Kenny Monday

Kenny Dale Monday (born November 25, 1961) is an American former folkstyle and freestyle wrestler who is the current head coach of Morgan State's wrestling team. As a wrestler, he was an Olympic gold medalist and three-time All-American from Oklahoma State University. Monday is a three-time Olympian.

He began wrestling at age six at a YMCA after-school program and grew up idolizing Olympic wrestler Wayne Wells. He attended Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he won four state titles and the 1977 Junior National championship. He never lost a match from seventh grade through the end of high school and finished with a record of 140–0–1.

As an All-American at OSU, Monday won the NCAA title in 1984 at 150 pounds. His collegiate record of 121–12–2 contributed to the Cowboys winning two Big Eight titles. He won the 1989 World Championship and a series of USA Freestyle championships in 1985, 1988, 1991, and 1996. He won the Olympic Championship in 1988 in a 5–2 overtime win against the Soviet Union's Adlan Varaev. Monday was voted the outstanding wrestler of the Grand Masters of Olympic Wrestling in 1990, after beating Rahmat Sofiadi of Bulgaria.

Monday was a silver medalist in the 1992 Olympics and placed sixth in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. In 2001, Monday was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member.

On March 28, 1997, Monday competed in a mixed martial arts bout defeating John Lewis by TKO in round two at Extreme Fighting 4, which was held in Des Moines, Iowa.

Monday has also worked as the wrestling coach with the Blackzilians, a mixed martial arts camp based in Boca Raton, Florida. He is married to Sabrina Goodwin Monday (National Sales Director for Mary Kay Cosmetics) and has three children. Both his sons would become NCAA Division I wrestlers. His oldest son Kennedy wrestled for the University of North Carolina, and his younger son Quincy currently wrestles for Princeton University. Monday currently resides in North Carolina.

On August 15, 2022, Monday was announced as the head wrestling coach of the resurrected Morgan State University program, that last competed in 1997. In 2026, the revived program's third year on the mat, Eugene Harney and Yannis Charles qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Harney won the EIWA title at 149 pounds while Charles qualified at 157 pounds despite a medical forfeit during the conference tournament. Of the twelve teams in the EIWA, Morgan State finished eighth. The team finished T51 at the 2026 NCAA tournament.

Mixed martial arts record Win

John Lewis TKO (punches) Extreme fighting 4

Des Moines, Iowa, USA Submission grappling record Result Opponent Method Event Date Round Time