Wrestling Talk Forums supported
USA Wrestling Kansas KWCA
Wrestling Talk Forums supported & maintained by USA Wrestling-Kansas
USAW USA Wrestling Kansas
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
#253498 06/08/19 12:53 PM
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 1,010
G
Member
Member
G Offline
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 1,010
Gus Garcia, a member of the KWC Hall of Fame passed away on June 5.
Gus was a highly successful coach at Atwood and Augusta, winning state championships at both schools.
He, along with Ben Bennett (long time Junction City Head Coach), was integral in the development of Kansas Kids Wrestling.
Gus was 81


Greg Mann
Manhattan, KS
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 2,933
S
Member
Member
S Offline
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 2,933


Gus Garcia, 80, of Parsons, passed away at 10:50 a.m., Wednesday, June 5, 2019, at his home.  

He was born on November 16, 1938, to Ygnacio and Angelus (Gonzales) Garcia in Douglass, Kansas.  He grew up in Douglass and upon graduation from high school, he joined the United States Marines.  While in the Marines, he was on the wrestling team for three years.  Upon discharge from the Marines, Gus attended Kansas State University, where he was a three-year wrestling letterman for the university and was a third-place Big Eight medalist.

Gus began his teaching and coaching career at Atwood High School, where he lead his team to winning one state team title and 12 teams to finish in the top 10.  He then moved on to Augusta High School, where he coached seven top 10 team finishes at the state level.  He also proudly coached his two sons to a combined six state medals, including an individual state championship for Gus Garcia, Jr. as well as a state runner-up for his son, Gabe.   In Gus’s career, he coached 21 state champions, 27 runners-up, 16 third-place medalists and 19 fourth-place medalists.  As a high school coach, besides leading championship teams, he also helped establish the Kansas Kids Wrestling Foundation; volunteered to officiate in the state tournament; and took a youth freestyle wrestling team to Iran in 1974.  He is in numerous Halls of Fame, from Augusta to Oklahoma, and in 2004, was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Following his retirement from Augusta High School, Gus worked in private security and coached at Maize Middle School where he won two Pioneer League championships.  He later relocated to Parsons, where he enjoyed fishing, spoiling his yellow Labrador, Buddy, and watching the Labette Community College wrestlers.

Survivors Include:

Two Sons – Gus Garcia, Jr. of Augusta, Kansas

Gabe Garcia of Wichita, Kansas

One Daughter - Darla Garcia of Augusta, Kansas

Eight Grandchildren

Memorials are suggested to the Gene Nunz Scholarship Fund, which benefits Augusta High School wrestlers.  These can be dropped off or mailed to Forbes-Hoffman Funeral Home, P.O. Box 374, Parsons, KS 67357.   

Graveside services with Marine Corps Honors will be held at 11:00 AM, Friday, June 21, 2019 at the Douglass Cemetery, 1200 E. 8th Street in Douglass, Kansas.  

 

 



Moderated by  Nate Naasz, RedStorm 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 9 guests, and 0 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
Super Admin, bvswwrestling, CoachFitzOS, Dluce, Shawn Russell
12,303 Registered Users
Forum Statistics
Forums11
Topics36,091
Posts250,722
Members12,303
Most Online1,305
Mar 13th, 2025
Top Posters
usawks1 8,595
smokeycabin 6,248
Aaron Sweazy 5,262
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 8.0.0
(Release build 20240826)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 8.3.23 Page Time: 0.024s Queries: 18 (0.016s) Memory: 3.0040 MB (Peak: 3.5912 MB) Data Comp: Off Server Time: 2025-08-01 16:30:18 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS