Rex Branum was an all-state wrestler at Rich East High school. He continued his wrestling career at Joliet Junior College, where he was an All-American for Hall of Fame coach Henry Pillard. After JJC, Branum transferred to the University of Arizona and finally Eastern Illinois, where he was an NCAA Division II All-American (placing 4th). Rex earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education in 1977. He came to Lincoln College to coach wrestling and earned a Master’s degree from Illinois State University in 1984. 

Lincoln College had a fledgling wrestling program, but it hadn’t had a full-time head coach to lead it until Branum arrived in 1977. Those first few seasons weren’t the best but things picked up in the early 80s with Robert Gray winning a National Championship for the Lynx in 1981. Branum went on to coach eight other National Champions, 40 Individual NJCAA All-Americans and five NJCAA National Team placings, including Team National Championships in 1989 and 1991. He was also named NJCAA Wrestling Coach of the Year in 1989 and 1991. 

After winning his second national title with the Lynx, Branum moved to northern California to coach the wrestling program at Lassen Community College in Susanville. Under his leadership, LCC successfully petitioned the State of California to let them leave the California athletic conference to compete in the NJCAA, the first California Community College to do so. 

Between 1991 and 2011, Branum coached the Cougars to twelve NJCAA team placings, including four Team Championships (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998). He coached 21 individual National Champions and 110 All-Americans. Among these athletes, one went on to earn a Bronze Medal in the World Freestyle Champions, while three others earned NCAA Division I National Champion honors. Branum was named NJCAA National Wrestling Coach of the Year in 1995. From 2006 to 2011, he also served as LCC’s Athletic Director. 

From 2011 to 2014, Branum was in Goodland, Kansas, serving as athletic director for the Northwest Kansas Technical College Mavericks, as Northwest Tech became the first two-year technical school in Kansas to implement an athletics program. He currently lives in Reno, Nevada.

Throughout Branum’s outstanding coaching career, he remembered his roots to Illinois by furthering the academic and athletic careers of many Illinois athletes.

He was inducted into the IWCOA Hall of Fame in 1994, the NJCAA Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Lincoln College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.