By
Frank Dusek
It's
always interesting to hear how different people got started
in professional wrestling. Freddie
Blassie (B-61) came from a boxing background. Bobo
Brazil once barnstormed with the House of David baseball
team before getting hooked on the sport after seeing his
first match.
My
dad's story is no less interesting. In the summer of 1925,
my Dad, Wally Dusek, turned 16 years old. For work,
he sanded wooden floors for my grandfather.
On
one occasion, two workmen left a 700 pound steam radiator
on the spot where my dad still needed to sand. When Dad
asked them to move the radiator, they laughed at him, told
him to "move it himself," and left for lunch.
Running
the sanding machine for several years, my dad was quite
strong for his age. Using two pieces of wood to protect
the floor from marks, he "walked" this giant iron radiator
across the freshly sanded floor and out the back door.
Once
on the porch, he dumped the thing off the side, burying
it in the mud where it lay when the workmen returned to
work.
Kirksville,
MO was a small town back then. Word of what had happened
traveled fast.
In
those days, the preliminary matches were almost always "shoots"
between local wrestlers. The only match on the card that
was "worked" was the main event. When the local wrestling
promoter, Gus Karas came to town; it wasn't long
before someone told him about the local strong boy. It didn't
take long for Karas to book the local boy on his next card.
One
taste was all it took for my dad to realize that he discovered
his life's profession. After a few more local matches, he
hopped a freight train and traveled south to St. Louis.
From there, he hooked up with the last circus to travel
the US by train (over 70 railroad cars) and spent the next
three years flying aerobatics during the day and wrestling
all comers on the midway.
While
wrestling all comers on the midway, Wally Dusek met the
legendary hooker, John Pesek. At the end of the season
my dad left the circus and spent three years on Pesek's
farm in Nebraska learning from the master.
