DAY TOP 5: Watching pro wrestling was different, but fun in the 1970s | Sports

Another day without live sports, so it’s time for another “Daily Top 5” at the Tribune-Star.

Today’s topic will be “my favorite cat names”.

No, wait. How about “my favorite colors of football uniforms”?

In fact, I have as much coincidence as I have in mind. But millennials should probably skip it. They will not get them because the references are too ancient. They can watch another episode of “The Tiger King” or whatever millennials do. I promise the next “Daily Top 5” will be more to my liking.

Today I’m going to list my favorite professional wrestlers who performed at the Terre Haute National Guard armory or the Hulman Center in the 1970s, and those were mostly my teenage years. That was before World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) became a national brand, and regional promotions were popular from country to country.

The promotion best known here was the Indianapolis-based World Wrestling Association (WWA) and its weekly one-hour television show, which was often broadcast at a ridiculously late time on Channel 4 (WTTV). But even during my pre-teen years, I usually tried to get up and watch it.

So put on your favorite mask – there should be plenty of them by now – and enjoy:

• Br. 5 Yukon “Moose” Cholak – Counted on weighing more than 400 pounds and coming from Moosehead, Maine, this big man often wore a real moose head as a hat while on the road to the ring (not a fan of it).

Moose’s final move was “El Squasho.” Pro wrestling may be “predetermined,” but that squat seemed to kill me for real.

Moose has won the tag team three times in the WWA tag team with partners Wilbur Snyder (twice) and Paul Christy (once), but my fondest memory of him was when my young friend Randy Knowles asked him in front of the Hulman Center ramp – can carry Moose bags come in for free.

Moose waved to him and said in a friendly tone, “Come on.”

Cholak died in 2002 at the age of 72.

• Br. 4 “Pretty Boy” by Bobby Heenan – It was a very young but still entertaining Heenan who appeared here in the late 1960s and (I think) in the early 1970s. He gained national fame by working for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and the World Wrestling Championships (WCW) as a manager and colorful television presenter later in his career after changing his nickname to Bobby “Brain” Heenan.

But the younger Heenan version of Pretty Boy, a smart heel that always tries to get under the skin of the good guys, wrestles more often than the older version of Brain. This meant that the legendary Dick the Bruiser, The Crusher or some other babyface would eventually open it up, with no end to satisfy hardcore fans. (Little old ladies waved their umbrellas or clenched fists, smiling at Heenan as he walked toward the ring.)

Heenan died in 2017, also at the age of 72.

• Br. 3 Baron von Raschke “Little did I know that when I was a young man, I said that this menacing bald-headed man with Nazi mannerism was really James Raschke from Omaha, Neb. I still can’t believe that wrestling will promote us that way,

In any case, the baron was a thorn on Bruiser’s side – or should I say belly and forehead – for using a horrible claw-hold. Later in Raschke’s career, I heard him switch to being a good guy in different parts of the country, often teaming with The Crusher, and he was very faithful in that role. Still, I can’t think of him as anything except the stereotypical WWII villain straight out of the old “Hogan Heroes” who played so well.

A Wikipedia check says Raschke is still alive. Good for him.

But if I had ever met him personally, even though he was 79, I would be too scared to admit that I had once hit him in the head with a tossed Coke (harmless) paper cup as he marched around the Hitler hoop inside the armory. (Hey, I’m not the only one who threw objects at him. Baron knew fans hated him, which was good for business.)

• Br. 2 Sailor Art Thomas – In an era when overweight muscular wrestlers have not yet become the norm, Thomas stood out at 6-foot-6, 265 pounds.

And I don’t mean in the shape of a beer belly.

Before Thomas became a foretold wrestler – I just looked at that – he had actually been in the U.S. Merchant Marine for 27 months, helping to build a runway in Guam.

Thomas was also a bodybuilder who I suppose never used steroids. After his wrestling career began, he defeated von Raschke for the 1972 WWA Heavyweight Championship.

Older than some of the other stars when I saw him (but still in great shape), Thomas died in 2003 at the age of 79.

• Br. 1 Dick Bruiser – Who but the “most dangerous wrestler in the world” could be No. 1 if you watched Rasslin ‘during that time? I have no doubt that Chief “William” Richard “Fritz Afflis (real name) kicked some serious ass in bars and nightclubs when there were no TV cameras and no promoters to instruct him on how to react after his opponents threw the first punch.

Before he was famous, Afflis played football for the Purdue and NFL Green Bay Packers in the early 1950s, until a serious laceration injury ended his career online. From there, the rough-breasted Bruiser (as the promoters called it) turned to wrestling. At first, he played the villain who beat the nonsense of his lesser enemies and rivals all those old ladies who believed every punch and punch.

I’m not old enough to remember the 1950s and early 1960s, but Bruiser reportedly got into a real-life fight in Detroit with then-NFL star Alex Karras, adding to Bruiser’s growing reputation as an altercation. Perhaps Karras relatives with past and present Rose-Hulman football ties will be able to shed light on this story.

In any case, Bruiser – who turned his wrestling character into a beloved hero – would go on to win 13 heavyweight championships (the last one occurred in 1985) and 15 WWA titles with numerous partners, including six times with The Crusher ( who played Bruiser’s cousin on TV).

Unfortunately, Afflis died at the age of 62 from internal bleeding after his esophageal rupture burst while lifting weights at his wrestling home in Largo, Florida, in 1991. He spent 32 years as an active wrestler, retiring in 1986. . years. .