Jim Thomas, of Oklahoma City, led Oklahoma wrestling to a higher level. He was heavily involved in amateur wrestling and was state AAU wrestling chairman from 1968-1994. During that time, he ran the Governor's Tournament, the longest running freestyle wrestling event in the southwest. He also organized and hosted the first girls-only wrestling tournaments in the United States. During the period from 1968 to 1994 he organized and hosted 262 wrestling tournaments on the local, state, regional and national level. This included two Olympic Trials and one Pan American Games Trial. Starting in 1970, he took Oklahoma wrestling teams to various national tournaments. Those teams won over 22 national championships. In 1985, he received approval from Russia for a high school wrestling team to visit and wrestle in Leningrad. He also organized wrestling tours to Japan, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Hungary, France, Poland, Austria and England. He organized, fund-raised and opened doors for many young wrestlers to have an opportunity in the sport of wrestling. Many of the kids who were introduced to wrestling through his clubs went on to wrestle in college and become coaches.