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Grappling legends include former defensive lineman
Thursday, November 12, 1998 By Milan Simonich, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Here's a quick look at three other legendary wrestlers who are coming to Pittsburgh for the celebration of wrestlers and Walk of Fame dinner.
Ernie Ladd, the Big Cat
Ladd received his nickname when he was an agile 280-pound defensive lineman for the San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs.
The Big Cat entered professional wrestling with a big reputation because of his success in the American Football League. But, he said, he wouldn't have been much of anything if it weren't for Chuck Noll, the retired Steelers coach.
They met in 1961, long before either was famous. Noll was coaching the Chargers' defensive line and Ladd was one of his least attentive pupils.
"I'm thickheaded," said Ladd, now 60. "I had my way of doing things. I used my forearm to hit everything in sight, and I was always getting hurt.
"Charlie Noll kept telling me to put my shoulder into the other guy, so I could get more power and be more durable. I wouldn't listen. Finally, he suggested that I try it his way for two weeks. If I didn't get better, I could go back to my way.
"He was right. He made me a player. My day has come and gone, but right there in Pittsburgh is the best football coach ever - Charlie Noll."
Ivan Putski, the Polish Power
Countless wrestlers have adopted phony ethnic identities to sell tickets. Hans Schmidt, supposedly a fierce German, was really Canadian. Ivan Koloff, advertised as "the Russian Bear," also was Canadian.
In this world of ethnic impostors, Putski was the real deal - a Pole who proudly claimed to be Polish.
Putski's real name is Joe Bednarski. He immigrated to the United States in 1950, when he was 9 years old. "We were one of the last families to come through Ellis Island," he said.
The Bednarskis settled in Texas, where muscular young Joe caught the eye of local wrestling promoters.
He later spent 20 years working the East Coast circuit for the late Vince McMahon Sr., whom he regarded as a prince in a business of sharks.
Putski holds no warm feelings for Vince McMahon Jr., now boss of the World Wrestling Federation.
"I can't really tell you what I think of him," Putski said of Vince Jr., an over-the-top showman who has brought cross-dressers, naked women and soap opera plots to wrestling.
Back in the good old days when McMahon Sr. ruled benevolently, Pittsburgh was one of Putski's favorite stops.
"The people there were always very good to me," said Putski, 57. "I'm looking forward to seeing some of my old friends."
Handsom Harley Race
Race turned pro at age 15, when he already weighed 225 pounds.
"I had watched a lot of wrestling on TV as a kid. I always said, 'That's what I want to be,' but nobody thought I was serious," said Race, now 55.
He quit school in Quitman, Mo., to train under a pair of wrestling brothers, Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko. "Actually, they didn't do much training. Mostly, they made me work on their farm for about a year," Race said.
He moved on to Kansas City, where promoters were willing to let the big kid take his lumps against grown men with bad tempers. It was 1959, and nobody seemed to mind if a boy who wasn't old enough to drive entered so rough a business.
By the mid-1960s, Race had become a star in a circuit around the Great Lakes. He went on to win championships in Missouri, Texas, Georgia and other territories of the old National Wrestling Alliance.
Later, Race owned and starred in a small promotion in Missouri until it was gobbled up by the wrestling empires of Vince McMahon Jr. and Ted Turner. He then went to work for McMahon, wrestling until his body gave out in 1995.
Race recently had hip replacement surgery. Exercising has become difficult, and his weight has climbed to 290.
"That's about as heavy as I've ever been," he said. "Most years I was wrestling, I wasn't much bigger than I was at 14."
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