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Saying Goodbye To Friends And Heroes

Posted: Dec 27th 2010 By: CMBurnham

They came from all stripes of the wrestling business.

From referees to promoters, valets to journalists, masked men to world champions, they all touched the lives of millions of fans and the profession in general.

They were athletes and performers who lived by the credo that ?the show must go on.? Most lived out of a suitcase, spending more than 300 days a year on the road. Unlike today?s crop of sports entertainers who play roles and recite scripted promos, these stars of yesteryear truly were originals, with names as colorful as the profession they represented.

Many represented an era that will forever be etched in the memories of longtime fans.

For those of us lucky enough to see them perform, we will never forget them.

Many were heroes outside the ring.

Donn Lewin, who came from a wrestling family that included younger brothers Mark and Ted, left school at age 15 to join the Marines and serve in World War II. He fought at Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal and Guam, earning three Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in battle.

Jack Brisco, in addition to being one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the business, also was a hero who pulled himself up by his bootstraps as a rawboned youngster in Oklahoma, worked incredibly hard to beat the odds, and went on to live his dream as a world-class athlete in both amateur and professional wrestling.

And there were personal heroes, like Sandy Scott, of whom I was a fan long before I was a friend, cherishing the magical memories of an era of wrestling when the lines were clearly drawn between good and bad.

Scott, a fan favorite his entire career, wasn?t just a good guy inside the ring. That clean-cut persona followed him outside the squared circle as well.

?Big Thunder? Gene Kiniski, who had the rare distinction of holding both the NWA and AWA world heavyweight titles during an illustrious career, was a natural ?bad guy? the fans loved to hate. His features, hardened from years of doing battle, reflected the classic profile of a villain: a tough-looking kisser with a buzz cut, cauliflower ears, a potato for a nose, and a gravelly voice with a fierce glare to match.

But the rough and rugged Kiniski was more than just a professional wrestling champion. He was a man?s man who never backed down from anyone ? inside or outside the ring. Behind that gruff exterior, though, was a man with a heart of gold.

Ida Mae Martinez, abandoned by her prostitute mother at an early age and later running away from abusive guardians at the age of 15, overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieve a successful career as a pioneering woman in the man?s world of professional wrestling. But she didn?t stop there.

She spent decades helping less fortunate people through a career in nursing. The high school dropout later in life would earn her GED, associates degree, bachelor?s degree and master?s degree in nursing. Her subsequent work in the area of home treatment of AIDS patients, conducted through the world-famed Johns Hopkins Hospital of Baltimore, inspired her to author a paper that has become part of medical literature.

Professional wrestling also lost one of its best friends in 2010 with the passing of Georgiann Makropoulos.

?Georgie,? as she was known by nearly everyone in the business, wasn?t a wrestler, a valet or an on-air personality. What she was, quite simply, was a delightful lady who spent more than half a century around the business ? as a fan, a friend and a respected journalist.

Ted Allen may have never won a world heavyweight title, headlined a Wrestlemania or stole the show at Madison Square Garden. But what he did, at least in the minds of many of those who have been around the business, was just as important.

In wrestling terms, Allen was known as a journeyman, a veteran who quietly plied his trade with skill and grace. To those who knew him, Allen was highly respected as a molder and trainer of young talent, one of the best ring-builders in the business and, even more importantly, someone who loved his profession with a passion.

And, quite naturally in the wrestling business, looks could always be deceiving.

Robert ?Kinji? Shibuya was born in Utah, raised in California, schooled in Hawaii, and never set foot in Japan for any longer than it took to change planes en route to Australia. Yet he spent over a quarter of his life as the quintessential Oriental bad guy; the cunning, conniving, salt-throwing Japanese heel that everybody loved to hate.

Jacob ?Dutch? Grobbe?s mastery of the German language helped him survive the Nazi occupation of his homeland in the Netherlands during World War II. He convinced the Nazi authorities that he was indeed from Germany before fleeing the country for the United States.

His act was so convincing, in fact, that he later used it in the ring to become dreaded Teutonic heel Hans ?The Great? Mortier.

Mortier, a 6-5, 275-pound performer with a chiseled physique, would achieve great success as a heat-seeking ?bad guy? who wore a World War I German aviator?s helmet on his head and used the ?unbreakable? full nelson as his finishing hold.

Among those we said goodbye to in 2010:

Jim White, Jan. 8, age 68; Ludvig Borga (Tony Halme), Jan. 8, age 47; Ida Mae Martinez, Jan. 19, age 79; Georgiann Makropuolos, Jan. 25, age 68; Jack Brisco, Feb. 1, age 68; Charles Baillargeon, Feb. 2, age 92; Frank Martinez, Feb. 14, age 81; Angelo Poffo, March 4, age 84; Prince Tony Nero (Anthony Aurelio), March 6, age 85; Sandy Scott, March 11, age 75; Jerry Valiant aka Guy Mitchell (John Hill), March 11, age 68; Corsica Joe (Francois Miquet), March 14, age 90; Baron Mikel Scicluna, March 20, age 80; Little Brutus aka Tiny Tim (Jean-Jacques Girard), April 1, age 73; Chris Kanyon (Chris Klucsaritis), April 2, age 40; Gene Kiniski, April 14, age 81; Trent Acid (Michael Verdi), April 18, age 29; Mr. Hito (Katsuji Adachi), April 20, age 67; Gorgeous George Grant, April 21, age 85; Kinji Shibuya, May 3, age 88; Jet Monroe (Gary Brumbaugh), May 12, age 70; Rusher Kimura, May 4, age 68; Rocket Monroe (Maury High), June 7; Grizzly Smith (Aurelian ?Jake? Smith), June 12, age 77; Toni Adams (Toni Grant), June 24, age 45; Robert ?Cowboy? Bradley, June 24, age 75; El Scorpio (Rafael Nunez Contreras), June 25, age 57; ?Mr. America? Steve Stanlee (Paul Oswald Zygowicz), July 2, age 90; Lance Cade (Lance McNaught), Aug. 13, age 29; Skandar Akbar (Jim Wehba), Aug. 19, age 75; Ted Allen (Ted Lipscomb), Aug. 19, age 54; Tough Tony Borne (Anthony Wayne Osborne), Aug. 27; age 84; Luna Vachon (Gertrude Vachon), Aug. 27, age 48; El Espanto II (Fernando Cisneros Carrillo), Aug. 27, age 78; Anton Geesink, Aug. 27, age 76; Kotetsu Yamamoto, Aug. 28, age 68; Mickey Garagiola, Aug. 29, age 89; Beverly Lehmer, Aug. 30, 77; Herb Larson, Sept. 3, age 83; Randy Morse, Sept. 4, age 58; Mike Shaw aka Bastion Booger and Norman The Lunatic, Sept. 11, age 53; La Fiera (Arturo Casco Hernandez), Sept. 11, age 49; El Gigante (Jorge Gonzales), Sept. 22, age 44; Edouard Carpentier (Edouard Weiczorkiewicz), Oct. 30, age 84; Joe Higuchi (Kanji Higuchi), Nov. 8, age 81; Chris Long aka Solid, Nov. 21, age 33; Takeo ?Kantaro? Hoshino, Nov. 25, age 67; El Hijo de Cien Caras (Ignacio Jiminez Ibarra), Nov. 28, age 33; Jack Laskin, Nov. 28, age 81; Galton ?Skip? Young aka Sweet Brown Sugar, Dec. 3, age 59; King Curtis Iaukea, Dec. 4, age 73; Hans ?The Great? Mortier (Jacob ?Dutch? Grobbe), Dec. 15, age 86; James ?Paul? Morton, Dec. 17, age 89; Donn Lewin, Dec. 18, age 84.