The Last of a Great Breed: True Stories From A Career in Pro Wrestling

By Dory Funk Jr.

Dory Funk Jr is an icon in professional wrestling. He has been inducted into six Wrestling Halls of Fame and trained five WWE Hall of Famers and countless other professional wrestlers. This book is a true look at a long and storied career, with real tales from a World Heavyweight Champion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350927856

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Jess’s Bar B Q Beef Sandwich

Friday was Abilene, Texas. I loved to drive the back roads. There were few highway patrol and if you knew the way you could make the trip from Amarillo to Abilene in about five hours including a lunch stop at Jess’s Bar-B-Q Cafe in Spur Texas. I know Jess’s Bar-B-Q Cafe didn’t look like much. It was just a shack on the south side of town, just an old barn wood shack but Jess made the best Bar-B-Q beef sandwich I have ever tasted. Old Jess expected us every Friday afternoon.

I wouldn’t eat in this dirty rotten horrible germ infested Bar-B-Q rat house for all the money stuffed under Vern Gagne’s mattress. These words were growled by the man who Nick Bockwinkel once refereed to as the person who knew all there was to know about everything, Handsome Harley Race. Harley chose to stay in the back seat of my Chevy Super Sport rather than lower himself to enter Old Jess’s Bar-B-Q Cafe. According to Harley it was just an old shack, unclean! He would rather do without any food at all on the way to Abilene. In my opinion, Jess made the best Bar-B-Q on God’s green earth.

The Amarillo Territory was a tough grind. Many of the wrestlers worked seven days a week. We traveled the loop from the Amarillo TV show on Saturday afternoon to Pueblo Colorado Saturday night, Albuquerque on Sunday, El Paso on Monday, Odessa Tuesday, Lubbock on Wednesday, Amarillo Thursday, and Abilene on Friday night. It was hard work but it was fun. We liked to say we worked hard and we played hard. For a small wrestling territory, the wrestlers made very good money.

After working Albuquerque on Sunday night, The show was over by 9:00pm, we would hit the road, driving to El Paso and straight across the border to Juarez, Mexico for party time. We could make the border easy by 1:00am. We would come back across the border at 4:00am, stop for breakfast at the Good Luck Cafe and check in to the Del Camino Motel around 5:00am. They would count it as a Monday check in. We got two days for the price of one.

On this particular night we were across the border at the Club Noa Noa by 12:30 am., Myself, Ricky Romero, Gorgeous George Jr. Lord Hayes and Harley Race. The music was loud, the tequila salt and lime would warm your body, and the girls on stage looked better with each passing drink. By 2:00am in the morning we had tried everything including the electric shock machine. (A pusher comes by the table with battery in a box with electrically charged hand grips that you hold as he increases the voltage.) I managed to withstand the shock meter to a maximum of ten. Please pass the tequila lime and salt.

Now the boys wanted something extra so we asked the Maitre d’ if anything else was available. He said, follow me. We did, behind the stage down a long hall with rooms on each side. At the end we entered a door to the left. It was a strange room. It was small. There was a stage covered with velvet cloth. It was about shoulder high. The Maitre d’ took five dollars from each of us and said, Wait here, the show will start in five minutes. We were standing right next to the small stage. We waited, and discussed whether or not the Maitre’ d may have taken our money and left.

Soon music started to play and with a recorded introduction, Senorita Babette Bardot stepped from behind the curtain in a fringed bikini. She stepped on to the stage and began dancing go go style to the music. The beat got louder and stronger and she danced lower and lower until finally she was in a squat position. The music stopped and she began clucking like a chicken. Boake, Boake, Boake, Bawk, Bawk, Baawk, Baaawk. Baaaawk !!! At which time she pulled her G string aside, Boaaaaak! Boaaaaak! Boaaaaak! and with a last loud Boaaaaak! She laid an egg. The show was over.

Senorita Babette Bardot stood up straight and turned to walk off the stage. Harley Race Growled, Wait just a minute, that ain’t no show. We paid five dollars apiece and these boys deserve to see a real show. Come here honey, let’s give them a real show for their money. Harley Race climbed up on the stage with Senorita Babette Bardot. I couldn’t believe my eyes as she consented and Harley performed cunnilingus right there on stage in front of all of us. .

When he was finished, Harley smiled, buttoned his collar and fixed his tie. He looked at Senorita Bardot and growled, Did you like it honey? Then he looked at us and growled again, Now you got your money’s worth. Maitre d’, Show us the way to the door. We left Club Noa Noa, crossed the border into El Paso and stopped for a bowl of menudo at the Good Luck Cafe. At 4:00 am. we checked into the Del Camino Motel. Two days for the price of one and two five dollar shows for the price of one.

Business in the Amarillo Territory was good that week. Ricky Romero was the hot Mexican baby face. Terry, Myself, and my father, Dory Funk Sr. were faces in the territory and Sputnik Monroe, Mike Dibiase, Harley Race and Sir Nelson Royal were the top heels.

From El Paso, it was on to Odessa on Tuesday, Lubbock on Wednesday, Amarillo on Thursday and then it all starts over with the back road trip to Abilene, Texas.

We left Amarillo on time at 2:30 in the afternoon. We had to make the trip in five hours to arrive at the old Abilene Fair Park Arena by 7:30 in the evening. As we raced past Tulia, Texas on to small towns, Silverton, Quitaque, Matador, Dickens and then into Spur, my mouth was watering in anticipation of good old Jess’s Bar-B-Q beef sandwich. I could hardly wait.

We passed the old jail at the square in Spur, Texas and headed to the south side of town where old Jess’s Bar-B-Q shack was located I eased up on the gas and applied the brakes. From the back of the seat I could hear the growling voice of Harley Race, the man who knew all there was to know about everything. I wouldn’t eat in this dirty rotten horrible germ infested bar-B-Q rat house for all the money stuffed under Vern Gagne’s mattress.

I said, Yeah, Harley, I know what you mean. Old Jess’s Bar-B-Q is really bad. We wouldn’t want you to eat that.

Jack Brisco arm drags Dory Funk Jr. in an NWA World Championship Match in Japan (Jack’s arm drag is the best in the wrestling business.)

CHAPTER 2

Jack Brisco Meets the Governor of Texas

(As Told to Dory Funk Jr. by Don the Lawman Slatton)

In the fall of 1973, Jack Brisco was NWA Champion. He won the title from Harley Race July 20th. Six weeks earlier, Harley had won a disputed decision over me in Kansas City when I was forced back into the ring early after suffering a separated shoulder in a pick-up truck accident on my father’s ranch. These conditions were great for business in the Amarillo Territory. Brisco was champion after having chased me for 41/2 years and yet, he never beat me for the belt. (Harley Race actually beat me for the NWA World Title in 1973.) A Funk vs Brisco match in the Amarillo Territory was a natural to do great business.

In the Amarillo Wrestling Office, Terry Funk is on the phone with Abilene wrestling promoter, Don Slatton, A.k.a. The Lawman. The Lawman is upset! Abilene runs on Friday nights. The Amarillo Booking Office had dates on the NWA Champion, Jack Brisco. The champ would appear in Albuquerque on Sunday, El Paso on Monday, Odessa on Tuesday, Lubbock on Wednesday, Amarillo on Thursday, and on Friday Jack Brisco was scheduled to fly to St. Louis for a title defense in Kiel Auditorium. Abilene, The Lawman’s town didn’t have the champion. The Lawman knew the world champion in his town would draw him money especially in a Brisco / Funk return match for the NWA World Title.

(The way it is.) The NWA President Sam Muchnick received a salary of three percent of the gate on all appearances of the champion. President Muchnick would rather book the champion in St. Louis with a guaranteed gate of twelve thousand people than Abilene where attendance could not compare with St. Louis. (More money for Mr. Muchnick)

Conversation between Terry and the Lawman centers around securing Jack Brisco for Abilene Texas. (It won’t happen on this Friday, but they might secure a future date.) (More Information) Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe carries the same family name as the NWA Champion, Jack Brisco. Terry and the Lawman decide they will entice Jack to come to Abilene. The enticement is that the governor of Texas, Dolph Briscoe wants to meet his namesake Jack Brisco. It would make for great publicity with champion Brisco meeting Governor Briscoe when he arrived in Abilene.

Great idea! A call goes to NWA President, Sam Muchnick. He confirms that Jack Brisco will appear in Abilene for one match the week following his St. Louis booking. The Lawman is satisfied. He schedules a return Championship Match, Dory Funk Jr. vs Jack Brisco. A sellout is assured with six weeks to promote the show.

The Lawman assumed Terry would contact the Governor’s office. Terry Funk assumed the Lawman would contact the Governors office, besides that, nobody really cared if they had a governor. The important thing to a promoter is a rear end for every eighteen inches of seat space in the building. A Funk Brisco world title match would accomplish that.

Three days before the show, a call comes from Sam Muchnick’s office that they want pictures of Jack Brisco meeting the governor of Texas. (Good publicity for the new NWA World Champion) Furthermore, Jack is going to make a speech to the Governor and present him with a Brisco Brothers T-shirt. To say the least, The Lawman is up a creek. With three days to show time, The Lawman has no Governor Dolph Briscoe. Jack Brisco is not someone to be messing with. The Lawman must come up with a Governor.

The History: The Lawman is infamous as a master ribber. Most noteworthy for the time he induced Amarillo Promoter, Jerry Kozak to drive all the way to Abilene and arrive at 6:00am for a deer hunting trip with the Lawman. Kozak wound up pumping twelve rounds of ammunition into an old dead deer stiffened with Rigamortis and tied to a tree. (That is another story for a later time)

The Set Up: The Lawman persuades his old buddy Martin Pryor, a Ford car salesman in Abilene, to get a bright red Lincoln limo from the company. He also has one of his clean up boys from the wrestling matches dress up like a chauffeur.

The Objective: They must keep Jack away from the local people in Abilene because any idiot in Texas would know the old paunchy sly talking Martin Pryor isn’t the governor of the State of Texas, Dolph Briscoe.

Small Problem: Wrestling strong man Ivan Putski is also scheduled into Abilene on the 11:00am Trans Texas flight from Dallas. Ivan is from San Antonio and would surely know what the Governor of Texas looked like. They must keep Ivan from telling off on the governor.

The Sting: First off the plane is Ivan Putski. The Lawman quickly shakes Ivan’s hand and says quietly, "Ivan, we are going to pull a little joke here on Jack, just go along with what ever you see take place.

Following Ivan Putski off the plane is Jack Brisco, NWA World Champion dressed in suit and tie. (Jack seldom ever wears a suit and tie.) Jack is carrying a Brisco Brothers T-shirt to present to the governor. The Lawman shakes Jack’s hand, looks right at him and says, Jack, I-- I’m sorry to have to tell you that the Governor Briscoe isn’t going to be able to meet you today. He had to go down to Mexico, you know where they had that earthquake. Jack is terribly disappointed that he isn’t going to meet Governor Dolph Briscoe.

As they walked to the terminal, they saw a twin engine aircraft with propellers turning. The Lawman said, Jack I-- I believe that is his plane over there warming up right now. By now Jack was really depressed. He never really wanted to come to this town in the first place.

The four, Lawman, Jack Brisco, Ivan Putski, and another one of the Lawman’s helper, wanna be wrestlers, Lawman Jr., leave the airport together in the Lawman’s old Ford Station Wagon. In those days, from the Airport into town was a good distance on a country road.

As they left the airport and made the first turn into town The Lawman was the first to speak. Well my golly, That looks like, I believe it is, It’s him, it’s governor Briscoe, It’s him!!! The Lawman slams on his breaks and the red limousine does the same. A cloud of dust flies up in the air as the two cars come to a stop. The Lawman gets out of the car and says, "My gosh Governor, we thought for sure we were going to miss you. Jack Brisco is out of the car and the introduction takes place. Jack Brisco thinks he is meeting the governor of Texas, Dolph Briscoe.

The Rest of the Story: Jack Brisco came prepared to meet the governor, give a speech, and present the Governor with a Brisco Brother’s T-shirt. Come hell or high water he was going to do just that. Right there on a lonely dusty road in Abilene Texas Jack began his speech. It was something about long ago the two families were from Oklahoma, they split and their names were spelled different but sounded the same. As quick as he got started, he forgot his speech. While Jack was stammering and trying to remember what he was going to say, The old Governor just laughed and said now Jack, I want you to know those Funk Boys are pretty tough hombres. Jack didn’t really hear a word the governor was saying as he raced to the car as in the excitement he had forgotten his Brisco Brothers T-shirt. He was actually fumbling with the latch on the Lawman’s old Ford station wagon to get the Brisco Brothers T-shirt before the Governor left. Jack finally got the door open and the T-shirt out and made the presentation to the Governor.

Verification: This event is recorded on old 8 mm movie film for posterity in the wrestling business. The film was taken by Lawman Jr. and features Jack and the Governor (a.k.a. Martin Pryor) conversing at the T-shirt presentation. Periodically you can see Ivan Putski walk into view with an old Polaroid taking snap shots of the presentation.

Time was short and soon the Lawman reminded the Governor about his plane warming up for the trip to Mexico. The Governor apologized but wished Jack good luck and said he had to get going. You know Jack I have just got to get down to Mexico and help those people. The Governor got in the red limousine and in a cloud of dust was gone.

The Finish: Now all was quiet, the governor was gone. The Lawman, Jack, Putski, and Lawman Jr. were in the old station wagon. The first to speak was Jack, Lawman, I just got to tell you, that rib that you pulled on Jerry Kozak when he shot that old dead deer was one of the funniest ribs I have ever heard of.

And Finally: For the next six months our office in Amarillo received many calls from the St. Louis office requesting pictures of Jack Brisco meeting Governor Dolph Briscoe. We had the pictures, but couldn’t send pictures of Jack and the paunchy old car salesman, Martin Pryor. Anybody would know that wasn’t Governor Dolph Briscoe.

And as You Would Know: Everyone in the wrestling business knew the story of Jack Brisco meeting the Governor of Texas, but everyone was afraid to tell Jack he had been had. At least six months went by without anyone telling Jack he didn’t meet the Governor of Texas. Pryor to one of our matches in Orlando at Eddie Graham Sports Stadium, Jack told me what a nice person the Governor of Texas was. He said our governor was just like any ordinary person.

In the end, only Harley Race had the guts to tell Jack he was had.

I don’t recommend that anyone mention this story in person to Jack Brisco.

Dory Funk Sr. with his horse Banshee on the Flying Mare Ranch southwest of Amarillo

Dory Funk Jr. with a top wristlock on Jack Brisco

CHAPTER 3

The Deer Hunter

Dory Funk Sr. co-signed the note at the Amarillo National Bank to put Don (The Lawman) Slatton in the wrestling promotion business in Abilene, Texas. The bank loan was for $1,500. The money was for the Lawman to buy the promotion rights of former Abilene promoter, Benny Wilson. There were no franchises in wrestling, but in those days promoters laid claim to territories. (The Lawman was buying Good Will or Blue Sky, which ever you wish to call it)

The Lawman was working hard to make ends meet. Two things happened to make his promotion a huge success. 1. He got the local TV station, KPLR to pick up the Amarillo territory wrestling television show. 2. All the towns in the West Texas area built new coliseums. The towns located in the KPLR viewing audience with new coliseums included, Abilene, San Angelo, Sweetwater, Brownwood, and Ft. Stockton. As a promoter the Lawman became a huge success. He was soon a, Hundred Thousand-aire and his area was growing rapidly.

The Lawman’s territory was the original ECW type promotion. Featured stars included, JC Dyckes and his Infernos throwing fire, The original bleeder, Cowboy Bob Ellis, Russian Chain Matches featuring Terry Funk and Killer Karl Kox, The original Arabian Death Match with the Sheik and Dory Funk Sr., and the wrestling combination of myself and Jack Brisco.

I will never forget the night Brute Bernard went outside of the ring and found a cast iron stove lid. He brought it into the ring and hit Indian wrestler Billy Red Cloud on top of his bald head with it. There was no noise, only a whoosh that left Billy Red Cloud in the center of the ring holding two sides of his head together with blood gushing everywhere.

This extreme style of professional wrestling brought success and fame to the Lawman. He was not only known for his style of wrestling promotion, but also as one of the great deer hunters in the wrestling