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Sgt. Slaughter Visits New Mexico

Posted: Jan 4th 2007 By: CMBurnham

There'll be a Slaughter at Santa Ana Star Center Saturday evening, but that doesn't mean the home-team New Mexico Scorpions are poised to thrash the visiting Arizona Sundogs.

The Slaughter on hand to greet fans and sign autographs, even putting some of them into headlocks, is world famous wrestler Sgt. Slaughter.

The four-time world heavyweight champion is the second famous wrestler to visit the Star Center.

Mick "Mankind" Foley was the first; he was here on Nov. 3 for "WWE Night." The Scorpions went on to beat Youngstown that evening.

When Slaughter, born Robert Remus in 1956 visits Saturday, also hoping to spark the Scorpions to victory, he'll be here as the featured guest of "Salute to the Military Night."

On the ice, the Scorpions will play host to the Arizona Sundogs at 7:05 p.m.

Ticket prices have been slashed: $18 tickets will be sold for $11, although the deadline to take advantage of that promotion is 5 p.m. on Friday. (Call 891-7341 for ticket orders.)

Sgt Slaughter, who spent six years in the Marine Corps, spoke to The Observer by telephone on New Year's Day, when he was in Miami as a producer of the weekly "WWE Raw" television show.

This won't be his first trip to New Mexico, where he had several enjoyable wrestling experiences, just his most recent.

"The fans really know wrestling, they've watched it so many years," he said. "(Albuquerque) is an enjoyable place."

Through his career, he's also been known in the ring as Super Destroyer Mark II, Matt Burns, Bob Remus and Bob Slaughter. He turned 58 last Aug. 27 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 13, 2004. He has wrestled on TV as recently as last October.

He's no stranger to Central Hockey League rinks, having appeared in Lubbock on Veterans Day, here on Saturday, and in Prescott Valley, Ariz., next month.

"He's the no. 1 guy in minor league sports for military night; he's the best guy," said his agent, Jonathan Gold. "I've been promoting him since 1984. ... Everybody knows the Sarge; he's as well known as Hulk Hogan. He does at least 50 of these a year."

"I always wanted to be a wrestler," Slaughter said. "I watched it Saturday nights in Minnesota. My parents couldn't afford to send me to college. My father was a roofer and I helped him."

Slaughter may have stayed a roofer until he accompanied a sportswriter friend to a Minnesota wrestling camp for a story.

"I recognized a few; one of them was Ric Flair -- I used to beat him all the time in high school," Slaughter. Curiosity got the better of him, one thing led to another, including a victory over Flair at the camp, and before he knew it, he became a pro wrestler, with his career beginning in 1974.

"I was very good in high school," Slaughter said of his days at Eden Prairie High, where he was an All-State heavyweight wrestler and a two-time MVP on the football team. "(Former Minnesota Vikings coach) Bud Grant's son coaches there," he added.

Toy manufacturer Hasbro identified his charismatic traits when it created a Sgt Slaughter doll, the first and only individual to be so recognized among all other "G.I. Joe" action figures and animated cartoon characters. In Sgt Slaughter's debut year with G.I. Joe, Hasbro not only enjoyed record-breaking sales in that year, but also became the most successful company in all toy-manufacturing history.

Never one to turn down an autograph request, Slaughter was asked about the strangest autograph requests he's had in the past 30-plus years.

"Four different times, it wasn't what I signed, it was where I signed," he said.

Where was that?

"I was in the bathroom doing my thing, something was slipped under the door and (somebody) asked to have it signed," he said. "That was probably one of the strangest places. And Mickey Mantle wanted me to sign my name on his bat. And when I was at Dan Marino's golf tournament one time, I said to my wife, 'There's Johnny Unitas.' I was standing in line and he saw me, he said, 'Sgt. Slaughter, come over here. I'm a big fan.' 'I used to want to be you,'" Slaughter said he told the legendary Baltimore Colts signal-caller. "Playing in the neighborhood, I was always Johnny Unitas."

The meetings with Mantle and Unitas were big thrills, but nothing like the encounters he's had with six presidents.

"One of my big thrills," he said, "came when I was in Washington, D.C., where I was invited by President Reagan's people to be at a dinner thing to raise money for his campaign. There were about 200 celebrity athletes that were honored."

Later, after a group photo, the Sarge was asked to meet Reagan in person.

"The Secret Service (agent) said, 'Follow me,' and my wife and I went around a corner and there was President Reagan standing at attention. 'Sgt. Slaughter, I always wanted to meet you. As a matter of fact, I'm going to drop down and give you 10 pushups,' he said. The Secret Service said no, (and also told him) a headlock was not appropriate."

Reagan's apparent fascination for Slaughter didn't end there. That same evening, he recalled, Reagan asked him to be a special guest on the dais and said, "If the Democrats think they're going to beat us, it'd be like Beaver Cleaver beating my friend, Sgt. Slaughter," Slaughter said, laughing at the memory. "He later said goodbye to me, and signed a speech to me. I still have it."

He also has met presidents Nixon, whom he also learned was a great admirer of his, plus both Bushes, Carter and Clinton. He never met the late Pres. Gerald Ford.

Nixon told him how much he'd enjoyed seeing "that thing against the Iron Sheik and the pledge of allegiance; the whole cabinet stood up and did it with you."

As much as he'll enjoy his whirlwind trip to Rio Rancho and meeting more fans, Slaughter said, "probably the most rewarding visits" he makes are the trips to children's and veterans hospitals.

"I'm just coming in to do the game, then to Kansas City; I fly out Sunday morning," he said.

Try not to ask for an autograph request if you see Sarge in a bathroom Saturday evening.

Let him do his business, before giving him time to take care of your request.

That's not too much to ask, and neither is a headlock.