Robert "Bob" Fulk grew up in Moweaqua, Illinois and attended Moweaqua High School. A small (less than 2,000 residents) farming community in central Illinois, Moweaqua's culture helped foster the tough, hard-nosed work ethic of Fulk.

Upon his high school graduation, Fulk enrolled at Eastern Illinois University where he earned seven varsity letters while participating in both football and wrestling. He was a three-time NCAA Division I Championships qualifier. He also was an all-conference football player.

Fulk began his scholastic coaching career in Urbana, Illinois, followed by Kankakee and then Proviso West. Ultimately he found his niche in 1968 in Carol Stream, Illinois at the newly opened Glenbard North High School. As the school's first head wrestling coach, he was given the opportunity to create a wrestling program from scratch.

He spent the next 19 years creating and shaping his wrestling program. Somewhere in his creative genes Fulk devised the "symbol" of the Glenbard North Panthers, a simple, yet secretive "Gold Dot." To this very day that "Gold Dot" is legendary in Illinois wrestling circles.

In those 19 seasons the Panthers of Glenbard North would produce 39 state qualifiers, 20 state place-winners and two individual state champions. Between 1979 and 1983 Fulk's Black and Gold Panthers had a streak of 68 consecutive dual meet victories, which at the time was the fourth-longest winning streak in Illinois history. His teams have finished second in the Ilinois High School Association state tournament twice and third once.

Fulk has also spent numerous summers working with Team Illinois as it prepared for the rigors of the Junior National Wrestling Championships. In 1972 he was the assistant coach for the Junior Pan-American Team that competed in Mexico City.

For his contributions to the school and the community the citizens of Carol Stream named Fulk as the 1978 Citizen of the Year. The Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials inducted Fulk into its Hall of Fame in 1985, and honored him as a Grand Marshal for the individual IHSA state finals in 1994. He received the National High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year Award in 1988 and the IWCOA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.