A month in, and guess what? Oklahoma State remains unbudged, unscathed, and unshaken. The Cowboys have been dominating their opponents just as if it is a walk in the park. And when they competed with Missouri? Same story—another dominant showdown. But this time, there was something extra special in the air. On that electric night, David Taylor’s Oklahoma State squad wasn’t just wrestling—it was history in the making.

The team celebrated Gallagher Day, but the real MVP? The roaring crowd. The legendary Gallagher-Iba Arena was packed to the rafters, with a jaw-dropping 10,740 fans showing up and showing out! That’s a bigger turnout than Bedlam (10,300) and even the iconic OU-Texas basketball game (10,436). In fact, this was the most attended non-football college sporting event in Oklahoma this year! And now? That record-breaking energy led David Taylor to make a straight-up honest admission about OSU wrestling!

David Taylor gets real!

In a video posted by Scott Wright on X, David Taylor got real about the electric vibe in Gallagher-Iba Arena. He couldn’t help but be blown away by the insane energy, especially with over 10,700 fans in the stands. “Sweet. You know, it’s pretty dang awesome. Although it’s 10,700 today, it’s pretty dang close to a sellout here. Historically, that’s just, you know, it’s not something you see here all the time. You don’t see that in many places.” He couldn’t stop talking about how rare it was to see a crowd like that for wrestling, admitting, “If you have a wrestling place, they can get 11,000 people for a wrestling match. I mean, that’s pretty damn special.”

David Taylor was all about showing love for the fans and the team, too. “I’m just proud of the guys and the way they’re wrestling, you know, and I’m so grateful for the fans.” He also took a moment to reflect on the significance of what Oklahoma State wrestling represents, not just for the state, but for the entire country. “We talk about what Oklahoma State wrestling means to this country, right, to the state of Oklahoma and the surrounding states, and we’re starting to see that slowly throughout the season.”

Can’t argue with the Magic Man on that. I mean, it’s not just the Gallagher-Iba Arena that has been seeing crazy numbers. The Cowboys have been pulling in massive footfalls on the road as well. Remember how the McLeod Center recorded its highest attendance at a whopping 6,030 as OSU took on UNI. And while UNI didn’t have a good time on the mat, let’s not forget the profit they made off the match.

As he looked ahead, David Taylor was keeping it grounded, knowing that even though they were riding a wave of excitement, there was still work to do. “Highest average attendance in history and, you know, finishing the season here with a great single match attendance. You know, it’s great momentum as we move into next year’s home schedule, but right now we’ve still got some tough matches here on the road to finish out the season.” He summed it all up with one thing on his mind: “So we’ve got to keep building up that momentum.” Well, with a perfect 12-0 overall record this season, it doesn’t seem like the momentum will be stopping anytime soon.

The match that got them to 12 was pretty one-sided as well as the Mizzou Wrestling team was defeated by the third-ranked Oklahoma State with a score of 36-3 in Stillwater. The Tigers ended up losing nine out of 10 matches. But here’s the kicker: this isn’t the first season David Taylor’s Oklahoma State team is in the news for attendance records!

Oklahoma State and their previous record!

According to O Wrestle, in the year 2024, Oklahoma State wrestled against Iowa in the Gallagher-Iba and the match was nothing short of spectacular. There were 13,721 spectators in the arena—making it the third-largest crowd ever in the arena’s history. That’s a whole lot of energy, right? Throw in a big Bedlam crowd and a solid set of regular season duals, and the Cowboys ended up with what’s probably their highest season average for attendance ever—5,871 fans per dual.

To the best of what was recorded, the previous record was in 2019 at 5,226 fans. But that new number? It was a game-changer. Although the exact figure of the attendance before the 2002 season is not available, it can be safely concluded that it was the best average attendance OSU had ever witnessed. The Gallagher-Iba Arena wasn’t always this massive either—before December 2000, it only held 6,381 people. So hitting 5,871 per dual? That would’ve meant near sellouts all season long!

It is hard to imagine how things have changed over the years, especially now that the arena got its upgrades. The game during the Bedlam series in 2001 had a large attendance of 10,802 but the other games of the season were not very much attended. Fast forward to now, and it is evident that OSU Wrestling is attracting fans in a way that it has never done before.