Bob Anderson didn’t get involved in wrestling until he was a sophomore at South Torrance High School. By the time he was a junior, he was one of the top wrestlers in the area.

As a senior in 1962, Anderson led South to the CIF dual meet final. Anderson also reached the CIF individual championship match that year at 178 pounds.

He continued his dominance in college, becoming a state champion at El Camino at 167 pounds in both the 1962-63 and 1963-64 seasons, and led the Warriors to a dual meet title. Anderson was elected into the El Camino College Hall of Fame in 1989.

Anderson went on to Adams State in Colorado and became the school’s first NCAA All-American in wrestling. He also had shining moments at the national level for the U.S., taking the silver medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Columbia. He was also an alternate on the 1972 Olympic team.

Although he never got the opportunity to compete in the Olympics, Anderson continued to compete on the mat. He won the National Freestyle Championships in 1974 in the Open Division at Fort Collins, Colo., and captured a gold medal at the Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1979 in sombo. Anderson is a member of the Sombo Hall of Fame.

Early in his coaching career, he spent three weeks in Brazil teaching a complex arm hold to jiu jitsu gurus in the Gracie family, and is mentioned in the book, The Gracie Way.

Anderson coached Olympic wrestlers and mixed martial arts champions such as Rulon Gardner, Heath Sims, Dan Henderson and Randy Couture. He’s coached the U.S. World Cup wrestling team, the Junior World Team and was one of the first 10 coaches to become Gold Coach Certified, the highest certification in USA wrestling.