Bronko Nagurski
|
|
Through-out history there have been many American football stars who crossed over from the shoulder pads and grass to tights and ring ropes. Some achieved great success in football, some have not. Some achieved great success in wrestling, some have not. Some men achieved great success in both fields and arguably the most successful of them all was the man we are looking at in this piece, Bronko Nagurski.
His story starts on November 3, 1908 when Mrs. Nagurski gave birth to a baby and called it Bronislaw Nagurski in a hospital located in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada. Around two years later the family moved to International Falls, Minnesota. The story goes while at school there his teacher could not understand his Ukranian mother's accent and just called him Bronko instead. Although he told people he was called "Bronk" because he looked like a horse.
As a young man Nagurski worked on a farm. It was while working that he was discovered by Dr. Clarence W. Spears the Minnesota University football coach. Spears claimed he had seen Nagurski plowing the field by himself. It was the mid-1920's so there was no machinery and more astonishingly not even a horse. At the time Nagurski was said to be six foot two inches tall and two-hundred-and-thirty-five pounds in weight. Because of the story told by Spears, Nagurski was often called the Paul Bunyan of football.
From 1927 to 1929 Nagurski stayed at the Minnesota University playing for the Gophers in both the fullback and tackle positions. His first year on the team saw them go undefeated. His last year on the team saw him be named as All-American in both of his positions. Spears described him as, "The greatest football player who ever lived...a man who would have been an all-time All-American at any position he chose to play."
After leaving the University he went to play for the NFL Chicago Bears. Nagurski would remember in later years that their coach, George Halas, was the best coach he ever had. He played for the Bears from 1930-1937. He also recalled, "When we'd make one those barnstorming trips out to California we'd get only half salary," remember this is at a time when they'd earn $5,000 in a whole year, "And we'd play exhibition games for free."
Halas had the following to say of Nagurski, "He had the most incredible strength I've ever seen...the greatest all-around football player who ever lived." Fellow footballer Ernie Nevers said, "Tackling Bronko was like trying to stop a freight train running downhill...he was the toughest fullback I ever met."
After playing football for a couple of years with the Bears, he was recruited to the mat wars by Joe and Tony Stecher. Two brothers who had made their base Minneapolis, Minnesota back in 1933. Joe was a former World Heavyweight Champion and Tony a powerful promoter with good connections from his previous home territory of Nebraska.
In early 1933 Tony gave his younger brother the task of training Nagurski. They planned to make him the star attraction of the new Minneapolis promotion - what would later become Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association - not just any star attraction though, a home town hero who had made football fans look on with awe every time he stepped onto the football field.
From the time he first started wrestling, Bronko proved to be a good draw for Tony. His time spent on the mat was described as not particularly colorful for a wrestler, but he sure knew how to get through a match with the sheer ruggedness and methodical straight ahead nature that he used on the football field. Some wrestlers have commented that the ruggedness and power over the years ahead were not always just a show. Apparently Bronko would forget his own strength and come across very stiff at times.
Of course though getting back to the story, while he was still playing football, Bronko's time had to be split between on and off season periods. It wasn't until he confirmed he was leaving the Bears that he got his first title. On June 28, 1937 Nagurski defeated Dean Detton for the highly disputed World Heavyweight Championship. That same year he left the Bears over a pay dispute.
One of the reasons Bronko was such a good fit for the professional wrestling World Heavyweight Championship where other non-wrestlers had failed was due to his toughness. As you read earlier he was a force to be reckoned with on the field and had strength that was very scary to go up against. So when you combine that with the training from two very accomplished wrestlers in the Stecher's, Bronko wasn't someone anyone wanted to take lightly. He'd also had over four years of "on the job" training so to say before he won the big title. Even though the fear of double crosses was not as bad as it had been in prior years, it was still something taken into consideration and also the fans had to believe the champion could take anyone on, and that was very easy to believe with Bronko.
Well over a year later he dropped the title to the "Golden Greek" Jim Londos in front of 10,000 fans at the Philadelphia Convention Hall. Arguably Nagurski's biggest victory came in front of 9,000 Houston, Texans though. As on June 23, 1939 "The Bronk" defeated Lou Thesz for the National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship. A title he held for just under a year until he lost it to Ray Steele with eight-and-half-thousand fans in the St. Louis Auditorium.
Almost exactly a year later Nagurski regained those laurels from Ray Steele in front of 8,000 fans in Minneapolis. Nagurski lost it only a couple of months later on June 5, 1941 to Sandor Szabo in an unadvertised match in St. Louis. The billed attraction was Nagurski versus Ruffy Silverstein. That was the end of Bronko's time on top of the pile in professional wrestling. His star power remained though in the eyes of the fans.
In 1943 he played one last season for the Chicago Bears due to them struggling to find players with World War II going on, for Nagurski it was good timing as he'd bowed out of professional wrestling towards the end of 1942. His return to football was noted as a success. I think by this point though, Bronko probably could have done no wrong. After all he has been called the "Babe Ruth of football."
After trying his hand as an assistant coach for college football, Bronko ended up returning to professional wrestling full-time. As mentioned earlier he was no longer the top guy in professional wrestling, but that did not mean he was no longer a draw worthy of being in the public's eye. On the Pacific Coast he had a lot of success, even winning the San Francisco version of the NWA Pacific Coast Championship in 1948.
As you can imagine as the years piled onto his life his ring-work would begin to waiver. Given that he'd been played football from 1927-1937 and had been wrestling since 1933, it really should have been no surprise he was going to have a fair few war scars and nagging injuries plaguing his body as his career stretched over into the 1950's. While he didn't wrestle as much, he did make quite a splash on occasion other than when he was refereeing in Minnesota.
Tony Stecher the man responsible for bringing Nagurski into the wrestling business also a had a hand in Verne Gagne getting into professional wrestling. When Tony passed away in 1954 the promotion was passed down to his son, Dennis and Wallo Karbo. Dennis wasn't really cut out for promotion professional wrestling and he sold his shares to Gagne. Nagurski would continue to work for Gagne.
When Gagne first took over the promotion was still called the Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club, the name Tony had given it over twenty years ago. He kept that name for several years and stuck with the National Wrestling Alliance group of promoters that Tony had helped found in 1948. He knew Bronko still had drawing power and a lot of experience to pass on to a younger generation, most importantly to Gagne, Nagurski could pass on that wealth of knowledge to, well, Gagne himself.
Gagne put himself into a tag-team with Nagurski, a tag-team that was very successful drawing power and also in giving Gagne that all important rub. He was already a name and known as a great amateur wrestling, but sometimes there's just no beating being aligned with a former World Heavyweight Champion and a veteran that the whole of North America knew he name of.
Arguably their most notable feud as a team was about the Miller's, Big Bill and Ed Miller which went on and off through-out the year of 1957. Yet the night that would go down in history was when Bronko and Gagne defeated The Atomic Blonds, Chet Wallich and Johnny Valentine for the Minnesota Boxing & Wrestling Club version of the NWA World Tag-Team Titles, the titles that would later become the AWA World Tag-Team Titles.
They held the titles from December 26, 1957 to March 22, 1958 when they lost them to Doc and Mike Gallagher. Soon after Nagurski retired from the ring permanently. At the end of the 1950's he and his wife purchased the Pure Oil Gas Station. Which they ran together for over ten years. He spent much time fishing and hunting, two of his favorite things to do. The home he lived in was even built as a lake-side cottage, before Bronko and Eileen lived there it belonged to one of their parents.
After retiring Bronko did not give out many interviews. He told his son, "I wanted people to remember me as I was, not as I am." Often it has been said he was reclusive, but that wasn't the case, he was just quiet and didn't like to talk about his past. That didn't stop people from remembering his careers though. Even if he did turn day a Bronko Nagurski recognition day on several times in Minnesota.
In 1963 he was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame as a charter member and his football jersey number was retired, number 72 at the Minnesota University during the 1979 season. He gave a very rare interview in 1984 where he stated, "I just sit in this rocking chair because of my arthritis and all my aches." He went on to say, "I'm just tickled to death that I'm still around, I never thought I would live this long." He had suffered with arthritis for over fifteen years at this point.
He was still quite upbeat though even with all his ailments, "I got no regrets...there was nothing I would change." He offered his thoughts on football at the time, "I watch a lot of modern football and I wonder if I could be happy playing it because I could play only half the time." When it came to professional wrestling he was not so kind, he said he felt his time in professional wrestling was "degrading," and recalled "Some of the matches were fixed, some were not."
Sadly in 1987 his wife, Eileen, passed away. His son, Ron, stated that was the beginning of the downward spiral for Bronko's health. Three years later January 7, 1990 at Falls Memorial Hospital in International Falls from natural causes, the man, the myth, the legend, Bronko Nagurski passed away. Leaving behind four sons, two daughters, fifteen grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Whether Bronko looked upon his days within the squared circle as a good thing or not, wrestling historians still remember the impact that Nagurski had on the industry as do football historians on their sport. In 1996 and 2011 respectively Bronko was posthumously inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. As well as being featured in many greatest of all-time lists, having a museum dedicated to him in Smokey Bear Park in International Falls and the local high school football team adopting the name "The Broncos" after him.
Through-out history there have been many American football stars who crossed over from the shoulder pads and grass to tights and ring ropes. Some achieved great success in football, some have not. Some achieved great success in wrestling, some have not. Some men achieved great success in both fields and arguably the most successful of them all was the man we are looking at in this piece, Bronko Nagurski.
His story starts on November 3, 1908 when Mrs. Nagurski gave birth to a baby and called it Bronislaw Nagurski in a hospital located in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada. Around two years later the family moved to International Falls, Minnesota. The story goes while at school there his teacher could not understand his Ukranian mother's accent and just called him Bronko instead. Although he told people he was called "Bronk" because he looked like a horse.
As a young man Nagurski worked on a farm. It was while working that he was discovered by Dr. Clarence W. Spears the Minnesota University football coach. Spears claimed he had seen Nagurski plowing the field by himself. It was the mid-1920's so there was no machinery and more astonishingly not even a horse. At the time Nagurski was said to be six foot two inches tall and two-hundred-and-thirty-five pounds in weight. Because of the story told by Spears, Nagurski was often called the Paul Bunyan of football.
From 1927 to 1929 Nagurski stayed at the Minnesota University playing for the Gophers in both the fullback and tackle positions. His first year on the team saw them go undefeated. His last year on the team saw him be named as All-American in both of his positions. Spears described him as, "The greatest football player who ever lived...a man who would have been an all-time All-American at any position he chose to play."
After leaving the University he went to play for the NFL Chicago Bears. Nagurski would remember in later years that their coach, George Halas, was the best coach he ever had. He played for the Bears from 1930-1937. He also recalled, "When we'd make one those barnstorming trips out to California we'd get only half salary," remember this is at a time when they'd earn $5,000 in a whole year, "And we'd play exhibition games for free."
Halas had the following to say of Nagurski, "He had the most incredible strength I've ever seen...the greatest all-around football player who ever lived." Fellow footballer Ernie Nevers said, "Tackling Bronko was like trying to stop a freight train running downhill...he was the toughest fullback I ever met."
After playing football for a couple of years with the Bears, he was recruited to the mat wars by Joe and Tony Stecher. Two brothers who had made their base Minneapolis, Minnesota back in 1933. Joe was a former World Heavyweight Champion and Tony a powerful promoter with good connections from his previous home territory of Nebraska.
In early 1933 Tony gave his younger brother the task of training Nagurski. They planned to make him the star attraction of the new Minneapolis promotion - what would later become Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association - not just any star attraction though, a home town hero who had made football fans look on with awe every time he stepped onto the football field.
From the time he first started wrestling, Bronko proved to be a good draw for Tony. His time spent on the mat was described as not particularly colorful for a wrestler, but he sure knew how to get through a match with the sheer ruggedness and methodical straight ahead nature that he used on the football field. Some wrestlers have commented that the ruggedness and power over the years ahead were not always just a show. Apparently Bronko would forget his own strength and come across very stiff at times.
Of course though getting back to the story, while he was still playing football, Bronko's time had to be split between on and off season periods. It wasn't until he confirmed he was leaving the Bears that he got his first title. On June 28, 1937 Nagurski defeated Dean Detton for the highly disputed World Heavyweight Championship. That same year he left the Bears over a pay dispute.
One of the reasons Bronko was such a good fit for the professional wrestling World Heavyweight Championship where other non-wrestlers had failed was due to his toughness. As you read earlier he was a force to be reckoned with on the field and had strength that was very scary to go up against. So when you combine that with the training from two very accomplished wrestlers in the Stecher's, Bronko wasn't someone anyone wanted to take lightly. He'd also had over four years of "on the job" training so to say before he won the big title. Even though the fear of double crosses was not as bad as it had been in prior years, it was still something taken into consideration and also the fans had to believe the champion could take anyone on, and that was very easy to believe with Bronko.
Well over a year later he dropped the title to the "Golden Greek" Jim Londos in front of 10,000 fans at the Philadelphia Convention Hall. Arguably Nagurski's biggest victory came in front of 9,000 Houston, Texans though. As on June 23, 1939 "The Bronk" defeated Lou Thesz for the National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship. A title he held for just under a year until he lost it to Ray Steele with eight-and-half-thousand fans in the St. Louis Auditorium.
Almost exactly a year later Nagurski regained those laurels from Ray Steele in front of 8,000 fans in Minneapolis. Nagurski lost it only a couple of months later on June 5, 1941 to Sandor Szabo in an unadvertised match in St. Louis. The billed attraction was Nagurski versus Ruffy Silverstein. That was the end of Bronko's time on top of the pile in professional wrestling. His star power remained though in the eyes of the fans.
In 1943 he played one last season for the Chicago Bears due to them struggling to find players with World War II going on, for Nagurski it was good timing as he'd bowed out of professional wrestling towards the end of 1942. His return to football was noted as a success. I think by this point though, Bronko probably could have done no wrong. After all he has been called the "Babe Ruth of football."
After trying his hand as an assistant coach for college football, Bronko ended up returning to professional wrestling full-time. As mentioned earlier he was no longer the top guy in professional wrestling, but that did not mean he was no longer a draw worthy of being in the public's eye. On the Pacific Coast he had a lot of success, even winning the San Francisco version of the NWA Pacific Coast Championship in 1948.
As you can imagine as the years piled onto his life his ring-work would begin to waiver. Given that he'd been played football from 1927-1937 and had been wrestling since 1933, it really should have been no surprise he was going to have a fair few war scars and nagging injuries plaguing his body as his career stretched over into the 1950's. While he didn't wrestle as much, he did make quite a splash on occasion other than when he was refereeing in Minnesota.
Tony Stecher the man responsible for bringing Nagurski into the wrestling business also a had a hand in Verne Gagne getting into professional wrestling. When Tony passed away in 1954 the promotion was passed down to his son, Dennis and Wallo Karbo. Dennis wasn't really cut out for promotion professional wrestling and he sold his shares to Gagne. Nagurski would continue to work for Gagne.
When Gagne first took over the promotion was still called the Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club, the name Tony had given it over twenty years ago. He kept that name for several years and stuck with the National Wrestling Alliance group of promoters that Tony had helped found in 1948. He knew Bronko still had drawing power and a lot of experience to pass on to a younger generation, most importantly to Gagne, Nagurski could pass on that wealth of knowledge to, well, Gagne himself.
Gagne put himself into a tag-team with Nagurski, a tag-team that was very successful drawing power and also in giving Gagne that all important rub. He was already a name and known as a great amateur wrestling, but sometimes there's just no beating being aligned with a former World Heavyweight Champion and a veteran that the whole of North America knew he name of.
Arguably their most notable feud as a team was about the Miller's, Big Bill and Ed Miller which went on and off through-out the year of 1957. Yet the night that would go down in history was when Bronko and Gagne defeated The Atomic Blonds, Chet Wallich and Johnny Valentine for the Minnesota Boxing & Wrestling Club version of the NWA World Tag-Team Titles, the titles that would later become the AWA World Tag-Team Titles.
They held the titles from December 26, 1957 to March 22, 1958 when they lost them to Doc and Mike Gallagher. Soon after Nagurski retired from the ring permanently. At the end of the 1950's he and his wife purchased the Pure Oil Gas Station. Which they ran together for over ten years. He spent much time fishing and hunting, two of his favorite things to do. The home he lived in was even built as a lake-side cottage, before Bronko and Eileen lived there it belonged to one of their parents.
After retiring Bronko did not give out many interviews. He told his son, "I wanted people to remember me as I was, not as I am." Often it has been said he was reclusive, but that wasn't the case, he was just quiet and didn't like to talk about his past. That didn't stop people from remembering his careers though. Even if he did turn day a Bronko Nagurski recognition day on several times in Minnesota.
In 1963 he was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame as a charter member and his football jersey number was retired, number 72 at the Minnesota University during the 1979 season. He gave a very rare interview in 1984 where he stated, "I just sit in this rocking chair because of my arthritis and all my aches." He went on to say, "I'm just tickled to death that I'm still around, I never thought I would live this long." He had suffered with arthritis for over fifteen years at this point.
He was still quite upbeat though even with all his ailments, "I got no regrets...there was nothing I would change." He offered his thoughts on football at the time, "I watch a lot of modern football and I wonder if I could be happy playing it because I could play only half the time." When it came to professional wrestling he was not so kind, he said he felt his time in professional wrestling was "degrading," and recalled "Some of the matches were fixed, some were not."
Sadly in 1987 his wife, Eileen, passed away. His son, Ron, stated that was the beginning of the downward spiral for Bronko's health. Three years later January 7, 1990 at Falls Memorial Hospital in International Falls from natural causes, the man, the myth, the legend, Bronko Nagurski passed away. Leaving behind four sons, two daughters, fifteen grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Whether Bronko looked upon his days within the squared circle as a good thing or not, wrestling historians still remember the impact that Nagurski had on the industry as do football historians on their sport. In 1996 and 2011 respectively Bronko was posthumously inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. As well as being featured in many greatest of all-time lists, having a museum dedicated to him in Smokey Bear Park in International Falls and the local high school football team adopting the name "The Broncos" after him.
Quote Sources
Various newspapers
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Biography of Bronko Nagurski.
Author: Jimmy Wheeler.
Published: August 25, 2014.
Biography: #153.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Biography of Bronko Nagurski.
Author: Jimmy Wheeler.
Published: August 25, 2014.
Biography: #153.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.