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Che Summerville News
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Staff Photos By Rich Jefferson and Buddy Roberts
HUNDREDS AT GORE COMMUNITY CENTER
Came To See ‘““All American Wrestling”
Chattoogans Making It
In Pro-Wrestling Ranks
Native Countians Are Really ‘Bad Company’
By RICH JEFFERSON
Staff Writer
W
Three native Chattooga Countians committed mayhem
for a hometown crowd Friday night at the Gore Com
munity Center. Those looking for bone-crushing entertain
ment were satisfied, and the organized donnybrook drew
hundreds of onlookers, who bellowed for the blood of the
“bad guys” and cheered the ligament-wrenching exploits
of the "*good guys."
It was pro%essional wrestling, but the crowd that
showed up knew it was the real thing. Not wrestling, not
some formally stylized, clean, Olympic event or Ivy
League match. [t was stylized all right, but it was
“rasslin.” " And rasslin’ is what they came to see.
Mare Hill, Michael J. Starbuck and Tracy Steel (ob
viously not their given names) were the native Chat
toogans in the ring; Steele was in the first match, and he
*lost’” to Tim Burger. There was no official system of
point-keeping, but the referee indicated at the final bell
that Steei) had been defeated.
IS IT REAL?
Hill and Starbuck were in the final bout, and a bloody
one it was. The secret of the bleeding was not revealed,
but rest assured it was real blood pouring from Star
buck's head. Skeptics still say “‘aw, that stuff's not real,”
but they should ask State Trooper Mike King if it's real.
King was unceremoniously dumped from the ring as he
tried valiantly to referee the “'grudge match” between the
Orginal Bad Company, Hill and Starbuck, versus Dirty
W}tlgite Boy Jim I’owe{l and Mr. World. Mr. World,.as you
might guess, is not a given name either.
King may have been prepared for his expulsion, but
landing on your head and knowing you're going to land
on your head are two different things. How do these
gladiators get drawn to the arena? Some grow up
fighting.
LITTLE RASCALS
“I was the king of the Lyerly Highway," said Marc
Hill in an interview Friday morning. **When other kids
were picked on I'd take up for them.”
®
Trion Gets
Arti
rtist For
Classroom
Phillip Depoy, an Atlanta
based writer, will be an artist
in-residence at Trion Elemen
tary April 13-21. He has done
at least 27 other *‘residencies,”
and says he is not a teacher in
the usual sense.
“Tt seems the task (is) to
elicit rather than teach creative
writing, especially poetry,”
Depoy said. He said he wants
to ‘‘create an atmosphere of ac
ceptance and joy in which
students feel free to express
themselves in the most far
reaching ways.
TOOLS
“Tools most useful in this
effort have been: odd ques
tions, word association games,
deliberate juxtaposition of im
ageries, music, and a particular
kind of praise. Chief among my
qualifications the use these
tools is a deep love of students’
writing; an abidin% love of
words in general. This love is
contagious.”
Depoy was a Dean’s List
graduate from Georgia State
University in 1972. He majored
in EnglisK and had a minor in
folklore.
The Artist-in-Residence
Program is available to all
pubfil(-: schools in the state
through the Arts-in-Fducation
see TRION, page 6-B
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Photo By Gene Espy
‘HUGGERS’' VERA THOMPSON (L), NELDA CAMPBELL (R)
Congratulate Athletes Amanda Pierce And Dandee Denson In Last Year’s Special Olympics
Special Olympics Slated
The Chattooga County
Special Olympics will be held
next Wednesday at the Chat
tooga High School football
fielg. Events will begin at 9
a.m.
More than 50 county
athletes took part in the Olym
pics last year, competing in
Thursday, March 23, 1989
Hill never graduated from Chattooga High, but after
his parents signed waivers, he joined the U. S. Army and
earned a diploma while in the service. Both Hill and Star
buck, who Eave wrestled together for years, said that
when they were growing up here, they knew they would
have the chance to make in pro wrestling.
They had their chance, did pretty well by their own ac
count, and now, after a brief respite, they are pursuing
again the strained joints, bruised backs, and b?oody noses
that make the sport what it is.
*People ask gow you can go back to it after you've
been away for a year or two,”” Hill said. *‘But a real, true
professional never forgets what he's learned.”
WAR BUCKS FOR THE ROAD
. Starbuck said that Bad Company was so good at one
time he could have made $1,300 a week. But he had to
agree to go on the road for months at a time, and he was
not willing to do that. He would have been away from his
wife and his son, who is now 12, for too long he said.
T was told that if I would get on the ‘gas’ that in a
year-and-a-half I'd be able to wrestle anyone, anywhere,
and hold any belt I wanted. I had the ability and I need
ed size,”" Starbuck said.
“*Gas" is steroids.
“These guys on steroids blow up (lose their breath)
from loosening their boots after they've been on the ‘gas.’
Steroids can gestroy you, so I went the natural way."”
PURISTS AT HEART
Hill concurred. “*You've got to do it the way we did it,
on pure wrestling ability. You've got to learn f)l"om the
pros, and listen to the pros. Then you can get better. If
y((i)u have a know-it-all attitude you'll get your butt kick
ed.
Starbuck gleefully recounts the story of one hot-shot
who received a hot-shot's comeuppance. A very successful
college wrestler wanted an opportunity to ‘‘rassle.” He
went to a gym in Atlanta, strutted his stuff and declared
he could beat anyone who worked out there. When they
finally gave him a chance, he was trounced.
“There was a guy named ‘The Iron Sheet’ who
represented Iran in the Olympics in the 19605. But he
was really from Czechoslovakia,” Starbuck said. **He slop
ed on the mat and told the college kid to roll him over.
}f‘he Sheet weighed 250, and the kid about 160. He
couldn’t do it. The Sheet whipped him and two other guys
see CHATTOOGANS, page 6-B
five events, including the soft
ball throw, standing long jump,
50-meter dash, 100-meter dasfi.
and the 200-meter dash.
STATE OLYMPICS
In May, an estimated 2,000
participants will take part in
the Georgia Special Olympics
1-B
Summer Games in Atlanta, at
Emory University. The state
meet is scheduled for May
26-28.
Nine contest areas will be
held, including track and field,
swimming and diving, cyclin%,
gymnastics, soccer, softball
see SPECIAL, page 6-B
Features/News l
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MARC HILL, JR. (L) GETS A WRESTLING MASK
While Marce Hill, Far Right, Gets Dirty White Boy
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BAMBI'S HURT — CROWD IS CONCERNED
Came Back To Defeat Peggy Lee Leather
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CROWD DEMANDS BETTER FROM REFEREE
Referees Took A Beating, Too
Historian: Chattooga County’s
‘Factions’ Started Long Ago
By RICH JEFFERSON
Staff Writer
*
The history of Chattooga
County is one of missed oppor
tunities, Robert S. Baker told
the Summerville-Trion Op
timist Club Friday. Since the
end of the Civil War the coun
ty has been divided by “‘warr
ing factions," he said.
Baker has been gone from
his native Chattooga County
for 20 years. He is the coor
dinator of comprehensive train
ing for the Georgia Depart
ment of Natural Resources,
and a 1946 graduate of the old
Summerville High School. He
researched and wrote “"Chat
tooga County: The Story of a
County And Its People,”” which
was gublished in 1988.
“Chattooga County was
settled by poor folks, and
slavery wasn't a big issue here
because no one could afford
slaves. There were a number in
the county who admitted to be
ing Northern sympathizers.
Chattooga County voted
against seceding, but eventual
ly.(;vent with the state,” he
said.
SOUTHERN VETS
The war brought great
devastation to the South, but
what happened in Chattooga
County after the war may have
been worse. Angry Confederate
veterans returned to find their
farms in desperate disrepair,
and the Confederate currency
in which they had been paid
was worthless.
“Chattooga County was as
wild as Dodge City ever
thought about being,” Baker
said. In spite of these veterans,
many Chattoogans made no at
tempts to hide their feelings
when Union soldiers came
through the county.
“I'm with you boys,"" some
told the menin blue. **l was on
your side.”” For at least one
man, allegiance to the Union
may have saved the county
economically while paving the
way for his demise in 1875.
UNION MAN
A. P. Allgood, owner of the
Trion Company, now known as
the Riegel Textile Division of
Mount Vernon Mills, was such
a Union supporter that Union
troops were stationed as
fzuards at the mill to protect it
rom Confederate reprisals.
Allgood even testified after the
war in an Atlanta court that
his mill was not burned
because he supported the
Union cause.
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Staff Photo By Rich Jefferson
808 BAKER, LEFT, STAN BURRAGE'S GUEST
Baker Wrote A History Of Chattooga
Ninety-five percent of the
cotton mills in Georgia were
burned by Northern troops,
see HISTORIAN, page 6-B