Rick Lampkin was born in Columbus, MS, in 1947 and soon moved to Birmingham with his family. He attended Banks High School in Birmingham where he lettered in football, baseball, and wrestling. He wrestled for three years as Banks was a start-up program in his sophomore year. He was captain of the football team and wrestling team his junior and senior year, and wrestled in the finals of the AHSAA State Tournament his junior and senior year. After high school he accepted a football scholarship to Samford University, but due to injury he attended Jacksonville State University. Jacksonville did not have a wrestling program so his participating in wrestling ended for the time being. Rick received a BS in Business Administration. He then entered the corporate world working for Procter and Gamble for 32 years. His love for wrestling never faded, so he contacted Jack Burton about officiating. He worked with Jack and started calling matches. This started a 29-year career in wrestling officiating. During that 29-year career, he called in 30 high school state tournaments. He also called in high school and junior high sectional tournaments every year. He also called in four private school state tournaments. During this time, he worked with three high school start-up teams conducting rules clinics and on the mat. Rick and his wife, Sharon, have been married 50 years. Rick has four daughters: Kristen, Loren, Susan, and Carin and 12 grandchildren: Anna Grace, Connor, Will, Lauren, Ashleigh, Garrett, Alex, Olivia, Sam, Julianne, Kathryn, and Joseph.