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Flair Rolls In The Fast Lane

Posted: Jun 13th 2010 By: CMBurnham

Ric Flair has spent his entire career living in the fast lane. So it should come as no surprise that he likes fast cars.

The 16-time world heavyweight champion reveals a lot about his passion for cars in a new book titled ?How Athletes Roll.? He?s one of 40 celebrity pro athletes, from various sports backgrounds such as football, basketball, hockey, ice skating and NASCAR, who come together within the book?s 246 pages, to discuss their love for cars.

The list of active and retired athletes includes names such as Michael Strahan, Tony Dorsett, Ed ?Too Tall? Jones, Rusty Wallace, Bobby Allison, Bruce Jenner, Amanda Beard, Mike Piazza, Sugar Ray Leonard, Arnold Palmer and Roy Oswalt. Flair is one of two pro wrestlers featured, along with Bill Goldberg, and UFC standout Josh Barnett.

The book?s author, auto expert and race car driver Barbara Terry, does an admirable job going behind ?the pretty faces and flashy cars? and exploring the connection between athletes and their automobiles.

Flair was a natural for the book.

?Flair has lived a spectacular life,? the author aptly notes, ?and possesses a wonderful car collection. His knowledge of cars was matched by his knowledge of wrestling and his hospitality.?

Flair?s first car was a yellow 1965 Dodge Dart his parents gave him for graduating high school. It was the first of many, followed in rapid succession by a Dodge Road Runner, a Chevy Impala, a Corvette, a Riviera and another Corvette.

The author apparently was impressed by Flair?s instant recall of his early car history.

?Ah, so he did remember his vehicles,? she writes. ?In precise order and from the beginning. Apparently he loved them all ? not just the fast ones.?

It wasn?t until Flair first arrived in Charlotte in 1974, less than two years into his wrestling career, that he bought his first Cadillac ? a 1972 Fleetwood Brougham.

Fast forward a few decades to the silver 2008 Porsche Cayenne Turbo he currently drives. Flair bought the car, he says, after seeing ?Stone Cold? Steve Austin?s Porsche Cayenne. It?s his favorite ride to date, and he says he plans to buy a new one every year.

?The Turbos are real fast with 500 horsepower,? says Flair, who has taken it to up to 140 miles per hour and says it can go even faster.

?It is like a sports car, except it is an SUV,? he adds.

The profile on Flair contains plenty of anecdotes.

Flair notes in the book that he picked up 82 speeding tickets in a five-year span back in the days when cars were the primary mode of transportation for wrestlers.

Flair, of course, did a lot of driving in the territorial days, and he admittedly drove very fast up and down the back roads of the Carolinas and Virginia. How he eluded jail time is another story.

?The judge actually sentenced me to 30 days in jail for it. He called me a habitual speeder. That was in 1983 or 1984. When he said 30 days, I about died.?

Flair was able to avoid jail time, but says he ended going back to court for speeding violations on Christmas Day.

?Back in the old days, you used to be able to get out of a ticket for $20. We would drive about 3,000 miles a week and we would drive 100 miles an hour.?

Flair, who estimates he has owned about a hundred vehicles, including a couple of limos, admits having done ?a lot of crazy things in cars,? which should come as a surprise to no one.

?I have had a lot of fun in cars,? he says.

Also profiled in the book is automobile connoisseur and former wrestling world champ Goldberg, described as a true ?car? guy, who has hosted a show about vehicles called ?Big Run? on Speed TV and who owns an extensive collection of classic and one-of-a-kind automobiles.

Among the prized possessions in his 6,500-square-foot garage is a 1970 Boss 429 Mustang.

Former Wando High and NFL standout Dexter Coakley reveals that he started driving long before he obtained a driver?s license.

??I mean, to be honest, because I?m a country boy, you know, I?m not familiar with the city, but in the country, you learn to drive ... I was driving on the highways, probably before I got my license so, you know, obviously that?s not good, breaking the law. We didn?t have to worry about cops, so we literally learned to drive on the back roads of the neighborhood. I became legal, I think, at 16, but I was driving since I remember.?

Coakley says he spoiled himself with a Ford Eddie Bauer Expedition upon signing his first paying contract, and today he owns muscle cars such as his Ford pick-up truck and his ?64 Super Sport Impala. His dream car, he says, is a Pontiac GTO.

?If I could get my hands on one of those, I could just close up shop,? he says.

The book, handsomely illustrated with full-color photographs, contains plenty of entertaining and unique stories. It?s also worth noting that the inspiration for the project was former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jay Novacek. Author Terry dedicates the book to Novacek, whom she interviewed several years ago for a television pilot about his history with vehicles, sparking her own interest in a broader look at the connection between athletes and their cars.

?How Athletes Roll? is expected to hit the shelves in early August. It can be pre-ordered by visiting Amazon.com at http://amzn.com/1935361589.

-- Maury High, who wrestled in the ?60s and ?70s as Rocket Monroe, the younger brother of the legendary Sputnik Monroe (Rock Brumbaugh), passed away Monday in an Atlanta hospital.

The Memphis native, the lone remaining member of the famous Monroe Brothers, had been hospitalized the previous week with a kidney and blood infection, but had been discharged over the weekend.

Monroe?s death comes less than a month after the passing of Gary Brumbaugh, the real-life brother Sputnik Monroe, who wrestled under the name Jet Monroe. Sputnik and his original ?brother? Rocket (Bill Fletcher) brought Gary Brumbaugh on board as their manager during a tour of New York in the early 1960s.

Sputnik passed away in Florida on Nov. 2, 2006, at the age of 78.

High made his pro wrestling debut in 1960 Rocky Montez. Mobile promoter Rocky McGuire noticed a resemblance in High to Sputnik Monroe, had him put the trademark Monroe blond streak in his hair, and the ?brothers? began teaming throughout the South.

The two eventually parted ways, with Rocket returning to the Gulf Coast, where he found Gene Dundee (Gene Sanizzaro), who streaked his hair and became ?Flash? Monroe. Together Rocket and Flash wrestled as the Brothers Monroe for 11 years, enjoying moneymaking feuds with teams such as Ken Lucas and Don Carson in the Gulf Coast area and The Assassins (Tom Renesto and Jody Hamilton) in Georgia.

That was a dream,? High said in a 2003 interview with the Georgia Wrestling History website. ?We sold out everywhere. I don?t know if it was the masks or what, but we?d go into the same towns the next week against some clean guys, and you?d think we were the worst guys in the world. We wrestled Jody and Tom one night in Griffin, and there was this little guy sitting there. He had one tooth in his mouth. He cussed me like you wouldn?t believe.

?Well, me and Flash beat Tom and Jody that night, and he got the police to bring him back to the dressing room. He shook my hand and said, ?Rocket, I?m so glad you beat those boys that I?ll never cuss you again.? His name was Gene.

?The next week we were back down in Griffin and there he was cussing me. I left the ring and said, ?Last week you told me you?d never cuss me again.? He said, ?That?s right, Rocket, and I?m not.? I didn?t get in the ring good and he was cussing me again.?

High retired from wrestling in 1979 after holding several titles. Among them were the Georgia, Southern and world tag-team titles with Sputnik, the Gulf Coast and U.S. tag-team titles with Flash, and the Southern junior heavyweight title.

High served as Assistant Public Works Director for the city of Riverdale, Ga., and as a building inspector for Clayton County, Ga., until his retirement in 2004. He also helped coach a wrestling program at a local high school.

-- WWE Hall of Famer ?Million Dollar Man? Ted DiBiase recently underwent emergency surgery to relieve pressure on a pinched nerve in his neck.

DiBiase retired from in-ring action due to a severe neck injury in 1993.

-- WWE star Sheamus said in an interview with the Charleston Daily Mail that he wanted to avoid Irish stereotypes like bawdy drinking and leprechauns during the initial creative process to determine his ring persona.

?I?m Irish, Celtic,? said the 32-year-old former WWE champ, whose real name is Stephen Farrelly. ?The Celtic warriors are the most famous warriors the world has ever seen. I wanted to portray a positive image of Ireland.?

World champ Jack Swagger (Jake Hager) recently wed former WWE developmental diva Catalina White. The couple was married in Las Vegas.

-- The Hall of Heroes Class of 2010 will honor eight wrestling legends during the weekend of Aug. 6 in Charlotte as part of the NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest. Jim Cornette will host the dinner and awards ceremony.

This year?s honorees will be Mr. Wrestling No. 2 (Johnny Walker), Danny Hodge, Greg Valentine, Billy Robinson, Reggie Parks, Joe Blanchard, and the late Mr. Wrestling (Tim Woods) and Johnny Valentine.

Other names confirmed thus far for Fanfest Weekend include The Assassin (Jody Hamilton), Harley Race, Sting, Ted DiBiase, Dory Funk, Jr., Terry Funk, Tully Blanchard, Jerry Brown, Buddy Roberts, Sir Oliver Humperdink, Nikita Koloff, Kamala, Dan Severn, Jim Ross, Tammy Sytch and Rocky Johnson.

-- Hardcore icon Mick Foley turned 45 last Tuesday.

Tags: Ric Flair, Bill Goldberg, Sputnik Monroe, Gene Dundee, The Assassins, The Assassins, WWE, Jack Swagger, NWA, Jim Cornette, Mr. Wrestling 2, Danny Hodge, Greg Valentine, Billy Robinson, Joe Blanchard, Mr. Wrestling, Assassin, Harley Race, Sting, Dory Funk,