Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

'Rasslin' At The Armory

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

I will admit up front that this story may not interest all of you. There are those doubters among our group that continue to think that wrestling is and was fake – and you’ll never change your mind. Don’t put my grandmother into that class – she was a true believer and as such had me, her Wednesday night wresting date, convinced as well. Each week we’d walk the six or seven blocks from our house to the Armory and watch the excitement take place in the ring. I even had an autograph book, and still do, with many of the wrestlers’ autographs on the pages. I remember the bleachers in the Armory, as well as the folding chairs that were used more often as weapons by the wrestlers than for sitting in comfort by the spectators. My mind also conjures up the smell of the sweaty mat and the sounds it made when the heavy bodies of the participants were thrown upon it and pinned as the ref would whack the mat with a loud counting cadance of “one-two-three.’ More often than not, the count was interrupted by the man on the bottom unpinning himself just in time to stay in the match and often come back to win.

Tex Riley and Irish Mike Clancy were my favorites, and thanks to a tip from John Drummond, now know that the Japanese wrestler that I hated so much was Tojo Yamomoto. I think it would have ruined it for me back in the late Fifties to know that he was not really Japanese, but actually a Hawaiian. Websites dedicated to Mid-South Wrestling state that Tojo was the most hated man in wrestling back then. Next to him I very much disliked the two that called themselves Jackie and Don Fargo. They usually fought in the tag team bouts, but Jackie often fought alone as a bad guy. There were also various bad guys that wore masks which the spectators always wanted defeated and unmasked. Not all masked men were like the Lone Ranger.

Speaking of the Lone Ranger, I still can’t remember the name of the (who know what he really was) guy who wore the Indian costume that put on war dances when he really got mad and then lit into the bad guys with a fury that would have made famous Hollywood Western director John Ford envious. I had also forgotten until I did some research for this story about the midget wrestlers. They didn’t show up every week, nor did the women of that profession. But they were there often enough to bring back memories once I remembered them.

The ad photo above was not from a Huntsville paper, but it still lists many of the wrestlers we saw in Huntsville. Nick Gulas and Roy Welch were the promoters out of Nashville that set up most of the Huntsville matches. I even remember when Roy Welch would don his own tights and be one of the “good guys” on some Wednesday nights.

I think one of the greatest and longest lasting lessons that I was taught by wrestling was that there were good guys and bad guys in this world and that things were not always fair. Unlike the Western movies, in wrestling sometimes the bad guys cheated and won. But in the end, they would lose somewhere farther down the line and the good guy would triumph.

Below are a few other observations from other classmates about those nostalgic days of “‘rasslin!”

Skip Cook, Class of ’64 - Thanks for once again stirring good memories from long ago. My dad and I also went to the armory to watch wrestling on Wednesday nights. Two popular good guy wrestlers were Len Rossi and Tex Riley...I think that they were from the Nashville area. There was a Hawaiian wrestler named Oni Wicki Wicki that was also a good guy. I also remember that one of the wrestlers had a pig that he would bring into the ring before the match started. One of my favorites was "Dr. Timothy Geohagen" who had pefected the sleeper hold. It was so dangerous that only a doctor should apply that hold.

John Drummond, Class of ’65 – The Armory was where professional "rasslin" was originally held, but relocated to the studios of Huntsville's first TV station (I think), the UHF Channel 19. It was located (where else?) on top of Monte Sano mountain, to increase the range of the signal to our TV antennas. The single host was a guy named Grady Reeves who looked like Jackie Gleason if you added a pencil-thin moustache and thick-lensed black-rimmed glasses. He called himself "The Old Man of the Mountain."

Because the rasslin' matches were broadcast live at the studio, my younger sister Robbie (LHS class of ‘71 or ‘72) became a rabid fan, and begged our father to take her to the studio, just a couple miles from home. My Dad hated it, but he was a great guy (we lost him last June to a heart attack at age 82) and wanted to make his daughter happy. The Japanese bad guy you mentioned, who rubbed salt in the eyes of his opponents, was named Tojo Yamamoto, who wrestled barefoot wearing only a diaper-like loincloth, black pulled severely back in a ponytail, sumo-style. The Channel 19 studio was small, had room for only a few rows of metal folding chairs around the ring.

Typically a brawl would break out in the tag-team matches involving four wrestlers and their managers; the brawlers would leap over the ropes to engage in combat outside the ring, and the fans would scatter out of the way. My sister loved being in the middle of all this action until one night when Tojo flung a folding chair, Frisbee-style, at his opponent; the guy ducked and Robbie took the hit. Not seriously injured, she came home crying and never again returned to "Live Studio Wrestling" at Channel 19, to our father's great relief. P.S. Ever heard of the Flat Earth Society? It is a cult who believes, among other things, that professional wrestling is real, and that NASA's space program is fake.

__________________________________

Linda Taylor, Class of '64 - I remember spending MANY hours here and still think this was one of Hsv's major mistakes in demolishing it. This was the day of QUIET library environments......not a sound!! Even the slightest whisper would often draw "the look" or even "ssssshing" from the desk attendant. Maybe I just whispered a lot!! I loved the smallness, the big heavy front doors, the dark wood of the walls and shelves, the wooden chairs and tables, the smell, even attempting to disrupt the quiet with giggles with girlfriends there while doing research. However, research for Mrs Faulkner was serious work!! All those notecards and organization skills and handwriting everything. I owe her so much to my successes and enjoyment of reading in life from her teachings. Acceptable only if done correctly.....thank you. This building had real character.....the stone work, the windows that opened, the real wood, the architectural design. Definitely, one of my fond, but long ago memories of Huntsville.

___________________________

Walt Thomas, Class of '64 - I remember the old public library. Guarded by the two lions on opposing sides of the entrance steps.

____________________________

Bruce Fowlerr, Class of '66 - I have the fondest of memories of the old Carnegie library. In may ways it was more comfortable to me than any place else, except possibly my house. From the time I was eight or so my mother would drive me down there three times a week to check out books. At about age twelve I had read all the books (that I wanted to) in the children's section (downstairs - and probably stretched the librarians' patience beyond Young's modulus,) and was 'elevated' to the adult section upstairs where there were other librarians to exasperate, especially over whether they thought the books I had selected were appropriate for one so young and many more books to read. My sixteenth birthday anniversary was one of great joy to my mother as she would no longer have to make those time consuming trips with me.

My experience with the library in high school were very educational. I learned how inadequate our school library was despite the heroic efforts of the staff. I learned facts about the animal nature of humans by discovering pages in reference books missing because someone had run out of time, probably due to poor management, and had ripped out a needed page to take home, and when I told a librarian about this I learned about Greek tragedy long before I was exposed to it in school. It also prepared me to resonate when I got to college with a new television series 'Star Trek' and statements like "the good of the many outweighs the good of the few."

Since then I have known many libraries: Amelia Gayle Gorgas at U Alabama Tuscaloosa, where I was privileged to receive a stack permit as a Freshman; the science library in Lloyd Hall on the same campus, the chemistry and physics libraries at U Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and most importantly the Redstone Scientific Information Center (RSIC) on Redstone Arsenal, which was under my management (and muddling) when I retired, and which had served me well throughout my working and post-master's academic careers. None was ever the comfort to mind and body, intellect and consciousness, id, ego, and superego, that that old Carnegie library was; certainly the two Huntsville libraries that have followed it have lacked something. RSIC came closest and had the fundamental quality of a good library, a good nerd library in particular, that one could sit on the floors in the stacks. You could do that at the old Carnegie library, if you were willing to risk injury from someone stomping you in the dimness or you mother finding you soiling your school clothes.

Thank you for selecting this memory node.

_______________________________

1958 Lee Junior High Baseball Team

(From the Rison-Dallas Association Website)

Front: Greg Patterson (bat boy)

Second row, left to right: Larry Owens, Eugene Nix, Gary Broadway, ??

Middle row, left to right: "Bugs" Owens, ??, Mike Johnson, (?)McGinnis, ??, Arlen Brown, Johnny Moss

Back row, left to right: Jimmy Moss, Jerry Gann, Jerry Golden, Hub Myhand (coach), ??, Charles Shannon, ??

A Letter From Greg Patterson

Dear Friend,

Optimist Park is the oldest athletic facility in Huntsville and one of the oldest in the state of Alabama. Established in 1928 this venue has hosted a huge amount of baseball, softball and football games as well as many other activities in the past 81 years.

In 2008 the grandstand area was cleaned and painted and the dugouts were also renovated in recent years. During this process it became apparent that there is no recognition for our former coach and friend Hub Myhand.

Coach Myhand spent 40 plus years as the director of the YMCA for the Dallas Mill area and later served as teacher and coach for Rison, Gurley, Lee and Chapman before his retirement in the early 1970’s. The park has kept the name Optimist because it was previously owned by the Optimist Club, the field was named after a former Optimist Club member and the two gyms at the recreation center were also named after local citizens.

We are now trying to find people who were former students, players and friends of Coach Myhand in order to raise money to honor him with a recognition plaque at the park. Our goal is to raise $1,900.00 to place a bronze plaque near the concession stand to show our appreciation of his contributions to our community. We have set up an account in the name of “Friends of Hub Myhand” to accumulate funds in order to proceed with this project. Once we reach our goal the purchase will be made and donated to the City of Huntsville.

Please feel free to make copies of this letter and distribute to anyone that might have an interest in supporting this project. We hope that a one time effort will take care of the expenses that are needed. Please call 694-8179 if you have any questions. Please let’s step up and make this happen in a short period of time. Once the project is complete we will invite everyone to the park to see the finished product.

Please mail your contribution to Friends of Hub Myhand, 101 North Side Square, Huntsville, AL 35801.

_________________________________

Subject:Memorial Day Activities

Jim Myrick

Class of '66

Just got back from DC where I participated in Rolling Thunder, the Run to the Wall. This trip was the culmination of a 20 plus years long dream. Picture 100,000 plus motorcycles rolling from the Pentagon parking lot through downtown DC to the Mall area with thousands of people lining the streets waving flags and shouting "Thank you". It was awesome! That ride and the time I spent at the Marine Corps museum really made this Memorial Day weekend one of the most special I have ever experienced. Keep up your great work and Semper Fi.

_________________________

Subject:Normandy Trip

Woody Beck

Class of '65

I've been out of town for the Memorial Day weekend and just got back into Athens, GA. As I mentioned in the e-mail that Tommy posted, I'm leaving on the 3rd of June for Normandy and will be back on the 10th. Although I've made several trips in the past, this will be the first time to be there on 6 June, D-Day.

Let me give you a bit of background. I've always been interested in history, particularly in WWII history. Several years ago I decided to take a battlefield tour of Belgium/Luxembourg with a group called the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge (VBOB) in 1994. We had about 60 vets along and at each village there was an outpouring of old folks, and some young ones, hugging the vets. It was amazing and very, very emotional for all. Since then I've gone with some vets from the First Marine Division back to the island of Peleliu in the Pacific, taken two other tours of the Battle of the Bulge area with vets—the most recent was in December 2007, driven myself around Normandy and Brittany several other times, and driven myself in the Bulge and the Hurtgen Forest area of Germany—that was an especially bloody and nasty fight in Sept-Nov 1944 and a prelude to the German advance into the Ardennes in December 44 (the Battle of the Bulge).

I love sharing those places with interested folks and retelling some of the stories that some of the vets have told me—in fact, when my favorite nephew graduated from high school at Huntsville High, I took him (along my youngest step-son and a distance relative by marriage) to Normandy. We rented a car at Charles DeGaulle airport outside of Paris, drove to Normandy, stayed a couple nights in a B&B in the Norman countryside, visited Utah and Omaha beaches and the American and German military cemeteries, drove to Falaise where the Allies had the Germans surrounded but they fought their way through and escaped to the east, and then we returned to Paris for a couple of days before heading back to the U.S. [By the way, my nephew graduated from the University of Michigan last May and received his commission in the U.S. Marine Corps. He'll be headed to Afghanistan within the year, I suspect.).

Anyway, after reading several posts in Lee's Traveller over the past couple of years, I thought that there might be others who would be interested in visiting some/all of the Normandy and/or Battle of the Bulge sites, and since I never tire of going there, perhaps we could put together a group. I have no particular time table in mind, but I am constrained by my semi-retired status—I teach part-time now at the University of Georgia. Given my commitments to UGA, the best time would be in May 2010 or the 2nd week in March 2010 (our Spring break).

There are a couple of ways of doing this: (1) if there are only a few folks, we rent a van at Charles DeGaulle and head out to Normandy; I would make all the necessary reservations, etc. We would split the cost of the van, gas, hotel/b&b costs, etc. (2) if there were several folks, or if we wanted a more professional experience, I could work with a company in England, Tours International

<http://www.tours-international.co.uk/Military+Tours>, who I've worked with in the past—a splendid family-owned company that it is superb.

Cost? That's highly variable depending on whether we do the self-guided tour thing, or use Tours International. To give you some idea, however, the tour I'm taking with them to Normandy for the 65th anniversary costs $1200 per person, plus airfare. If we did the organizing ourselves, the cost would be less.

___________________________

Memories of Huntsville

by Cecilia LeVan Watson

1. Rison Elementary and Jr. High

2. Riding my bike down suicide hill

3. Dip Dogs from Zesto's

4. Mullins before it moved..

5. Big Spring Park swimming pool

6. Playing in the front yard and catching lightning bugs in a jar.

7. Burning up a tank of gas in my VW going from Shoney's to Jerry's again and again.

8. The First Cumberland Presbyterian church on Andrew Jackson Way

9. Taking the school bus over to the YMCA for swimming lessons.

10. Finally just the sound of southern voices on warm southern nights.

George Lehman Williams

Class of ‘64

1 - Cutting grass on Saturday’s to earn money as a 10 year old.

2 - Friday night football games at Goldsmith S. Field.

3 - Fly fishing for bass with friends.

4 - Delivering papers for the Huntsville Times.

5 - Mullins cafe.

6 - Hot summer nights and firefly’s.

7 - Having a grandmother that loved me unconditionally.

8 - Having a Harley at age 15.

9 - Having a new muscle car as a high school senior.

10 - Playing the drums for the “Tempest” at Bradley’s Cafeteria on Friday and Saturday nights.

11 -12 – 13 - Surviving it all – living past 21 – and being a cancer survivor at 63 – and thankful to Tommy Towery for providing the opportunity for so many Lee High School students to reconnect and share memories of growing up in Huntsville during the 1960’s.

________________________________________