For many years, the name Ponca City has been equated with excellence in high school wrestling circles. Bobby Wilson is a large part of the reason why. He wrestled for Oklahoma State University compiling an overall record of 44-7 and earning All-America honors on two national championship teams under legendary coach Myron Roderick. After graduation he began his coaching career as both the head coach at a high school in Garden City, Kansas and as a graduate assistant for OSU. While in Garden City, he built a successful program from the ground up, including feeder programs at the elementary and junior high schools. He crowned one individual state champion, Johny Lightner, who won two national junior college titles before wrestling for OSU. Another of his wrestlers, Leland Tresner, was an NAIA national champion. In 1968, he moved to Ponca City where he coached for 13 years fashioning an overall record of 140 wins, 20 losses and 2 ties. He mentored 13 individual state champions and coached his team to five conference championships and two regional titles. He was honored as the All-State Coach in 1975 and served as the Oklahoma Junior Olympic Freestyle Coach. He was inducted into the Ponca City Hall of Fame in 1983. For his lifetime of service to the sport of wrestling in the state, Bobby Wilson is honored by the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.