National Wrestling Hall of Fame

LATINO WRESTLING EXPERIENCE NATIONAL WRESTLING HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM | 37 As far as we have been able to ascertain, Joe Puerta of the University of Illinois is the first Spanish-surnamed individual to earn All-America status as a US collegiate wrestler, preceding Morey Villareal of Central Oklahoma State by approximately five seasons. While this is an impressive achievement, there is not a great deal of information available on this competitor, and what there is, often proves contradictory and confusing. What we do know is that Joe Puerta represented the Illini starting in 1931 and earned letters for the next two years under the coaching of H.E. Kenney. How he came to attend Illinois, we do not know. Further, in 1932, according to Scholastic Wrestling News, he finished first in the NCAA University Wrestling Tournament (held on the campus of Indiana University) in the 123 pounds division, where he defeated Bobby Pearce of Oklahoma State in the semis and then pinned Stanley Ball of Michigan State University in the finals. He returned to defend his title the following year, but lost to Rex Peery of Oklahoma State in the 118-pound championship bout. Puerta is also noted in the Illini media guide as having won the Big Ten Conference crown at 118 pounds in 1932. In the 1932-1933 Spaulding's Official Intercollegiate Wrestling Guide, it notes that Puerta won at 123 pounds but then was "later barred from the final Olympic tryouts because he was a citizen of Spain." This information is countered by the 1933 Scholastic Wrestling News which has a headline proclaiming "Citizen of Mexico Runner-up in 1933 NCAA." In this article, Puerta is presented as being a Mexican citizen, though Puerta himself claimed to have been from Raton, New Mexico. Further, the article adds that Puerta competed in the 1932 Olympic wrestling team from Mexico at the Los Angeles Olympics. The materials collected for this project indicate that there were only two wrestlers from that country at the 1932 Olympics, neither of them named Puerta. As you can see, the story of Joe Puerta is far from complete, and nothing of his post-collegiate career, on the mat or off, is available. Therefore, Puerta can be seen as both a trailblazer and an enigma. He was obviously an excellent athlete, attended a prestigious Midwestern institution at a time when there were few Latinos on campus, and can, at least for now, claim to have been the first Spanish-surnamed individual to have earned a national title in collegiate wrestling. More research will have to be done in order to clear up some of the remaining questions surrounding this competitor and his contributions to the history of American sport. Wrestled 1931-1933 University of Illinois 123lbs // 118lbs JOE PUERTA

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