J. Patrick (Pat) Welsh was raised in Tullahoma, Tennessee and graduated from Tullahoma High School, where he played football, in 1972.

He graduated from Tennessee Technological University in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education/social science.

Pat was employed as assistant football coach and head wrestling coach at Battleground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee from 1976 to 1979.

He returned to Tullahoma in 1979 to enter his family’s retail lumber business, and helped start the Tullahoma Youth Wrestling Club in 1991.

In the first 29 years of Tullahoma High School wrestling, beginning in 1970, there were no state champions. In the next 20 years there were 16 state champions and seven runners-up, a direct result of the youth wrestling program.

Developing the total person was the chief goal of the youth program. The best example of achievement of that goal was the accomplishments of the 18 young men involved in the third year of the program. That group produced an NCAA All-American, nine high school wrestling champions, a state golf champion, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, two MDs, two Ph.D.s, two master’s degrees and multiple bachelor’s degrees.

Pat was honored when a remodeled middle school gym, used exclusively for wrestling, was named the Welsh Wrestling Center.

He was named Tullahoma Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year in 2017, The Tullahoma News Citizen of the Year in 2019, and was inducted in the Charter Class of the Tennessee AAU Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022.

Pat has served as a Tullahoma City Alderman and as a Tullahoma City School Board Member for over 20 years while also serving as a coach for Tullahoma Youth Football, Tullahoma Little League Baseball, and Tullahoma Church basketball.

He has been a member of Tullahoma Rotary Club for over 40 years, and the same number of years in the adult chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

He and his wife Beth have three children: John (Yo-Jud), Martha (Carl), and Michael, and three grandchildren: Carter, Emily, and Andrew.