Don Fargo

The 1958-59 season of Big Time Wrestling was beginning at the Flint Arena. Promoter Leo Donoghue was continuing to bring in talent from all over the globe. He had in his arsenal of performers midgets, girls, masked men, and a fire-throwing maniac named The Sheik.

It seemed like the crowds were getting bigger and bigger each week as more great talent was coming to Flint. About this time, two young muscle-bound athletes made their debut in the Midwest. They claimed to be "Mr. America's" and had the bodies to prove that point. Eric Peddersen had the best abdominal group since the days of Pepper Gomez. He was teamed up with Don Fargo, a fantastic mat technician and veteran that had copied his portfolio from the late Buddy "Nature Boy" Rogers, right down to the long blond hair and the famous strut. He could incite a riot with just that one move and often did.

Don was a consummate athlete that worked out at a gymnasium every other day at 7 a.m. If he had gotten in off the road at 4 a.m., he was at the gym at 7. He trained very hard and with extremely heavy weights to maintain the "Mr. America" build that the name gave him. He also dieted and used no steroids or drugs to get his body the way it was.

They, as a team, whipped almost every pairing that Leo Donoghue put together until he put them against a newcomer by the name of Gino Brito and Dick "Mr. Michigan" Garza at an all-star event at the I.M.A. Auditorium (a much bigger arena) in the main event.

Gino Brito was the son of matchmaker Jack Britton from Montreal, who was in the area working out of the Detroit office. He was only 19, but you could see that he had been preparing for this venture for a number of years. Of course, he grew up going to the matches with his dad and learned a lot of skills from the various matches he watched.

Dick Garza, who was knocked out of the Mr. Universe contest because of his huge arms (22"), had been a star in the Great Lakes Area for a number of years. He was a big headliner at a lot of the cards at the Flint Arena, meeting a lot of the bad boys of that era, men like The Sheik, Dynamite John Gates, Steve Zold, The Mighty Thor, Ricky Cortez, Martino Angelo, La Bestia, and Paul Degalles, just to name a few.

The bell rang for the main event, and from behind the curtain came Brito and Garza. The fans went absolutely wild and cheered their hearts out. Kids ran up to ringside to get their autographs and to shake hands. Dick had on a new leather and satin ring coat that was bedecked with rhinestones and sequins. Every time he moved his arms to get another booklet to sign, he nearly blinded you. Gino had on a beautiful dark blue jacket with the flag of Quebec on one shoulder and the U.S. flag on the other. The name "Gino" was done in gold sequins on the back. They were both examples of what the greatest in our sport should look like going to the ring.

From the stage area came the catcalls, the boos, and name calling, as The Mr. America's made their way towards the ring. They were surrounded by some of Flint's men in blue. One old female fan even tried to hit Don with her umbrella and was sat down by the police. Entering the ring, they both wore identical ring outfits--one-shoulder strapped trunks with matching capes made of the most beautiful brocaded material that could be found, topped off with gold and silver sequins. They also wore glove-like arm covers that went up to the elbows; those also had sequins on them. I often wondered who was the designer that created those outfits; he must have been a well-known artist. The match finally got underway, and Don Fargo and Dick Garza went at it in a show of strength. Top wristlocks … hammerlocks … knuckle locks … none seemed to be the winning hold until Don tagged in Eric, and he grabbed Gino Brito in a bearhug and proceeded to squeeze the life out of him. Gino never gave up, but he collapsed and was pinned by Peddersen to win the first fall.

Gino regained his composure and started the second fall of the match and dropkicked his opponents (both of them) into oblivion and gained the second fall. He was very light on his feet and agile for his size.

The third fall started out very slowly, as neither Don nor Eric wanted anything more to do with the dropkick antics of Gino Brito. They finally talked Gino into getting Garza into the ring and were kicking the beegeebers out of him when, suddenly, he had a burst of energy hit him, and he grabbed Eric in a full Nelson and was swinging him all over the ring.

Eric was screaming like nothing I had ever heard before when Don came up behind Garza and hit him in the back of the neck with a rabbit punch and caused him to drop Eric. The ref stopped the match and disqualified Fargo and awarded the match to Gino and Dick. The fans went home happy, and The Mr. America's went home with the short end of the prize money.

Garza and Brito won the battle but didn't win the war--the two teams met a number of times after that, with both teams getting victories over each other.

Ahhhhhh … those were the days...

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers