by John Rizzuti
ITW Presents the Top Five Texas-born College Wrestlers of All-Time!
Number 5 Ben Heizer Norhtern Illinois
Two-time NCAA All-American and 2004 finalist wrestling out of Arlington Bowie H.S. , Heizer was the only Texas H.S. All-American at Fargo seven years ago winning AA honors in both Greco (2nd) and freestyle (4th) in a Herculean double duty. Heizer placed 6th the year before in the NCAAs. During his 2004 run he wrestled 2-time NCAA Champion from Oklahoma State Jake Rosholt and in perhaps the match of Heizer’s life he dominated Rosholt on his way to a 4-1 win. It was bittersweet for Heizer as he wanted to go to OSU but they showed no interest in him while he was in high school.
Number 4 Muhammad Lawal Oklahoma State
Only a complete lapse prevented Lawal from being the first Texan in forty years to win a Division I national title. Wrestling two-time NCAA Champion Damion Hahn, Lawal was leading with four seconds to go when at the edge of the mat Hahn dove in on Lawal for a takedown at the buzzer. In a thousand years, Hahn couldn’t take Lawal down again! Lawal went on to get third to go along with his Div. II championship the previous year with Central Oklahoma. During his final three years of college wrestling, Lawal scored something like 700 takedowns. He may be one of the two or three best takedown wrestlers ever. He went out for wrestling as a sophomore at Plano East and now is one of the top four or five wrestlers in the world at 185.
Number 3 Brandon Slay Penn
Born in Amarillo, Slay was a 3x state champion out of Tascosa H.S. He went to Penn to pursue an Ivy League education. He made the finals twice in the elite NCAA championships losing narrowly , first to Mark Branch of Oklahoma State 3-2 and second to Joe Willimas of Iowa 7-4. Slay later got his revenge on Williams as he shocked Joltin Joe with a five-point move to win the U.S. Nationals on his way to the Olympic Gold. Who will ever forget Slay’s performance at the Olympic Trials in Dallas in front of 12,000?
Number 2 Bullet Bob Johnson Oklahoma State
Bob, out of Amarillo High, won back-to-back NCAA title for Oklahoma State in 1961 and 1962 being the last Texan to do so. He also led OSU to national titles both years. He was considered by many to be an extremely tough individual and somebody that you did not mess with. I made the mistake once of calling him “Bobby” and a friend of his told me I was risking my hind-end. He was very light for 1977, where he won the titles including a gut-wrenching win over Olympic Gold Medlaist Wayne Baughman in the ’61 finals.
Number 1 Dick Hutton Oklahoma State
Born in Amarillo and raised in Oklahoma, Hutton is considered by many to be the greatest colleg wrestler ever. He won title at heavyweight in 1948 and 1950. His only loss in college was an extremly controversial loss to Verne Gagne in the finals in 1949. To this day there are those who say that there was funny business going in on that loss to the future professional wrestling king. Hutton also went on to an illustrious career in the pro ranks including being the NWA world champion several times.
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