SPORTS FLASHBACK 1980: SPORTOPICS – Bring on the wrestlers

The shiners Jim Cole and Farley Fries were sporting following the CASH League semi-finals will be forgotten long before next season. I don’t think the same can be said of the black eye Steinbach received, compliments of a few misguided Huskies’ fans.

The season officially ended at the arena Sunday night when the Huskies lost out in their bid to repeat last year’s heroics, when they won the CASH League championship and went on to reach the finals of the Allan Cup.

I have always been quick to criticize hockey fans who carry their grudges beyond the arena. Usually, I’ve been pointing the finger at other communities. This time, it’s my own.

Huskies fans (very few, thank goodness) have turned mean. There have been complaints from out-of-town fans, who can’t believe the language they are subjected to in the stands. There are a bunch of fans (?) at the end of the rink shouting insults through the screen at opposition players, or when that fails to get a reaction, spitting at anyone who skates into their range. There have been fights in the stands.

And after the series was over and Warroad was headed for the CASH finals, fans let the air out of the tires of the Lakers van.

I’m glad the Huskies’ season is over. I don’t like to think what could have happened if the series had gone back to Warroad.

I never thought the day would come that I would look forward to covering wrestling matches at the Steinbach Arena rather than hockey games.

I am happy the town has found a way to provide a rent-paying venue for the early off-season and now I guess I’ll have to bone up on the good guys and bad guys of ‘Wrestlemania’. I didn’t know if the picture the wrestling promoter sent me this week was Jesse (The Body) Ventura or Adrian (Golden Boy) Adonis, or Dino Bravo or Steve Olsonoski or Super Destroyer, Mark III or Mark II, Matthew Burns.

I did know it was not either of the Banman brothers or Bobby (The Brain) Heenan. The Banman brothers from Elm Creek aren’t that large and I met Heenan on an airplane once, while on my way to Minneapolis for a baseball weekend.

All-star wrestlers always struck me as having just a little too much paunch to be considered seriously as professional athletes and I spend little time covering their “sport”. Looking at the photo of Jesse (The Body) Ventura, I may have to adjust my thinking.

I must admit that professional wrestlers are not my most favorite people, but I am sure I’m in the minority. The promoters keep bringing them back to the Steinbach Arena. Somehow, they manage to outdraw hockey.

By 1979, the popular outdoor wrestling matches on July 1 were a thing of the past, but promotors were confident that by bringing out some of the greatest wrestlers in the world for an April 9, 1980 card they could expect a crowd even larger than the one that took in the matches during the spring of 1968 when the Steinbach Arena was brand new. They were right.

50-YEAR UPDATE

And now, nearly five decades later there is no question that Jesse (The Body) Ventura, for one, thoroughly enjoyed his many trips to Manitoba, during his lengthy wrestling career and his four years as the Governor of Minnesota.

During his time as governor (1999-2003) Ventura engaged in active cross-border relations, including meeting with Manitoba Premier Gary Doer in 2001 to discuss flood mitigation and trade.

In January, 2026 Ventura has suggested Minnesota should secede from the United States and join Canada, referring to a combined region as ‘Minnetoba’.

Following federal immigration agent deployments in Minneapolis, Ventura argued on a podcast that Minnesota should become Canada’s 11th province to avoid further conflict with the U.S. administration, stating. “I’d like to see all of us become Canadians”.