(The Wayland Baptist Athletics Hall of Honor will induct Rosemary Brown Bowser, Alexey Carvalho, Johnny Cobb, Brett Cook and Andrew Williamson in ceremonies set for 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4 in McClung University Center. The public is invited.)
Johnny Cobb never intended to become as transformational of a figure as he did for Wayland Baptist University wrestling. Already a legend in high school wrestling coaching circles after a five-decade long career, Cobb came out of retirement to not only help Wayland lay the groundwork for the first scholarship college wrestling program in Texas but then unexpectedly guide it to a highly-successful start, including coaching his second Olympic gold medalist.
After guiding his high school alma mater, Amarillo Tascosa, to three state wrestling titles and earning a pair of Texas high school coach of the year honors, Cobb was a year into retirement when then Wayland athletics director Dr. Greg Feris sought his help starting a wrestling program at WBU.
"I was really interested in getting that done," said Cobb, one of the founders of the Panhandle Amateur Wrestling Association and the director of the first organized state high school wrestling tournament in Texas. "I had worked for years to get a good college program in Texas, for both men and women." But Cobb's efforts to develop a program at West Texas A&M were met with delay after delay. So he jumped at the chance to assist Wayland. "What a great university to get a good start. Character-wise, the kids could learn something along with wrestling. So I thought 'I'll help make it happen.'
That was 2009, and Wayland was hoping the retired Cobb could use his many wrestling connections to help the university locate the ideal coach. "We had several candidates, but some things just flat didn't work out." Cobb, who was offering Wayland his assistance "out of the good of my wrestling heart," said things were starting to get desperate. "It was getting late. We had to get equipment, we had no mats, we had to work out a facility, and recruitment needed to get started immediately."
Then it dawned on WBU officials that the ideal coaching candidate was right in front of them. "Dr. Feris told me, 'We decided we want you to do it.' I was kind of taken aback, but rather than not having a program I said, 'Sure, let's do it.' I figured just get it up and running and after a year, maybe two, turn it over. Five years later I was still there. I had such an investment in those kids it wasn't so easy to turn the program over to another coach."
Cobb's reluctance to "turn the program over" also may have had something to do with the success his wrestlers were having, especially on the women's side. Although year one was a bit of a struggle, by year two Wayland was a force with which to be reckoned. The Pioneer women finished a very respectable sixth with six All-Americans at the WCWA National Championships in 2012, then two years later the Wayland women were fifth as a team with seven All-Americans.
In Cobb's five years as coach, WBU wrestlers brought home 24 All-American honors, 21 on the women's side including the first of two national championships for Tamyra Mensah in 2014. "We had some national champions and national runners-up and had several all-Americans out of that first recruiting class," Cobb said.
But it was more than the success his wrestlers were having on the mat that made Cobb want to continue coaching. "Wayland offered such a unique opportunity to guide kids in a better direction. I always believed in coaching kids, not just athletes. These were college kids and it was a little different (than high school), but they were still young people that needed guidance and discipline. You can't save everybody but you have to try with everybody."
Cobb – who was a three-time district champion at Tascosa in the mid-1960s, losing only one high school match in three years, before injuries put an end to his wrestling career at Oklahoma State – emphasized that wrestling is a tough sport that provides plenty of character, something that oozes out of a man once described as having "relentless energy and an endearing, impish grin."
"I always told the kids, 'You will never regret doing the right thing.' I tried my very best to do the right thing with the kids. Nobody hates to lose more than I do, but to sacrifice all morals and characteristics for the sake of a win was never going to be in my wheelhouse."
Cobb said the one thing he takes the most pride in from his time at Wayland is not the many on-mat successes his student-athletes achieved but what they've gone on to do after leaving Wayland. "I'm most proud of the fact that so many (of his former student-athletes) are now coaching other kids. They're everywhere." Cobb beamed as he pointed out that at a high school quad dual in Amarillo all four programs were being coached by his former student-athletes at Wayland.
"There are so many who paid it forward and who are trying to implement the same characteristics in their kids. Hopefully what I tried to do had a ripple effect, and hopefully that ripple effect helps many other people."
Cobb retired from Wayland in 2014, in part in response to a family tragedy. "I have three little grandsons who lost their daddy in November, and I'm helping (my daughter) with those three little boys," he said at the time. Cobb and wife Beverly continue to help raise them. "I needed to be that second dad for them."
Cobb also continues to stay close to wrestling. After leaving Wayland he helped coach Tamyra Mensah through Titan Mercury Wrestling Club. Mensah went on to make history in 2021 by becoming the first Black woman to win Olympic gold for Team USA in freestyle wrestling. "I continued to work with Tamyra and feel lucky to get to do that," he said.
Mensah was Cobb's second Olympic gold medalist, the first being Brandon Slay whom Cobb coached at Tascosa High School before he went on to win gold at the 2000 Olympics. Cobb remains close to both Mensah and Slay, with whom he worked at a youth wrestling camp last summer in Amarillo. "I was very lucky to be able to coach two athletes like Brandon and Tamyra. Some of that you just had to get a little bit lucky to have a couple of athletes like that."
To that end, Cobb isn't sure he deserves induction into the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor, a recognition that follows his induction into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Wrestling Ring of Honor and the Texas chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Cobb also has an endowed scholarship named in his honor at Wayland, and the university's most prestigious wrestler award also is named for him.
"You always wonder if you're deserving of stuff like that when there are so many other people involved. With any success that you have, it wasn't you doing it by yourself. The foresight of Dr. Feris was the big reason it all happened, and getting Coach (Aaron) Meister as an assistant was very instrumental in all the different elements of everything that needed to happen. Plus, all the different people who supported us through trials and tribulations. It was a joint effort by a lot of people. What a great university."
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