Listen to Zeke Jones talk about his college coach, Bobby Douglas



Bobby Douglas overcame enormous obstacles to become a legendary figure in the sport of wrestling.

He grew up as a poor, young black kid living with his grandparents in a coal-mining community in eastern Ohio. The pressures he dealt with in what looked like a hopeless situation are hard for many people to fathom.

He was a trailblazer for black athletes and coaches in the sport of wrestling.

The best wrestlers in United States history – Dan Gable, Cael Sanderson, Dave Schultz, John Smith, Kevin Jackson, Bruce Baumgartner, Kenny Monday and Zeke Jones – were positively impacted by his coaching and guidance. He has impacted countless others with the technique books he has authored.

You will learn about how he built the program at Arizona State, and how he led the Sun Devils to the only NCAA team title by a school west of the Rocky Mountains. You also will see how he recruited and coached Sanderson to the greatest career in NCAA history. You also will learn how he kept Sanderson on track to win an Olympic gold medal.

The story of Bobby Douglas truly is an American success story.

About the Author

Craig Sesker has been the communications manager for USA Wrestling since 2006. He is the editor of USA Wrestling’s member magazine, USA Wrestler, which has a circulation of more than 150,000.

He’s covered the Olympic Games, five World Championships, the Pan American Games, 14 NCAA Championships, and numerous state high school tournaments in Iowa and Nebraska.

Sesker is a two-time National Wrestling Writer of the Year.

He previously worked as a sportswriter, covering wrestling for the Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald and Burlington (Iowa) Hawk Eye newspapers. He won four National Associated Press Sports Editors writing awards during his career as a sportswriter. He won first-place Associated Press honors for Best Sports Story in Iowa and Nebraska.

Sesker was a four-sport athlete for Tipton (Iowa) High School, competing in football, wrestling, track and baseball. He was a member of three state championship relay teams and one runner-up team in track. He was a member of state championship track teams in 1983 and 1984. He was a two-time district qualifier and four-year starter in wrestling. He was a two-year starter in football and an all-conference center fielder in three years as a starter in baseball.

He also competed in track and field at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. He ran on the Iowa Conference champion 4×400-meter relay team in 1987 and was a member of five school-record relay teams. He was team captain as a senior.

Sesker resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado.