Winding Road Always Leads to Aggieland for De La Garza

The winding road.

It led Juan De La Garza to both the javelin and to Aggieland – two things that won his heart.

Growing up with four brothers and three sisters in Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico, Juan “Chico” De La Garza’s father was a farmer and his mother raised the family. Despite being the smallest of the five boys and earning his nickname Chico (Spanish for little boy), he grew up lifting concrete as weights and had to earn his keep by not taking anything for granted. In grade school, his passion was baseball and he honed his skills as a pitcher. 

A growth spurt would follow the repeated hoisting of cement and the innings accumulated on the mound that helped set the framework for a world class athlete in the javelin – an event he became acquainted with in high school.

“Growing up as a kid, my school would face off against a local rival school in competitions,” De La Garza said. “This one day I was asked if I wanted to compete in the javelin. I entered my first javelin competition and won. That was the first time I was introduced to the javelin.”

Little did De La Garza know at the time what doors the javelin would open for him. In his late teenage years, he competed for Mexico at the Pan American Games and would spark a friendship with Arturo Barrios, then a promising young Mexican distance runner. 

“Arturo and I were a package deal,” De La Garza said. “When Victor Lopez recruited us to Rice we went together. Rice did not have the major I wanted, so I decided to go to Wharton Junior College and Arturo and I went together.”

During their time at Wharton, De La Garza and Barrios each won national titles in their respective events, De La Garza in the javelin and Barrios in the 3,000m steeplechase and 5,000m, before deciding to transfer to Texas A&M together.

“When I first got here with Arturo we thought everything was weird,” De La Garza commented. “All of the cheers, chants and yells were strange. A year later we were both doing all of the yells and were involved with all of the traditions.”

De La Garza and Barrios left their marks in the Texas A&M history books as some of the best to compete in their events. Barrios, a three time Southwest Conference champion and All-American in the 10,000m, was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998. After donning the Maroon & White, Barrios represented Mexico in the 1988 Olympic Games, placing fifth in the 10,000m, and set world records at distances of 10,000m and 20,000m along with the one-hour run. Barrios collected two gold medals at the Pan American Games, winning the 5,000m in Indianapolis (1987) and Havana, Cuba (1991). 

De La Garza was inducted to the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012. De La Garza was a two-time All-American in javelin in 1983 and 1984, and he set the school record in the old javelin implement at 268-2. 

After graduating with his degree in animal science he continued to compete on the national stage while starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Blinn Junior College under Pat Henry, who was in the formative years of his legendary career.

"When I was at Blinn I didn't have any assistants, it was just me.” said Henry, who has won 36 national championships in his Hall of Fame career. “I knew he was a great thrower and he had asked about being a volunteer assistant. To have a guy drive from College Station to Brenham three days a week for no pay really showed me how dedicated and committed he was.”

Before hanging up the javelin shoes, De La Garza amassed 22 Mexican national titles, was a five-time World Championships qualifier and represented Mexico in the Summer Olympic Games on two occasions. He placed 14th in the 1984 Olympic Games and made the 1996 Mexican Olympic team before suffering an ankle injury that prevented him from competing. 

In 1986, De La Garza joined a Pat Henry coaching staff for the second time in his career, this time at LSU as a “restricted-earnings” coach limited to $10,000 a year.

“Juan is very loyal. When I first went to LSU I didn’t have a full-time position for him. At that time the NCAA allowed a restricted earnings position and Juan worked his head off as the throws coach,” said Henry. “He had been with me for four or five seasons and then the Texas A&M position came open, and I encouraged him to apply for it because it was paying four times what I was allowed to give him. He just didn’t want to do it because he was so loyal. Finally, I had to tell him you don’t have a job here and that left him but no choice to take the job at A&M.”

The road then brought De La Garza back to Aggieland in 1991 under Ted Nelson. It was in the summer of 2004 when Henry was named the Texas A&M head coach that Chico and Henry would reunite once again.

"Juan and I always communicated over the years.” Henry said. “When I took this job I knew I had a guy that I wanted to retain here as the throws coach because of his loyalty, ethic and everything about him was exactly the kind of assistant coach that I wanted to hire. That was important for me to have those kind of assistants to help jump start and get the program going in the right direction."

“It’s been a privilege to work with Coach Henry,” De La Garza said. “Coach Henry and I have the same beliefs, I’ve never seen a coach as dedicated towards his team as he is towards his family. I would never have lasted this long in coaching without him.”

Decades later the journey has brought those two things he now loves, coaching and family, together. Chico’s oldest daughter Victoria is a sophomore and throws the javelin for the Aggies.

“It’s something real special to be able to coach Victoria,” De La Garza said. “The fact that she is at the same school and doing the same event that I did is very meaningful. I never pushed her to do that and never wanted her to feel like she has to do it because I did it. I let her choose her own path and she has ended up really enjoying the event.” 

In his 30 years coaching at A&M, De La Garza has produced 65 All-Americans, 26 conference champions, eight national champions and three Olympians. He has shown the unique ability to develop talented all-around athletes into elite javelin throwers.

“It’s a bit of a reality check when athletes first come here,” said De La Garza. “I tell them this is where you are, if you want to be a champion this is what you must do. To have the vision of the end goal and see what it takes to be successful proves that hard work is what makes ordinary people do extraordinary things.”

For Chico, his javelin took him as far as he could throw it. He saw the world on a winding road of life, but as the old saying goes “All roads lead back home.”, leading him back down Highway 6, into Aggieland.