsky, the Dan Hodge Trophy is awarded to one athlete who stood head and shoulders above the entire country, including National Champions.

“I think the best thing to compare it to is the Heisman Trophy,” Nickal said. “It’s like the MVP of the year. A lot of people know of the Heisman and it’s put together very similarly. There’s a committee of people that have won it in the past, and since I won it, I get to vote on who wins it every year. It’s a cool community itself.”

Due to wrestling being viewed as a “niche sport” to most, the award doesn’t get the praise it should. The same people who can tell you every stat from Archie Griffin’s two Heisman seasons would probably wait with an abundance of impatience while you detailed the level of dominance Cael Sanderson had to carry to win three Hodge Trophies.

The aforementioned “niche sport” category some put wrestling in may play a factor in the unfamiliarity outside the community to the award, but another factor could be as simple as the history behind it.

The first Heisman trophy was won in 1935, the first Naismith College Payer of the Year was won in 1969, but it wasn’t until long after that wrestling awarded an athlete that dominated one of the hardest sports for a single athlete to dominate.

“It’s kind of hard to create a criteria that is a comprehensive enough list of attributes that you have to have to win it,” Nickal explained. “You have to have a ton of different things to factor in. In football there’s just a bunch more stats; they’re big on stats there. With wrestling there’s so many different ways to be dominant, so many different ways to win and it’s hard to find a disparity between the top guys. It’s especially hard because we’re not all competing against each other.”

Current NCAA wrestlers have never grown up in a world where the Hodge Trophy wasn’t around. We’re finally able to hear, “I’ve wanted to win this my whole life” and Nickal was in one of the first classes to not know a world without a benchmark to chase outside of dominance in their own weight classes.

The first Heisman trophy was won in 1935, the first Naismith College Payer of the Year was won in 1969, but it wasn’t until long after that wrestling awarded an athlete that dominated one of the hardest sports for a single athlete to dominate.

“It’s kind of hard to create a criteria that is a comprehensive enough list of attributes that you have to have to win it,” Nickal explained. “You have to have a ton of different things to factor in. In football there’s just a bunch more stats; they’re big on stats there. With wrestling there’s so many different ways to be dominant, so many different ways to win and it’s hard to find a disparity between the top guys. It’s especially hard because we’re not all competing against each other.”

Current NCAA wrestlers have never grown up in a world where the Hodge Trophy wasn’t around. We’re finally able to hear, “I’ve wanted to win this my whole life” and Nickal was in one of the first classes to not know a world without a benchmark to chase outside of dominance in their own weight classes.

In wrestling, it’s one of the most prestigious honors, and while Nickal still holds it in high regard, in his new career it’s just a nice little feather in the cap and he’s ok with that.

“It was definitely something that I strived for and wanted to win from a young age and it was a great honor for me,” Nickal said. “I’m happy to bring that accolade to MMA. I don’t know that there’s any Hodge Trophy winners coming in aside from me.”

Nickal is 2-0 in AMMA with two finishes. Nickal still trains regularly with the Penn State wrestling team, so his ground game will only get stronger, but Nickal has now given the middleweights of the world something more to fear by landing a first-round KO in his last trip to the cage.

With few options for wrestling professionally, some wrestlers simply move on, others seek world titles and Olympic gold medals, and some, like Nickal, opt into the world of combat sports. Obviously world titles and gold medals are elite status enough to compare to the Hodge Trophy, but what about MMA?

Is a UFC belt the MMA equivalent?

Maybe for some, but it will take even more than that for Nickal to feel similar adulation.

“My goal with MMA is I want to be the UFC champion at middleweight and undisputed number one pound-for-pound guy in the world,” Nickal said. “That’s the plan for me and I train everyday with that on my mind.”

With one of the strongest wrestling bases one could ever ask for and the American Top Team machine behind him, Bo Nickal has a long climb to the top, but the determination to do it and the wind at his back.

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