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"The Great Mae Young" Happy To Be A Sandite

Posted: Jul 6th 2008 By: CMBurnham

In the world of sports you know you've really reached superstar status when you get your own action figure.

Johnnie "The Great" Mae Young has, but the legend of ladies professional wrestling received two even bigger honors over the past four years.

In 2004 she was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Schenectady, N.Y.

And this past spring she was voted into the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Fame.

She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 29 in Orlando, Fla.

And recently Jakks Pacific came out with the Mae Young action figure as part of its Ringside Collectibles Classic Super Stars series 18.

However Young, who grew up in Sand Springs, has never forgotten her roots.

"I'm a Sandite from the word go!" she says. "I want all my fans and friends in Sand Springs to know how much I appreciate them."

She actually first touched a wrestling mat at Sand Springs High School in 1939.

"My brother Fred was on the wrestling team when it was coached by Shag (Clyde) Charvoz," she recalled. "He showed me how to wrestle, so I learned amateur wrestling before I did professional wrestling."

She admitted then SSHS head football coach Ed Dubie saw her kicking field goals with her brother and told her she kicked better than anyone on his team.

"I worked at the cotton mill (Commander Mills) my last two years of high school," Young added.

Young was a pioneer of ladies pro wrestling in the 1940's and 1950's, which was recently related in the documentary Lipstick and Dynamite.

The first United States women's champion of the NWA in 1968, she often wrestled up to six times a week.

Young, who has wrestled in eight consecutive decades, has appeared on Law and Order and the Tonight Show.

Tags: Mae Young, WWE, NWA