Collegiate wrestling in the state of Texas has always fascinated me for a variety of reasons. I've always been shocked as to what I've found regarding amateur wrestling in the lone star state. From learning of how Dory Funk senior a state champion out of Indiana & Hall of Fame professional wrestler got wrestling into the private school system back in the early 1960's & of how it took until the 1998-1999 school year for wrestling to finally be sanctioned in the public schools.
Fritz Von Erich aka Jack Adkisson claimed once that he tried to get amateur wrestling into schools in the Houston, Fort Worth area but was never able to. I once asked his son Kevin about it & he said that what his dad was able to accomplish was getting amateur wrestling taught in a unit in P.E. courses within the district.
The University of Texas, Texas A&M and Texas El Paso all had varsity programs at one time. While today their are many Texas schools with clubs in the NCWA, Southern Methodist's team goes all the way back to the 1930's.
Texas Christian never competed in any post season tournaments but did have a period of time where they had 1-3 dual meets against varsity programs per season.
And today I find out the varsity history of Richland Community College. A team that reinstated its club status at the NCWA in 2016 & has done quite well.
The school had varsity wrestling at the NJCAA level from the 1972-1973 season through the 1983-1984 season. As to NJCAA qualifiers and All Americans, that I do not have as of now but hope to get soon.
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