Bronk Knew Wrestling
On June 23, 1939, 67 years ago today, Bronko Nagurski won the NWA World Wrestling Title by defeating the young, future wrestling legend Lou Thesz in a championship match in Houston. Bronk would proceed to lose, regain and then lose the NWA title again over the course of the next two years.
Of course, Nagurski is best known for having played football. He was the John Riggins of his day (and there’s a line that would make many an old-timer squawk – “Compared to Bronk John Riggins was a freaking 98-pound woman!”), a bruising fullback renowned for busting through the line and punishing all who dared to step in his path. He also was a fearsome force on defense, a precursor to Butkus and Singletary as the prototypically ferocious Bears’ linebacker. And like Butkus, Sam Huff, Jack Lambert, L.T. to name a few, in his day the name Bronko Nagurski was accepted nationwide as a two-word synonym for rugged badassitude on the gridiron.
In 1938, the Bears refused Bronk a raise, and he went all Jim Brown on them, brusquely retiring and making the jump full-time to professional wrestling, an endeavor he’d pursued on the side for years. Wrestling was a fractured enterprise at the time, but the money was good, and Nagurski was as much of a powerhouse in the ring as he was on the football field, not much interested in fancy moves, but very interested in that which had always interested him – a no-nonsense brand of ass-whupping. He was a star attraction as a wrestler until 1960, when he retired to run a gas station in his hometown of International Falls, Minnesota. Thereafter, he never had many kind words for the sport, and in interviews he rarely talked about his long wrestling career, preferring to dwell on his football greatness.
June 23rd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
i bet bronc never told sandra day o’connor to “loosen up, sandy baby.”
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Ah I opened a real can of worms didn’t I – the old John Riggins/Bronko Nagurski donnybrook. I should have let sleeping dogs lie.
You do raise an interesting question though, brother J – did Bronko Nagurski ever meet Sandra Day O’Connor? What a meeting of the minds that would have been.
June 24th, 2007 at 6:12 am
as a lifelong skins fan, i’m a little biased towards riggo. bronc and o’connor would have been an interesting meeting though, definitely.
June 25th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Riggo > God
August 8th, 2010 at 11:10 am
LOL – That was an one sided viewpoint. I am not sure I have the same view.
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