The Sanchez Family, by Jorge Iber, chronicles wrestling excellence

In late April 1965, a boisterous crowd of more than 250 locals gathered at the Cheyenne Regional Airport and awaited the return of a conquering hometown hero. Was it University of Wyoming legend Kenny Sailors, perhaps, arriving in town on his way to his old stomping grounds in Laramie?

Was it former Cheyenne High School star and Green Bay receiver Boyd Dowler (the 1959 NFL Rookie of the Year), who, by this time, was already a two-time NFL champion (and would go on to be part of five Packer title teams)? Was it Richard Babka, who earned a silver medal in the discus in the 1960 Olympics? No, it was none of those august names from Wyoming’s sporting history. Instead, the locals were there to welcome an unlikely champion who had brought national recognition to his birthplace.

There were two major differences between the subject of this story and the likes of Sailors, Dowler, and Babka. Although hoop legend Sailors was not particularly tall (even by Basketball Association of America and National Basketball Association standards of that time), standing 5̂-10 and weighing around 175 pounds., this title holder was even smaller in stature.

Our subject was certainly a Lilliputian in comparison to Dowler, who stood 6-foot-5 and weighed 220 pounds  and Babka, who was as tall as Dowler and carried a frame of 267 pounds. In contrast, this new hero was around 5-foot-5 and tipped the scales at less than 120 pounds. In what sport could such a diminutive person participate and triumph? That sport was wrestling.

Sports Illustrated ‘Face in the Crowd’

    An even more critical distinction was that the new luminary was not part of the majority population of the state. He was, rather, a member of a group that often endured difficult and discriminatory circumstances: a Mexican American.

As this work details, this population was often relegated to “the poor side of town” and toiled in menial, manual labor such as working for the railroads or in agriculture for most of the state’s history. Indeed, it was common to see signs in parts of Wyoming that stated: “No dogs or Mexicans allowed.”

A recent article on a Mexican American couple in Lovell documents such improprieties, as the interviewee, Milton Ontiveros (who has lived in the state since the 1940s), noted that while his clan followed the beet crop, “We use to stop in towns hungry to go buy something to eat, but we couldn’t eat at (the) restaurants. They had signs—no Mexicans or Negroes allowed. Just like a dog, you see.”

    In April 1965, however, here was someone special, an individual who even merited mention in the “Faces in the Crowd” column of Sports Illustrated after claiming his eighty-first consecutive mat triumph. The name of this competitor was Ray Sanchez, and given the positive press to Cheyenne, might this Mexican American be seen differently than his fellow Spanish-surnamed Wyomingites? What impact would that have on his family and, indeed, on persons of Mexican descent living in the state?  

Four-time Wyoming state champion

The reason for all this revelry was that Ray had returned with a championship title in Freestyle wrestling from Nationals in San Francisco. That was not his only accomplishment, however, as Sanchez eventually completed a legendary, undefeated high school career for the Cheyenne High School (CHS) Indians, finishing with a mark of 98–0 and four state titles (at three different weight classifications: 103, 115, and 120 lbs.). 

    Although he had achieved tremendous success, Ray felt a bit intimidated as he traveled with his coach, Joe Dowler, to the Golden State to participate in a tournament that not only included the best high school grapplers in the country but also featured collegiate competitors as well.

As he recounted to his nephew Jim (a high school and collegiate wrestler himself) many years later, “It was a little scary going to the Nationals while still in high school. Really, I went to the meet just for the experience.”

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Still, Ray proved himself at this elite level of competition and earned the applause and admiration of fellow Wyomingites.

    In addition to his performance as an athlete, Coach Dowler portrayed Ray to the community as a typical “All-American” youth. Even before Ray headed to Nationals, Sanchez’s mentor noted that this athlete was “not only a great wrestler, but he exemplifies high school athletics at its best. He trains hard, learns well and fast, and above all possesses the outstanding ability to compete.”

He also did well in the classroom, carrying a high B average. Would Ray continue his wrestling career at the University of Wyoming and bring further athletic glory to his home state? Such positive acclamations were not a particularly common occurrence for Spanish-surnamed individuals in this state at that time.

Ray Sanchez made name on mat

    Ray was the youngest of a family of wrestlers (brothers Gilbert, David, and Arthur) who made their mark on the mat (and other sports as well) during the late 1950s and into the early 1960s. All these youths, save one, would go on to have collegiate careers.

More important, this generation (born between 1938 and 1946) utilized sport as a mechanism to radically alter their clan’s economic and social standing into the 1960s and beyond. Using athletics, this first generation created opportunities almost unheard of for Mexican Americans in Wyoming: the occasion to go to college and earn middle-class standing and income.

Subsequent generations of this family followed their fathers and uncles on to mats at various institutions and earned degrees, entering professional occupations. Indeed, it is not misleading to contend that wrestling became the family’s “business”—a mechanism by which it extricated itself from the working class of Cheyenne and moved on to economic progress and improved social standing.

    This work follows the Sanchezes from their arrival in the Equality State in the early decades of the twentieth century through the lives and careers of three generations. What issues did this family confront upon arriving in Wyoming? How were their experiences like or different from those of other Latinos/as in this state?

Most significant, how did sport help them change their social/economic trajectory? The main goal of this project is to utilize this family’s historical experiences to demonstrate that athletic participation (in this case, wrestling) has been (and still is) a valuable tool that Mexican Americans (and other Latinos) have utilized to challenge their status and how the broader/majority population perceives them.

Success beyond mat

Provided with these opportunities, did subsequent generations of this family continue the tradition of wrestling, or did the changes brought about by participating in athletics in earlier decades make it possible to have a broader number of choices (sporting, educational, and occupational), including no longer continuing in what, for many years, was considered to be the “family tradition?”

The topic of sporting participation and its impact upon individuals, families, and communities has become an area of historical research for scholars of the Mexican American (and other Latinos/as well) experience in recent years.

Given the effect participation in this sport has had on this one family, what broader understandings/themes can be drawn from such studies? The success by minority athletes, the sharing of their stories via various mediums, and, most critically, the fact that such competitors have interactions with different racial/ethnic groups via sport can be seen as a constructive element in overcoming racial misperceptions and breaking down barriers among groups.

An effective way to summarize the significance of this story is to quote a member of the first generation, Gil Sanchez, who states that “in our family we have educators, engineers, and other professions. Not to mention a college president. All because a 15-year-old boy named Gilbert Sanchez from Cheyenne, Wyoming decided to become a wrestler.”

Hopefully, this story will inspire others to pursue athletic competition not only (given its immediate and long-lasting benefits) for its own sake but also for the possibility that it may change the social and economic standing of many other Spanish-surnamed families.