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Captain Lou Albano Stories & Memories Batch #2: Albano in church, Feud against Bobby Heenan, Albano vs. Blassie boxing match Oct 14, 2009 - 4:47:37 PM
We asked Torch readers to submit their most memorable memory or story of Captain Lou Albano after his death this morning. Following is the second batch of Reax from Torch readers. Submit your memory or story to pwtorch@gmail.com.
-- Jason Barrett, Torch reader: I was born and raised in Carmel, Captain Lou's hometown and grew up with his grandchildren. Being a big wrestling fan, I loved seeing him around town, but his presence outside of wrestling was what he should be most admired for.
We used to attend the same church service, and I always remember looking back and seeing him standing in the back. He never sat down in this crowded church because you could tell he would rather have a small child or elderly person have a rest. This was especially impressive as he got older and his body was breaking down. Many a Sunday, I saw him hunched over in the back of that church, refusing to sit.
I also remember at the height of his Super Mario days spearheading a community wide fundraiser to help our school build us a playground. Anyone from Carmel remembers filling milk gallon containers with pennies and then dropping them into a big pile at the school. That was all because Capt. Lou visited each of our classes and got us young children excited about fundraising for the community. What a great guy, he will be missed.
-- Efren Bojorquez of Phoenix, Ariz.: While Lou Albano's dive from the shot he took from Roddy Piper before WrestleMania was entertaining, I remember an episode of Superstars where Hillbilly Jim decided to give his "Manager of the Year" votes to him, thereby screwing over Bobby Heenan. King Kong Bundy went on to splash Hillbilly and cleaned house on Albano, but for the next several months Heenan would grab Howard Finkel's microphone when introduced and say, "Manager of the Year!" Being around six, I would scream at the TV "the Captain is the REAL Manager of the Year! Go home, Weasel!"
Albano always took a few seconds out of every interview to tell the fans thank you for coming, we appreciate you being out there. I always thought that was classy. He will FOREVER be remembered in the mainstream for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," but the crazy skits on "Tuesday Night Titans" and his celebratory "I can't believe it!" after the British Bulldogs won the Tag Titles at WrestleMania 2 always made Lou Albano a pleasure to watch.
-- Tom Ferreira of No. Conway, N.H.: When I was a kid, my aunt took me to Jack Witschi's in North Attleboro, Mass. almost every Friday night. Before the national expansion, in fact when it was still known as WWWF, Witschi's ran a house show every Friday night (except for the one week a month when they ran the Providence Civic Center). With the exception of Bruno and Dusty, every major star of the day appeared there, but the managers never appeared.
One week, late in his in ring career, Fred Blassie was working a match against and destroying a jobber - I want to say it was Frankie Williams. Out of the dressing room area ran Albano, who laid a few kicks into the jobber and starting yelling at Blassie. A few blows were exchanged, and a match was booked for the following week - Blassie vs. Albano in a boxing match.
Albano was seconded by Mike McCord (Austin Idol), and Blassie by Blackjack Lanza. It didn't last long. Off came the gloves and Blassie chomped down on the forehead of Albano. He wore the crimson mask big time. That was the biggest 'angle' ever worked at Witschi's, and it's still memorable 30+ years later. I did get to meet Albano many years later, and he was a great guy. I wish I'd asked him about that boxing match...
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