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Bronko Lubich Passes Away

Posted: Aug 12th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Word has reached Oklafan.com that former wrestler and referee Bronko Lubich passed away this weekend. No information was available about his age at the time of his death.

Lubich, who was billed from Yugoslavia, began his career in the late 1950s and by 1957 was a mainstay in the Georgia Championship Wrestling area. Reliable results are available for 1957 and 1958 of his time there, but he seems to have left the territory in November of 1958.

By the summer of 1960, Lubich was competing in Ontario, Canada. Then, one year later, he went to Texas, where he and Angelo Poffo teamed to defeat Pepper Gomez & Dory Dixon for the Texas Tag Team titles. They would vacate those belts sometime before the end of 1961.

In 1963, Lubich returned to Georgia where he split his time between Georgia Championship Wrestling and Fred Ward Promotions. But by February of that year, he seems to have dropped out of competition as there are no results availble detailing his career, save a single result from from Greensboro, NC where he teamed with Homer O'Dell & Aldo Pugni and lost to George Becker, Lou Thesz & Johnny Weaver. Lubich was known to have competed in 6-man tags regularly with O'Dell & Pugni, but other results are simply unavailable.

By 1969, Lubich was in Florida and had formed a partnership with Chris Markoff. This pair would compete together regularly for the next 3 years, winning the Florida Tag Team Titles in 1969 and then moving back to WCCW where they would feud with Johnny Valentine & Wahoo McDaniel over the WCCW American Tag Team Titles. Lubich & Markoff held those American Tag belts twice in 1971 and they appear to be the last titles Bronco won.

By the early 1970s, Lubich's career as an in-ring competitor was over due to injuries he'd accumulated. He did briefly try his hand at managing and his charges included Boris Malenko.

But most wrestling fans of the past 20 years who knew Lubich remember him as the senior referee in WCCW. And while he was not terribly swift or agile (he always counted pinfalls near the ropes so he could use them to assist in getting back up from one knee), his size made it difficult for him to get knocked around and helped him keep order in the wars between the Von Erichs, the Freebirds and Devastation, Inc.

Oklafan offers its condolensces to the family and friends of Bronko Lubich.