375459165

I was born in Savannah,Ga on a small farm and raised by my grandmother we use to go watch wrestling when I was a kid and was I a big mark! But my grand mother instilled in me the value of a hard days work, to be truthful,honest and believe in the good lord. So I practice this still today. When I left Savannah I went to Indianapolis to get a job in a factory doing manual labor the color factor was around so a black man could not get the foreman's job, so I was stuck doing this for less pay than what the MAN was getting. They had matches there in town every Friday so I would go to them all the time and boo the bad guys, I ended up saying something to Dick the Bruiser and he stopped and looked at me and it scared me cause I just knew he would kick my bee-hind! This was in the mid 60's and I lived near a gym were I worked out at and knew a lady that I had no idea that she was in wrestling, her name was Betty Ann Spencer and I was trained by Tony Santos. There were 12 guys in the class and by the time Tony got through with us I was the only one who showed back up the next day, Tony told me your a toughy eh? Lets really start training now Tony streched me more than he did yesterday, but I came back everyday so he taught me how to wrestle and some of the old hook and shoot moves you don't see today. The only shooters left are Danny Hodge,Gordon Nelson. Dean Malinko was taught by Carl Gotch so he was taught how to hook too. My first match was in Boston and it was with Dick the Brusier. I went up to him and shook his hand told him who I was He Said " hey I know you, your were that guy that was talking crap to me a few months back". I told him I was sorry and I was scared. He told me not to worry about it we all were marks some time in life. I was the first black man to ever wrestle a white man in the south...... and win! It was in Texarcanan at the Natl.Gaurd Armory the card was Chuck Carbo vs Tom Jones the KKK telephoned the promotor Leroy Mcquirk and told him that if that nigger wrestles that white man were going to kill him. Well Leroy called me and told me if I wanted to change the match he had no problem doing it, I told him "Hell no"! Well this is how close the boys were back then Danny Hodge, Lord Little Brooks and a few others got there guns and stayed in the hotel rooms beside me and slept outside in the car all night so I could sleep.I won the match the KKK NEVER CAME IMAGIN THAT! Some of the boys didnt want to wrestle me cause I was black, but the one who just didn't care and would wrestle me any night was Spudnik Monroe!Spudnik was a crazy guy, the promotors would give us comp tickets to give out while we were in town and spudnik would go into the black side of town and give his out! Color did not mean anything to him. We would get booked everywhere and pull sell out houses in the south, well, all the boys wanted to wrestle this black man then!