Last updated: March 10, 2008

                     Wrestling Bio Sheet for Johnny Cobb III

Johnny Cobb wrestled for Tascosa High School in 1965, 66, & 67.  
He was a three time District Champion, only losing one high 
school match in 3 years.  During those years in the 1960’s 
there was not a Texas state tournament available to Amarillo 
wrestlers, this most likely kept Coach Cobb from being a three 
time state champion in high school.

Coach Cobb went on to wrestle at Oklahoma State University in 
1969 before injuries ended his college wrestling career.

Later on during his coaching career he chose to compete one 
more time and won the gold medal at the 1993 Masters National 
AAU freestyle championships, held in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Johnny was one of the founding members of the (Panhandle Amateur 
Wrestling Association), which gave area wrestlers their first 
opportunity to compete in out of district tournaments including 
the Texas State Championships.  He was the tournament director 
for the first State Tournament that was held in Amarillo, TX at 
Amarillo College.

In 1971 he founded the first kids wrestling program in the 
Panhandle of Texas, at the Maverick Boys Club.  While at the 
Maverick Club his teams won both Elementary and Junior High 
Team State Championship titles and over 50 Elementary and 
Junior High “individual” State titles. 

He started coaching wrestling at Tascosa in 1988.  Since 1990, 
Tascosa has finished in the top ten at State 15 times.  Tascosa 
has had 4 – 4th place finishes, 4 – 3rd place finishes, 3 State 
runner-up titles and 3 State Championships.  Tascosa has won 
both boys and girls State team titles. Coach Cobb is currently 
the only high school coach to ever win state team titles in 
both the boys and girls divisions.  Tascosa has had over 21 
individual State Titles and 26 National qualifiers of which 
18 participated in the National Championships in Pittsburg, 
Cleveland, Viginia Beach, and Detroit.  

Tascosa has also had 8 High School “ALL AMERICANS” and two 
ASICS “Dream Team” members.  In 2000 Coach Cobb’s most well 
known wrestler,  3X State Champion Brandon Slay, who won the 
Olympic Gold Medal in Sydney, Australia.  

“All State” wrestler recognition began in 1993 and Tascosa 
wrestlers have been recognized over 45 times.  

Coach Cobb says one of the things that makes him most proud, 
is to see his former wrestlers move on to become wrestling 
coaches in their adult life giving back to the sport of 
wrestling.  These are only to name a few of Coach Cobbs 
former wrestlers that have donated their time back to our 
sport.  Currently one of the top teams in the State is Randall 
High School which placed second in the 2005  and 2007 Texas 
State Championships.  Randall is coached by Coach Cobb’s former 
1990 Tascosa State Champion, David Quirino. Steve Nelson and 
Scott Tankserly were also coached by Coach Cobb at the Maverick 
Boys Club and both of their teams have won Texas State Team 
Titles in the Girls division for Palo Duro HS and Caprock HS.  
Coach Ronnie Higdon started his wrestling career at the Maverick 
Boys Club under Coach Cobb and is now the Assistant Coach at 
the University of Nebraska Omaha, which won the 2005 NCAA 
Division II National Championships. 

Coach Mark Stovall who started wrestling for Coach Cobb at 
the Maverick Club is now the head wrestling coach for Newman 
University in Ks.

Coach Cobb founded the West Texas A&M Wrestling Association 
and coached the first West Texas club wrestling program.

He was voted the 1990/91 Texas Coach of the Year and in 2000 
he was inducted into the Texas Wrestling Ring of Honor

Coach Cobb is currently working on beginning an NCAA 
wrestling program at West Texas A&M University in 
Canyon, TX for 2009.


Johnny Cobb retiring (Amarillo 
Globe News article).





Johnny Cobb and Scott Tankersley 

Johnny Cobb (Retired) 

Scott Tankersely and Johnny Cobb