In 1959, I was in the seventh grade at Snowden school. Every Monday night, my father took me to the wrestling matches downtown at Ellis auditorium. In those days, Elvis and wrestling were the hot topics in Memphis. For a young kid, wrestling was very exciting. It was classic good versus bad. I remember witnessing brutal battles among the likes of Sputnik Monroe, The Mighty Yankee, Jackie Fargo, Spider Galento, The Von Brauner brothers, Joe Scarpa, Cowboy Lester Welch, and others. But everyone’s hero was Billy Wicks. Billy Wicks was a young, handsome, golden-haired guy from Minnesota who took up wrestling at an early age to overcome the effects of polio. We all loved to watch his ongoing feud with Sputnik Monroe. It was like watching Batman grappling with The Joker, and I loved every minute. I also remember seeing Wicks wrestle Gorgeous George, and the time he answered the question, “Who’s tougher? A boxer or a wrestler?,” when he forced former World Heavyweight Champ, Jersey Joe Wolcot into submission. So it was to my delight when my mother said she worked with a lady who knew Billy Wicks, and how would I like to meet him? The next Monday night, after the last match, my father took me backstage. There stood Billy, bigger than life with a big grin on his face. He offered me his hand and said “Hi Eddie,” put his arm around me an introduced me to some of the wrestlers as “my friend.” I was stunned speechless and about to pee in my pants. I went home that night with a stack of autographed photos and the anticipation of telling everyone at school about my incredible experience. A few weeks later, my mother had another surprise: Billy Wicks was coming to dinner at our house. “Holy shit,” I said under my breath. Although we usually ate around 6:30, I took up my position on the front steps at 5 p.m. and waited. Two of the neighborhood kids came by and asked what I was doing. “Waiting for Billy Wicks. He’s coming to dinner,”I said. “Yeah, sure,” one of them laughed as they walked off. Around 6:00, he pulled into our driveway, got out, grinned and said, “Hey Eddie, what’s for dinner?” It was the greatest night of my life. I sat next to Billy, and we all listened intently as he regaled us with tales of his magnificent prowess. After dinner, I called the two neighborhood boys and convinced them to come over. When they arrived they were completely at a loss for words. Billy entertained us by showing us various wresting holds, using me to demonstrate. At one point he wrapped his strong arms around my neck and said, “This is the famous sleeper hold. Eddie, if you feel like you’re going to pass out, just tap my leg.” I glanced over at my mother who was wringing her hands, then suddenly, everything went black. As I woke up a few seconds later, Billy said, “You forgot to tap.” Of course the next day at school, all I could talk about was Billy Wicks coming to dinner, and how he was my best friend. Nobody believed me, and since we didn’t own a camera, I couldn’t prove it. On top of that, my home room teacher, Coach Flowers, would accuse Billy of being a faker every time I mentioned his name. What a bummer! Here I was with the greatest true story of the seventh grade and nobody believed me. I felt completely dejected. What could I do to prove it? After a couple of days an idea hit me like a freight train: I’ll invite Billy to have lunch at school. That night I wrote Billy a letter explaining my situation and could he please come to lunch. I even drew a map of the school so he could find my home room. I didn’t specify a particular day since I figured he had better things to do. A few days passed, and I was headed to my home room to get ready to go to lunch when I noticed a crowd standing in front of the door. I heard someone say, “Eddie, Billy Wicks is in there and he’s looking for you.” My heart sunk as I entered the room to see Billy towering over a red-faced Coach Flowers. “Hey Eddie,” Billy said. “Ihope I’m not late.” I was thrilled. “Screw you, Coach Flowers,” I thought. Billy and me and Coach Flowers and the entire school went to the cafeteria. The room was buzzing with excitement as I ate lunch with my best friend. Afterwards, we all returned to the home room. Billy sat in a chair next to Coach Flowers’ desk, as one by one, each kid went up to get his autograph while he fielded questions from everyone. At one point, one of the girls asked about his cauliflower ears. He invited her to come up and touch them as he answered her question. Just as she reached out her hand to touch, he let out a loud growl causing her to scream and the rest of us to laugh uproariously. When it came time for Billy to leave, he asked Coach Flowers permission to give me a ride around the block in his new Cadillac. Flowers dared not to say no. I could tell Billy was proud of his new ride, and especially proud of the gold wrestler hood ornament. That night, Billy lost his match with Sputnik, but I was the real winner.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 16:07:31 +0000
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