Glen Lanham has been involved in the sport of wrestling for over 40 years. He started his wrestling career at Lindenhurst Junior High under the guidance of Larry Buzzerio. After 8th grade, he was moved up to the varsity team by Hall of Fame coach Paul Brodmerkel. His wrestling career blossomed under Hall of Fame coach Joe Russo, where he was a 2x league champion. In addition, Lanham was also a New York freestyle and Greco Roman Champion, triple crown winner, and a Junior National finalist.

After high school, Lanham went to the University of Tennessee on a full wrestling scholarship. At Tennessee, he was coached by Hall of Fame and Olympic wrestler Gray Simons, where Lanham went on to be a 2x Midwest Regional Champion, 2x Outstanding Midwest Regional wrestler and a Division 1 All-American, compiling a record of 66-18. When Tennessee dropped their wrestling program, Lanham finished his wrestling career at Oklahoma State University under the guidance of Hall of Fame and Olympic coach Joe Seay, where he was a team captain with Olympic and World champion John Smith. He was a Big 8 finalist and became an All-American for the second time with a record of 38-6-1, putting him 10th on the All-time single season winning record list. He was also a Freestyle All-American and training partner with Olympic gold medalist Kenny Monday for the Sunkist Wrestling Club.

Once his wrestling career was over, he began his coaching career at Oklahoma State, where the team won 2 National Championships and 3 Big 8 team titles. After 3 years at Oklahoma State, Lanham spent 7 years coaching at Midwest City High School where he coached 14 individual State Champions. He left Midwest City for a coaching job at North Carolina where he coached 4 ACC individual champions and 2 ACC team championships, while coaching Evan Sola to an All-American finish. He also coached at Purdue where he had a Top 5 finish in the Big 10 Championships and two Top 15 ranked recruiting classes with a Top 25 team finish.

Presently he is at Duke University where he has had two Top 25 team finishes, the best in program history. He has coached 5 ACC Champions, 3 All-Americans, and 28 Academic All-Americans, the most in program history. Lanham coached Conner Hartmann, who was a 3x All-American, a 2x ACC Champion, and a 4x National qualifier; Jacob Kasper, who was a 2x All-American, a 1x ACC Champion and a 3x National qualifier; and Mitch Finesilver, who was an All-American and ACC Champion and a 4x National qualifier.