# Reggie Lisowski



## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Any other "old timers" here like me who remember Reggie?

Known by his stage name...."The Crusher"

Reggie died recently at the age of 79.My all time favorite wrestler along with his cousin...."Dick the Bruiser."

When I was a kid my dad was the head custodian at my school.The Crusher came to the Carver County Fair and they changed in the HS locker rooms.I got to ride with them to the fair.....A really nice guy along with ..."Maddog Vashon."

He used to come out for an interview with a beer keg on his shoulder and smash beer cans on his forehead.The Crusher and Bruiser claimed they would do their running with a full keg of beer on their shoulders....stop and drink it and then run back.

I have fond memmories of my grandmother yelling at the TV back in the late 50's,early 60's.She swore up and down it was real.

Some others from back then....Vern Gagne,Pretty Boy Larry Henning,Haystack Calhoun,Bobby "The Brain" Heenon,Sargent Slaughter and little Marty O'Neil doing the interviews.


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

Ken, Thanks for the memmories, my grandma was the same she used to get so watching. It was a blast to go to grandmas and watch wrestling.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

G/O....every Saturday night!!


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## Ripline (Jan 10, 2003)

The Crusher will be missed. In my youth, I worked summers and weekends in a lumber yard in South Milwaukee and the Crusher would stop in on a regular basis to chew the fat with the owner. It was amazing how short and stocky he was. A really nice no nonsense guy!!


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## 4CurlRedleg (Aug 31, 2003)

I don't go back as far as Ken, but I do remember Maddog Vashon, Wahoo McDaniel, Dr. X and the Anderson brothers.

Can't tell you how many times my brother and I got our butts chewed for staying up Saturday nights "watching that garbage", as my mother so eloquently put it.


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## Springer (Dec 21, 2004)

KFan interviewed Baron "The Claw" VonRaschke last week one day about the Crusher. The Claw is living in the Cities now.

I remember on Sundays going to church then going to Fargo to eat out and then to watch wrestling. It seemed like they were there all the time. That was back in the early eighties.


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

One of my professors in Optometry school had a picture of the Crusher on her wall. Turns out the guy was her uncle. Poor gal was kinda built like him too!!!!!


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)




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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Showman leaves the ring 
The Crusher's villain act won over fans
By MIKE JOHNSON
[email protected]
Posted: Oct. 23, 2005
An icon in professional wrestling circles who was considered a man of the people because of his blue-collar Milwaukee roots, Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski has died, losing his final bout to a non-cancerous brain tumor, his son said.

The Crusher

I think the working people identify with me, because years ago I worked when I wrestled, too.

- Reggie "Da Crusher" Lisowski

He worked out on his last day. That's how he wanted to go.

- David Lisowski, his son

Lisowski, 79, died Saturday night, having never fully recovered from surgeries to remove the tumor at the base of his brain stem, David Lisowski said Sunday.

The two surgeries affected The Crusher's ability to swallow and left him partially paralyzed. The brawny brawler had to be fed through a feeding tube for several months.

But the operations never crushed Lisowski's spirit, David Lisowski said.

Through it all, the Crusher kept on working out.

"He worked out on his last day. That's how he wanted to go," said David Lisowski, of Delafield. "He did concentration curls and triceps work. He just had to work out every day. . . . In his mind, he never thought he was old."

Lisowski, who played fullback for South Milwaukee High School, learned to wrestle while in the Army in Germany during World War II, old newspaper stories about him say.

The Crusher came back from the war and played semi-pro football, his son said.

Then one night, Lisowski, went to a carnival in town. There, someone had set up a ring and was urging people to step up. If you could beat the guy in the ring, you would get a $1.

"Well, he stepped into the ring and beat him, and he got a buck," David Lisowski said. "He did this for a couple of days and beat everybody. That's how he got interested in wrestling."

From there, he learned that some wrestlers worked out at the Eagles Club, so he joined. Eventually, he hooked up with a Chicago promoter, who got Lisowski matches at a small armory in Chicago, where the wrestler earned $5 a night.

In Chicago, Lisowski drew the attention of a promoter who booked wrestlers from all over the nation. That promoter, according the news reports, put Lisowski on national television and took him on the road. At one point, according to a 1952 news article, Lisowski drew 8,000 people to a bout in Buffalo, N.Y.

Lisowski and his family lived for a time in Canada and in Texas while he pursued wrestling full time, David Lisowski said. Eventually, they returned to the Midwest and Wisconsin, where the cigar-chomping, beer-drinking Crusher quickly became the people's favorite.

"The Crusher was a mainstay in professional wrestling for so long," promoter Frank DeFalco said of Lisowski's more than 30-year career, which spanned from the 1950s to the 1970s. "He sold out the Milwaukee Auditorium and Arena on a number of occasions."

A promoter along the way once said of Lisowski that the wrestler "just crushes everybody," David Lisowski noted, and that's how the name "The Crusher" began.

Though he began his career as a bad guy, people took to the barrel-chested wrestler. "He never really changed his style. He was a villain, but for some reason people started liking him more," David Lisowski said.

DeFalco says that was because The Crusher was just a good "old-fashioned wrestler."

In 1985, a reporter asked The Crusher why he was so popular in Milwaukee. "I think the working people identify with me, because years ago I worked when I wrestled, too. I worked in a packing house. I worked at Ladish, Drop Forge, Cudahy Packing House. I was a bricklayer. But finally, I got away from punching the clock," he said.

The flamboyant American Wrestling Association brawler became known as "the wrestler who made Milwaukee famous."

Some of the ads promoting wrestling, might have helped, too. DeFalco remembers one in which The Crusher had a barrel of beer on his shoulder and said he was going to kick "The Weasel's" butt all over Milwaukee and then "we'll have a party, take all the dollies down Wisconsin Avenue and go dancing." The Crusher was referring to Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
In another commercial, The Crusher bent a tire in half. "Not many people can do that," David Lisowski said.

The Crusher teamed up with William "Dick The Bruiser" Afflis and won a number of tag-team titles.

Lisowski also participated in what people said was the first cage match ever, in which The Crusher took on Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon. At one point, Vachon was kicking The Crusher, and "some woman was climbing the cage to save The Crusher," DeFalco said.

David Lisowski said his dad won the battle - Mad Dog ended up in the hospital, but The Crusher was a mess, too. "He came out really beat up. His head was cut up. He had a busted eardrum. The whole right side of his body was bruised. But the next day, he went to Green Bay to wrestle," David Lisowski said.

In 1985, The Crusher, still a favorite son, battled seven others for a different title - best amateur conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Billed as the "Battle of the Batons," The Crusher took third.

Although flamboyant, The Crusher took professional wrestling seriously.

In 2001, after fellow wrestler Jack Wilson died, a Wisconsin Public Television reporter wanted Lisowski's number to interview the wrestler for a special on professional wrestling.

The Crusher wanted no part of it.

"People make a joke out of it," he said of wrestling. "But it wasn't a joke to me. It was a living."


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

My kind of guy....an everyday american doing his job.....no pretenses,no steroids.

Here's one for the Crusher...... :beer:


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Aldo Boggne, Texas Bob Giggel, oh yeah.


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## 4CurlRedleg (Aug 31, 2003)

KEN W said:


>


Yep, watched him wrestle in Minot many many years ago!!


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## Ref (Jul 21, 2003)

Baron Van Roscke used to live in Lake George, Mn. He and his wife ran a little shop there. THey sold that shop a couple of years ago. "The Claw" would come into school and substitue teach quite often in our high school in Park Rapids. I had lunch with him several times. He is a very nice, quiet, gentle man. Not at all like his wrestling image.


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

Abot three years ago at the RRV fair, Mad Dog Vachon had a small booth there selling some trinkets and crap. I acyually stopped and talked with hima bit. He had an amputated leg due to diabetes. I felt pretty bad for him. Kind of pitiful if you ask me.


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

Ref said:


> Baron Van Roscke used to live in Lake George, Mn. He and his wife ran a little shop there. THey sold that shop a couple of years ago. "The Claw" would come into school and substitue teach quite often in our high school in Park Rapids. I had lunch with him several times. He is a very nice, quiet, gentle man. Not at all like his wrestling image.


He moved to Two Harbors,MN where he has a pie shop.


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## Herman (Aug 19, 2010)

I met Reggie Lisowski in South Mke in the spring of 1996? 1995?

He was getting his hair cut at his favorite Barber.

I almost didnt recognize him, but I took a second look and noticed his massive arms and Shoulders. ( He was a big Boy!)
I heard the Barber then say, "See you later Reggie".. and sure enough all the memorys clicked and I very humbly met him outside the Barber shop ( I went back out side to see if I could at least get a hand shake..) I told him he did a great job of Wraslin/ them turkey necks and My father and I enjoyed his style and 'penash' in the ring. He gave me a nice grin and said thankyou, and slowly went back to his walk home.

Some of the guys in the Barber shop said I see you met "Da CRUSHER".. 
I was a happy man that day.


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## MSG Rude (Oct 6, 2003)

It oo remember the old days. I remember them coming to my school also and getting to meet them as we were in the same locker room changing from a football game that night.

Jumping Jimmy Brunzel (Greg Gagnes partner in the Beez)

Rock-N-Roll Buck Zomhoff (Now does midget wrestling)

the Sheik

there are so many Thanksgiving memories watching them guys. I remember when 'Mean Jean Okerlund' got that knickname from Hulk Hogan.

Oh the good ol days.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

I get to see Buck Zumhoff every once in awhile.He graduated from high school with my wife at Norwood/Young America.


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## 1lessdog (Feb 4, 2004)

Now how could we forget " George Scrapiron Kadaski" Never won a match that I remember. But had alot of entertainment values


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

He was always the sacrificial victim. :thumb:


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## speckline (Dec 13, 2008)

Don't forget Kenny Jay!
One of the best matches I saw was when they had the battle of the losers. George Scrap iron Gadaski vs. Kenny Jay. The match ended in a draw due to time expiring! :beer:


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## TK33 (Aug 12, 2008)

Baron the Claw Von Raschke. Probably butchered the spelling but oh well.

Rick Flair I think set the stage for guys like The Rock and others.


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## scott (Oct 11, 2002)

I went to a wrestling match at the Fergus Falls MN community college when I was in the fourth grade many many years ago. I watched the Baron put Gerry Blackwell AKA "WoodTick" out with his signature move. Definately a great memory from when I was a kid. I cant even watch the stuff now.


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