A three-sport athlete (football, wrestling and baseball) at Calexico High School, Lou Montano placed third in his senior year in the California Interscholastic Federation State Wrestling Championships.

Quarterback and the Most Valuable Player on the football team, he was offered several Division I football scholarships, but declined them in favor of wrestling at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

At Cal Poly, he wrestled for Hall of Fame coach Vaughan Hitchcock, compiling a record of 112-16-1 from 1978-83. One of the school's all-time best wrestlers, Montano was team captain and selected Most Valuable Wrestler in from 1981-83.

He was a three-time NCAA Qualifier, a two-time Western Regional champion, and a two-time NCAA Division I All-American. After an eighth-place finish as a junior, he set a school record for most wins in a season, 41-2-1, and finished second at the NCAA tournament. His only two losses were to three-time NCAA Champion Jim Zalesky, one of Iowa's all-time greatest wrestlers.

In the U.S. National Open Greco-Roman Championships, Montano placed sixth in 1984, fifth in 1989, and qualified for the Olympic Trials.

He began coaching as an assistant at Cal Poly (1984-86) and at Cal State Bakersfield (1986-91), where the team placed second in the Pac-10 Conference in 1990 and 1991 and had two Top-10 finishes at the NCAA tournament.

Montano was nominated twice as National Wrestling Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year. He has developed 12 NCAA All-Americans, including NCAA runner-up Darryl Pope and champion Paul Keysaw.

In 1991, Lou became the head coach at Columbia University, the oldest college wrestling program in the nation. Until he resigned in 2000 to return to California, Columbia had some of its most successful seasons with a record of 69-46-1. Columbia was on the NWCA All-Academic Team four times during his tenure, and he set up the first $100,000 endowment for the team to preserve the program in the future.

He served as president of both the EIWA Conference and the Ivy League Coaches Association.

Montano has served as a clinician at high school wrestling camps throughout California and for camps at the University of Michigan, Iowa State University, Brigham Young University, Cal Poly, California State University, Bakersfield, and West Virginia University.

Since 2003, he has been assistant tournament director of the CIF State Wrestling Championships, and he has also helped to direct the Pac-10 Wrestling Championships at CSUB.

Montano continues to be involved in USA Wrestling, Beat the Streets-Los Angeles, and with Cal Poly and CSUB.

He was inducted into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012.