Earlier this month, my wife and I once again ventured out to the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky to traverse the route of the World’s Longest Yard Sale on Highway 127. We don’t go every year, but over the past 15 years, we’ve likely done it a dozen times. You never know what you’re going to find or, for that matter, whether you’ll find anything at all but as they say, it’s the journey, not the destination. For a paper guy like me, the fact that it rained pretty steadily all day Thursday dampened my prospects. However, at a stop near Jamestown, Tennessee, I managed to find one brave dealer selling paper; photos in particular.
Of course, everything came with a story. What caught my eye was a stack of vintage promo photos of old country-western stars, Hank Williams, Sr., Roy Acuff, Red Foley, and Hank Snow among them. The dealer informed me that they came from the “estate” of a long-time Nashville area show promoter who worked the bars and honky-tonks during those early years of country music and later graduated to promoting pro wrestling matches. “I sold most of the wrestling stuff, but I do have these,” he said as he produced two ancient, poorly framed photographs of Indiana’s own Dick the Bruiser himself. “These originally hung right behind the Bruiser’s desk in his office for years right up until he moved to Florida,” the huckster said. “This was his favorite photo of him and his wife. He signed it too.”
Sure enough, there he was, Dick the Bruiser himself, cigar plugged in his grimacing mouth while holding his bikini-clad wife in the air in one of his massive arms. The photo is signed “Dick + Rea Bruiser + wife.” The other photo pictures the bare-chested, burr-headed Bruiser in a grizzly bear pose ready to punish any opponent who dared face him in the ring. Needless to say, those photos went back to Indiana with me. Like many a Circle City kid, I grew up watching Dick the Bruiser every Saturday on local TV. Good Bruiser, Bad Bruiser, Tag-team, solo, champ, and contender, I saw all of his ring personalities. But what I remember most, which won’t surprise my regular readers, is the way Dick the Bruiser died.
William Fritz Afflis was born June 27, 1929, in Delphi, Indiana. Afflis moved to Indianapolis when his mother got a job here during World War II. He played football during his freshman and sophomore years at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis. When the war ended, his mother lost her job and the family moved back to Delphi. But the local high school didn’t have a football team, so the teen-aged Afflis moved to the YMCA in nearby Lafayette so that he could attend Lafayette Jefferson High School to play football and wrestle. Living at the YMCA gave him full access to a gym 24-7, and soon, Afflis became one of the Hoosier state’s earliest proponents of bodybuilding. In time, Afflis built himself into a one-man juggernaut: 6’1” 261 pounds with a 52-inch barrel chest and 30-inch tapered waist.
In college, Afflis moved around a lot. He passed through Alabama (he didn’t last a month), Miami (where he was caught working as a bookie), and Notre Dame (where he lasted only a couple of weeks). He played varsity football for both Purdue University (he left after bashing his offensive line coach over the head with his helmet) and the University of Nevada, Reno (where he moonlighted as a bouncer at a Reno nightclub).
Afflis was the 186th overall pick of the Green Bay Packers in the 16th round of the 1951 NFL draft. Legend states that Afflis arrived in Green Bay for his first training camp packing two .45s in shoulder holsters; holdovers from his bouncer’s job. He was reportedly asked to check them at the Northland Hotel front desk. From 1951 to 1954, he played in all 48 regular season games (starter for 34) as a lineman (Guard/Tackle/Defensive Guard) for a Packers team that never finished better than fourth place. During his final season in Green Bay, Aflis was kicked in the throat by an opposing player, which damaged his esophagus and left him with that distinct raspy voice he became so associated with for the rest of his life.
In 1954 Afflis began to look for supplemental income during the off-season. So he headed to Chicago and became one of the first to train under the legendary ten-time AWA World Heavyweight Champion, Verne Gagne. Within a year he was facing Gagne and fourteen-time World Champion, Lou Thesz in the ring. After he discovered he could make more money (and avoid serious injury) in professional wrestling, Dick The Bruiser was born. Through the late 1950s, the Bruiser wrestled live every Thursday on TV in the Detroit area, often cast as the “bad guy,” he would pulverize anyone who dared challenge him. His only defeat on live TV was at the hands of “Cowboy” Bob Ellis. Bruiser would avenge that loss in two victorious rematches with Ellis at the Olympia in Detroit.
In 1963, Dick the Bruiser gained an even worse reputation when he was involved in a fracas with a fellow Hoosier: Alex Karras. The 6’ 2” 248 pound Gary, Indiana native played defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions (and later starred in ‘Blazing Saddles’ and the TV series Webster). On January 7, 1963, Karras was suspended (along with former Notre Dame star Paul Hornung) by the NFL after admitting to placing bets on NFL games and for his ownership share in Detroit’s Lindell AC Bar, which reportedly had ties to gambling and organized crime. After threatening to retire rather than give up the bar ownership, Karras turned to pro wrestling and arranged for a bout with Dick the Bruiser.
In the early morning of April 23, 1963, Bruiser was supposed to “stage” a brawl with Karras at Lindell’s Bar. Unaware the event was staged, one of the bar’s hangers-on attacked the Bruiser from behind. Bruiser proceeded to destroy the bar as well as several police officers who showed up to the melee; there were reportedly over 300 people hurt. Bruiser was swinging a pool cue, and it took eight policemen to subdue him, dragging Dick out with hands and feet bound. One policeman’s wrist was broken in the scuffle, and Dick took a thumb to the eye. In the end, he was charged with aggravated assault and had to cover $50,000 in damages for two policemen that he injured during the brawl. The match itself was held at the Olympia in Detroit, and the Bruiser ultimately won.
Dick the Bruiser went on to a hugely successful professional wrestling career and gained the nickname “The World’s Most Dangerous Wrestler.” From 1954 to 1989, Bruiser was a fifteen-time world champion, holding the AWA World Heavyweight Championship once, the WWA World Heavyweight Championship (Indianapolis version) thirteen times, and the WWA World Heavyweight Championship (Los Angeles version) once. He also excelled at Tag-Team wrestling, winning 20 Tag Team championships, the AWA tag team championship five times, and the WWA tag team championship a record 15 times in his career. Eleven of these championships were won alongside his long-time Tag-Team partner Crusher Lisowski. He was famous for his feuds with wrestling legends like Lou Thesz, Bobo Brazil, Angelo Poffo, and “Classie” Freddie Blassie. He was posthumously inducted into the International Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005 and the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.
Despite his notoriety, the gravelly-voiced, tough guy was a hero in the Indianapolis area, making his home on the northwest side of the city. Indianapolis native David Letterman, who often said, “You didn’t get more famous in the Midwest than Dick the Bruiser,” named his TV show’s band The World’s Most Dangerous Band as a tip of the cap to the Bruiser. After retiring, the Bruiser acted as a color commentator for the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW), as a talent agent for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and as the special guest referee at the Starrcade 1990 main event between Sting and the Black Scorpion. Like many Hoosiers, Bruiser spent his winters as a snowbird in Tampa, Florida.
Although the Bruiser retired from wrestling, he maintained a robust workout regimen, lifting weights and performing calisthenics daily. On the morning of November 10, 1991, during a weight lifting session with his adopted son Jon Carney at his Florida winter home, the Bruiser ruptured a blood vessel in his esophagus. He was rushed to Suncoast Hospital in Largo, Florida where a spokesman cited the cause of death as internal bleeding. The Bruiser was 62 years old. He is buried in the Garden of Resurrection Mausoleum at Washington Park North Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.
My dad, Robert Eugene Hunter (1936-1997) was an Arsenal Tech graduate and pro wrestling fan. I know of no connection between my dad and Dick the Bruiser (although my sister Sheree swears that the Bruiser once visited our house near 38th Street back in the day) other than both wrestled and played football. The Bruiser’s death was ultimately caused by that throat kick he received back in the 1950s as a Packers player. My dad nearly died from a migratory blood clot caused by injuries received during his football days at Tech. I distinctly remember visiting him at Community East back in 1984 when the outcome was bleak at best. When the Bruiser passed 7 years later, I couldn’t help but think back on my dad and his near-fatal football injury from decades before. Funny how things like that happen. Memories trigger memories. I expect they always will.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
