Frazier Rehab

Article by by JohnnyHughes.com

Rowdy Pat O’Dowdy and Gorgeous George: Early Wrestling Legendsby JohnnyHughes.com My uncle, Rowdy Pat O’Dowdy, was a renowned wrestler in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. His early companion and very best pal was Gorgeous George. They helped create wrestling as huge display business. Some of my fondest, early memories had been when the wrestlers would come to our residence in Lubbock for evening dinner prior to a match. They’d all talk and laugh and then go out to the Fair Park Coliseum to beat hell out of each and every other. Sled Allen, father of the popular artist Terry Allen, was the promoter. Terry and I have shared boyhood memories of selling cokes, the wrestling alligator and bear, and all the colorful early wrestlers: Big Train Clements. The Masked Marvel. Ricky Romero. Gorgeous George. Dory Funk.

Pat O’Dowdy was the wrestling promoter in Huge Spring and later Odessa for many years, when he got older. I recall a dinner exactly where boxing champion Jack Dempsey manufactured spaghetti for a crowd that incorporated the Mayor in a tux. Dempsey was there to referee. Pat walked all around devoid of his shirt, as normal. Pat and his wife, Ruth, had been identified for their practical jokes. 1 time they came via town and my our loved ones had been gone. So they gave the home a a lot-required, thorough, anonymous cleaning.

Pat made far more money than any person close to growing up. He’d slip me a bill each as soon as in a even though. Pat, and later Danny his son, an additional famous artist and a collaborator with Terry Allen, had the weirdest, most garish automobiles: Hudsons, Kaisers, Fraziers. It was component of the show company.

Rowdy Pat O’Dowdy was really a showman. He helped invent the truly undesirable guy. His gimmic was to spit alcohol or tobacco in their eyes, pin them, and win the round due to the fact they were blinded. Poor guys had bad luck in the third round. Pat wore a wonderful, green robe with a shamrock on the back and emphasized his Irish linage. He went by Irish Pat some.

Pat had been really a drinker in his younger days. He sobered up and devoted decades to operating with Alcoholics Anonymous. One story was that he was headed to the Olympics as a wrestler. They identified that all he had in his suitcase for the boat voyage have been half pints of booze. They suitcase jingled like Santa’s sleigh.Pat told me that the moment he and Gorgeous George have been forced into drunk folk’s rehab by their wives. Gorgeous had thoughtfully purchased a new vehicle and had the radiator filled with vodka. Soon after dark, they would slip out of the rehab cabins and go get drinks. I do not know about that story.

The wrestlers ran about devoid of their shirts all the time. All the early guys had califlower ears. Gorgeous George was the most renowned in his day. His trademark was long, peroxided hair back when you never ever saw any males with prolonged hair. His son, Gorgeous George, Jr., also had long, dyed hair as a youngster. Produced him tough. Gorgeous would give away gold-colored bobby pins. The moment when Gorgeous was in Odessa, Texas visiting the O’Dowdys, he was out mowing the lawn in his wrestling trunks. A neighbor known as the police and they came speedily.

By today’s requirements, Pat was not quite large. Possibly 185 pounds. When he and Gorgeous started wrestling on Television in Chicago, he would drink cream to place on weight. Pat was only seriously injured a couple of occasions all around Lubbock, that I know of. Each times when fans attacked him. A single of showman Sled Allen’s tricks had been these wooden folding chairs with the seat boards only about a quarter of an inch thick. The wrestlers would hit each other more than the heads perfectly in which the thinner, center boards would break loudly without undertaking as well much harm. A lady took 1 of the exact same chairs and hit Pat in the face with the chair from the side. He had a black eye for weeks.

Pat O’Dowdy lived into his eighties. He was constantly available to go out in the middle of the night to assist a drunk just getting out of jail. Pat and Ruth came from Duke, Oklahoma is the middle of the depression. As that well-known gambler Benny Binion stated, “Tough instances make tough folks.”

JohnnyHughes.com, author of the novel, Texas Poker Wisdom