Butch Remembers Dick the Bruiser

   You may disagree with me, but I think professional wrestling is one of the dumbest sports ever invented. Grown men parading around in skimpy bathing trunks, pretending to wrestle each other, throwing fake punches and swings, getting tangled up in the ropes, hurling their opponent into the crowd . . . and on and on . . . with referees not even caring what goes on. But millions of people seem to love it!

  Well, I can’t criticize the fans too much. After all, it’s not a real sport, just fun entertainment. I watched wrestling on TV in the early 1960s, and the most famous wrestler was Dick the Bruiser. His real name was William Fritz Afflis, Jr. At the time I didn’t know that he was born in Delphi and attended Lafayette Jeff, where he wrestled and played football. He also attended Purdue and the University of Nevada and played professional football for the Green Bay Packers.

   The Bruiser became a pro wrestler in 1954, and put on quite a show for fans in Detroit and New York City before starting up the WWA (World Wrestling Association) in Indianapolis. He billed himself as “the world’s most dangerous wrestler” when he tangled with the likes of Bobo Brazil, Angelo Poffo, Classy Freddie Blassie, Crazy Luke Graham, Tarzan Tyler . . . and teamed up with “Crusher” Lisowski for tag team matches. Of course he won every match after putting on a “near defeat and comeback” show for the fans . . . losing only once . . . to Cowboy Bob Ellis . . . but later got revenge by beating Ellis twice. One time he wrestled NFL star Alex Karras, and the staged event turned into a real brawl. The crowd got involved, causing thousands of dollars damage to the bar hosting the event!

  One thing you might remember was the Bruiser’s gravelly voice. That was not faked, as he injured his larnyx while playing for the Packers. His manager was Bobby Heenan whose nickname was “the Weasel.” When I watched all of the action in the arena, it was amazing that the referees were always looking the other way when the wrestlers cheated and used “illegal” tactics against their opponents. That is still the case today. I guess the fans love the idea of no rules! Being a pro wrestling referee would be a great job . . . just walk around and pretend you don’t see anything.

   Did you ever wonder what happened to Dick the Bruiser? Well, after he retired from the ring, he became a commentator for women’s wrestling and also became a talent agent. In 1991 at his home in Florida, he was lifting weights, ruptured a blood vessel in his esophagus and died from internal bleeding.

   One afternoon in the ’60s I was at my cousin’s house, and after we had watched wrestling on TV, he challenged me to wrestle in his front yard. I was 13 years old, and my cousin was 17. I pinned him down in under a minute, and he never wanted to wrestle again. Butch the Bruiser won the day! 

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 37 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.