• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Mick Foley Uses Star Power for Fund

Posted: Jun 11th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Mick Foley sat at a cafe table outside Porters Pub in Easton Saturday signing autographs, posing for photographs and chatting with fans as if they were old friends.

Not exactly the hard-core image Foley developed in the 1990s as Mankind -- the three-time World Wrestling Federation champion who got his first belt in 1999 by taking down the Lehigh Valley's homegrown professional wrestler, The Rock.

Foley, 42, of Long Island, N.Y. retired from his full-time wrestling career seven years ago. Now, he said, he likes to give back.

Saturday's outing attracted more than 200 people who paid $5 for autographs and $10 for signed photographs to raise money for the Daniel Henry Ostertag Living Memorial Scholarship Fund at Easton Area High School.

Foley met Ostertag and his family in 2003 at Give Kids the World in Florida. Ostertag, who had intractable epilepsy, died two years later at age 16 while a freshman at Easton Area High School.

Ostertag's mother, Rosemary, met up with Foley again last year when she took her other sons, Noel, 15, and Patrick, 13, to a book signing in Parsippany, N.J. She said he instantly remembered them and asked about Danny.

''He is just the sweetest man,'' said Rosemary Ostertag. ''He's so opposite his wrestling persona.''

His condolences included an open invitation for her to call if she ever needed anything.

''She took me up on the offer,'' Foley said. ''I try to volunteer and do something positive a couple days a week.''

Foley laughed with his fans and make a joke about Dwayne ''The Rock'' Johnson ''going all Hollywood on us.''

But Johnson, who grew up in Bethlehem, and Foley both struggled before becoming professional wrestling superstars.

Foley told his story in a New York Times bestseller that Chris Steinmann clutched against her chest as she waited in line to make it an autographed birthday gift for her husband.

''He's basically the working man's wrestler,'' said Steinmann of Easton. ''He's the one I can basically identify with the most.''

Mankind also wrestled under the names Dude Love and Cactus Jack before latching onto the Mankind character that included Mr. Socko, a sock puppet he wore when putting the mandible claw move on opponents.