Missed the CAC hootenany this year and have not kept up with these
messages either. Congrats to Wes on being a Board Of Director. With
his knowledge and enthusiasm he will be a good fit.

If anyone wonders about the Waterloo Iowa Pro HOF here is some info
on it and the past weekend.


Dan Gable Wrestling Museum Pro HOF 2007

"Build it and they will come" is a phrase heard numerous times which
applies to a baseball field in Iowa. Build it bigger and more will
come is a phrase that can now be applied to Waterloo Iowa's Dan Gable
Wrestling Museum & Institute which is a larger version of the museum
formerly located in Newton Iowa.
Downtown Waterloo, Iowa has multiple bridges over the Cedar River.
Waterloo's wrestling museum also has several bridges. It showcases a
bridge between amateurs and pros, generations of families, other
sports, mainstream media, and entertainment. When one becomes a
wrestling fan, history to them often starts at that time. The museum
lets visitors know that wrestling has a history from the very get go
of history. There is artwork of Jacob wrestling the Angel of the
Lord. Museum executive director Mike Chapman make it a point to
emphasize that the Lord did not send an angel to play soccer, golf,
tennis, or to play catch. He sent the angel to wrestle.
Continuing in this history vein, there are exhibits of wrestling in
antiquity, the first Olympics, the civil war era, early America
times, and even the history of wrestling in sports cards. Several
walls highlight wrestling in the Olympics and the involvement of
American athletes. Numerous walls and display cases celebrate great
amateur wrestlers and career achievements. Upon entering the museum,
there is an entire wall of a painting of Abraham Lincoln (Repub)
wrestling. In the museum there are pictures also of U.S. House
Representative Dennis Hassert (Repub., Ill.). Not sure in this
political era if Democrat wrestlers should be mandated equal time in
the museum.
If one is in Waterloo and the wrestling bug bites, then you would be
in the right place because the museum has scores of instructional
material on both the amateur and pro level. The amateur instruction
material is in the Dean Rockwell Library & Research Center along with
volumes of wrestling periodicals and books. On the pro style side,
there is a poster of Verne Gagne applying holds which is sponsored by
Stag Beer. There is a series of wrestling and jujitsu instruction
cards that came with packages of cigarettes. What a concept,
wrestling instruction sponsored by minor vice companies. If you don't
know what to wear as a wrestler there are many examples of singlets
and shoes worn by amateurs. On the pro side, there are robes,
jackets, boots, and hoods.
The museum is about 70-80 devoted to amateur wrestling but on July 13
and 14 it was pro wrestlers, their families, and followers that made
up 90% of the large crowd for the ninth induction ceremony to the
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Pro Hall Of Fame. Adding a special dimension
to the weekend was a Friday night card by HOF member Harley and BJ
Race's World League Wrestling. This card was a bridge from
wrestling's past to wrestling's future. The past was represented by
DiBiase and Hennig and the future was represented by DiBiase and
Hennig. To clarify that sentence, it was Gotch Award winner Ted
Dibiase and HOF member Larry Hennig being seconds for the tag team of
Ted DiBiase, Jr. and Joe Hennig. This was one of several unique
photo ops of the weekend. How many times will you find two young men
whose grandfathers and fathers have not only been in the wrestling
business but also are members of the Tragos/Thesz HOF? Another big
part of the card was a bridge between amateur and pro wrestling.
Steve Williams owned many titles both on the mat and in the ring.
Steve was a part of wrestling's recent past and you could not find
anymore more excited that he has any kind of a future after a battle
with cancer. The crowd was large for an indy show and also very
noisy. Decibel levels were raised even higher by the large
contingent of Minnesotans who traveled to view Joe Hennig's debut
match. Joe's entrance music and the perfect plex move were
certainly familiar. Current WWE star Trevor Murdoch was also on the
card. Someone taking pictures at the matches should have been a
stringer for the Japanese press as the pose with Harley, HOFer The
Destroyer, and Steve Williams would bring quite a few decade long
main events moments to fans in Japan. The exciting, fun, and
memorable card brought an end to the day which started with a golf
tournament featuring several sports stars.


The pro part of the wrestling museum is a marvel of space
engineering. Most every inch of the walls are covered with items and
lined with crammed-full cases of items from previous inductees.
During the Saturday morning induction ceremonies every inch of floor
space was covered by hundreds of people and the small replica
wrestling ring in the center of the room. There are so many pro
wrestling items to mention here that neither my computer or mind has
enough bytes of memory to recall them. I'll mention some items of
particular stand out interest. A cut out of HOFer George Tragos.
HOFer Lou Thesz would still have been great but just maybe not as
great without the mat tutoring of Tragos. A cast of the head and
facial features of the French Angel. A long wall of HOFer Frank
Gotch material. Many robes and boots worn by greats including a
sparkling ring jacket a fan made for HOFer Danny Hodge which contains
40,000 beads. (Nature Boy Danny Hodge???) It is always great to have
HOFer Jim Baron Von Raschke at an event and this event had two of
them. The humorous nice guy Jim and also a cutout of a large
scowling Baron threatening to claw anyone that got too close. (Ad
piece for the play The Baron.) Wrestlers use various means to stay
in shape with some conventional methods (HOFerJoe Stecher's wall
cable pulleys) and some not conventional. Near the top of the not
conventional would be HOFer Ed Strangler Lewis' "headlock machine".
A round block of wood with facial features drawn on and strong
springs in the middle. Not sure if most non fans would enjoy sitting
on a plane or train next to a large man with large rough ears
squeezing a large wooden head for most of the trip. There is a wall
of 53 picture and bio plaques of all nine classes of HOFers and
Frank Gotch award winners. Paintings, papers, pictures, portraits,
posters (matches and movies), press clippings, and programs adorn the
pro wrestling room.
Saturday night was the induction ceremony for the 2007 Class of the
George Tragos/Lou Thesz HOF. This was held in not just another
banquet room in not just another convention center. Mike Chapman
informed us where we ate was the former location of a theatre that
held a Frank Gotch championship match a century ago. Lou Thesz' wife
Charlie, gave the first Thesz award to Bill Murdoch of the Eblen
Charities which Lou and other wrestlers have been involved with.
Murdoch also wrote BRISCO. The late Great Gama from India was the
first inductee. Danny Hodge introduced the late Dale Lewis. It was
Hodge who encouraged Lewis to wrestle at Oklahoma. Lewis was a two
time NCAA champ before starting his pro career. Mr Perfect Curt
Hennig's wife, two daughters, and son Joe reminded everyone what a
great man this honoree was. HOFer Tom Drake and wife Chris Drake on
behalf of Cauliflower Alley Club presented the museum a check for
$1,000. This was not the only money to come to the museum's way that
night, as Harley and BJ Race donated the proceeds from the previous
night wrestling card. If a wrestler wanted to know something about
himself, probably the best person to contact would have been
wrestling historian and sports fan the late HOFer Jim Melby. Jim's
daughter presented the Jim Melby award to prolific wrestling writer
Mike Chapman. Kyle Klingman took over the MC duties from Mike
Chapman. I lose track of all the awards Red Bastien has received and
on the heels of retiring as CAC president, Red is in this HOF. In
accepting his Frank Gotch award, Ted DiBiase spent half his speech in
praise of Harley Race's influence and contributions to Ted and his
family. Everyone enjoys themselves on a weekend like this. Few
though could rival the fun that Steve Williams seemed to have. The
wrestling on the card Friday, TV spot for the museum on Saturday
morning, and the award on Saturday night, Steve never seemed to stop
smiling. Steve will continue to smile and be grateful for his best
win ever and that one being over cancer.
Among those attending not already mentioned were HOFers, Gene
Lebell,, Verne Gagne, Maurice Vachon, Brad Rheingans, Nikita Koloff,
along with stars Tom Andrews, Nord (John) The Barbarian, managerial
great Dr Ken Ramey, longtime photographer and CAC award winner Bob
Leonard, AWA TV producer Al DeRusha, long time historian and CAC
board of director George Shire, historian J Michael Kenyon, writers
Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson, Ted Gordienko (nephew of the Great
George Gordienko), Jason Sanderson a CAC board of director, and
others I apologize for not recalling.
Friday and Saturday afternoon one of the very best athletes and one
of the very best coaches in any type of sport, Dan Gable was on hand.
Mike Chapman wrote a book titled "Two Dans" about Hodge and Gable.
Two men whose extensive accomplishments will probably never be
equaled stood side by side for sports fans to take a picture of. One
of the many highlights of a highlight weekend until the 2008 10th HOF
weekend.
Thanks to Mike Chapman, Bev Chapman, Kyle Klingman, Kent Sesker, and
all the staff.