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| REST IN PEACE, ROCKY MCGUIRE
– Dick Steinborn April 18, 2008 Through a phone call from Bill Bowman, who in turn received a message from Ken Lucas, I learned that former wrestling promoter Rocky McGuire passed away on April 16, 2008. For years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Rocky handled the eastern portion of Lee Fields’ Gulf Coast territory. It was Thursday night at Panama City, Florida, in an open air arena. Friday night was Dothan, Alabama, at the Farm Center, and Saturday night in a small town called Quincy, Florida. At that time I was helping my father to promote the few towns that he had control of in Florida; Orlando on Monday, occasionally Leesburg and Ocala on Saturday, and on Wednesday Eau Gallie, Florida. After these shows I was kind of bored and called Rocky to make those three day commitments in his territory. After appearing in the big cities, especially in New York where I was privileged to rub shoulders with some of the greatest performers that the business had ever known, I now was headed for Alabama to a different kind of talent. In the south the bodies were not too big, but the reputation was strong. I was surprised to see great talent performed by Dick Dunn, who had buggy whip arms, Don Carson, who knew little about wrestling but a lot about talking on TV, and Bob Kelly and Ken Lucas were extremely good performers. McGuire was good on the mic and knew how to keep the boys happy. He was a first class promoter who drew some record crowds in that Dothan Farm Center. He will be surely missed and remembered by a lot of the boys. |
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