Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
Name	Verne Gagne
Names	Verne Gagne
Height
Weight
Birth date	February 26, 1926
Birth place	Robbinsdale, Minnesota, U.S.
Trainer	Tony StecherJoe Pazandak
Debut	May 3, 1949
Retired	1981 }}

Laverne Clarence "Verne" Gagne (born February 26, 1926), is a retired American professional wrestler, football player, and professional wrestling trainer and promoter. He was the former owner/promoter of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which was the predominant promotion throughout the Midwest and Manitoba for many years. He remained in this position until 1991, when the company folded.

Gagne is a 16-time world heavyweight champion, having held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship 10-times, the World Heavyweight Championship (Omaha version) 5-times, and the IWA World Heavyweight Championship once. Gagne holds the record for the most combined days as a world champion and is third behind Bruno Sammartino and Lou Thesz for the longest single world title reign. He is one of six men inducted into each of the WWE Hall of Fame, the WCW Hall of Fame, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.

Early life

Verne Clarence Gagne grew up on a farm in Corcoran, Minnesota. He left home at the age of 14 after his mother died. Verne went to Robbinsdale High School and excelled in football, baseball and wrestling, winning district, regional and state championships in high school wrestling, as well as being named to the All-State Football Team. In 1943, Gagne was recruited to play football at the University of Minnesota, where he was named to the All-Conference Team. After one year of college, he enlisted with the United States Marine Corps. Gagne chose to return to the University of Minnesota, where, as an amateur wrestler, he captured two NCAA titles. He was also an alternate for the U.S freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games; he later said that he might have wrestled in the Olympics, but his coaches had discovered that he had earned money winning a wrestling match at a carnival, thus putting his amateur standing in question.

National Football League

Gagne joined the National Football League (NFL) soon after by being drafted in the 16th round (145th pick) of the 1947 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears.

Professional wrestling career

National Wrestling Alliance

In 1949, Gagne decided to wrestle professionally, starting his career in Texas. In his debut, he defeated Abe Kashey, with former World Heavyweight boxing Champion Jack Dempsey as the referee. On November 13, 1950, Gagne captured the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Junior Heavyweight title in a tournament for the vacant championship.

In September 1953, Gagne won the Chicago version of the NWA United States Championship. Gagne became one of the most well-known stars in wrestling during the golden age of television, thanks to his exposure on the Dumont Network, where he wowed audiences with his technical prowess. He was rumored to be one of the highest paid wrestlers during the 1950s, reportedly earning a hundred thousand dollars a year.

Gagne and his supporters lobbied for him to become NWA World Champion in the 1950s but this did not happen for various reasons due to the politics of the NWA. Gagne was eventually recognized as NWA Champion by some NWA territories through a series of events that occurred in the late 1950s.

On June 14, 1957, Edouard Carpentier defeated NWA Champion Lou Thesz in Chicago. The NWA later overruled the decision of the referee in Chicago and gave the title back to Thesz. However, certain wrestling territories of the NWA including Nebraska refused to go along with the decision and continued to recognize Carpentier. Carpentier lost his title to Gagne in Omaha on August 9, 1958, making him the recognized NWA World champion in the NWA territories that had recognized Carpentier. Gagne held this disputed version of the NWA World title until the formation of the AWA in 1960.

American Wrestling Association

In 1960, Gagne formed his own promotion, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), instantly becoming its top star. That same year, Gagne was awarded the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, after Pat O'Connor failed to defend the title against the number one contender, Gagne. O'Connor had been the reigning NWA World champion and was given the AWA World Title by Gagne (although O'Connor and the NWA refused to acknowledge it) and was advised by the new AWA to grant Gagne a title match within 90 days or else the AWA would declare Gagne the new AWA World champion. Gagne would go on to become a nine-time AWA World Champion (some sources say ten), a record for the promotion. He also had one of the longest World Title reigns in wrestling history, holding the AWA Title from August 31, 1968 until November 8, 1975, a total of 7 years 3 months, when he finally lost the belt to Nick Bockwinkel, this reign was the third longest world title reign in history. As well as being the company's owner, Gagne would also train wrestlers from his farm in Chanhassen as well.

Some of Gagne's biggest feuds were against Gene Kiniski, Dr. Bill Miller (under a mask both as Dr. X and then Mr. M), Fritz Von Erich, Dr. X ''(Dick Beyer)'', The Crusher ''(Reggie Lisowski)'', Ray Stevens, Mad Dog Vachon, Larry "The Ax" Hennig, and Nick Bockwinkel. He always wrestled as a face, and utilized the sleeper hold as his finisher.

As promoter of the AWA, Gagne was known for putting on an "old school" show. He sought out wrestlers with amateur backgrounds over the hulking brutes who dominated wrestling in the 1980s. This led to a problem with his biggest draw, Hulk Hogan, whom Gagne felt was not championship material, due to the fact that Hogan was a powerhouse wrestler and not a technical wrestler. Seeing Hogan as the company's top draw, Gagne did, however, let Hogan feud with Bockwinkel. Eventually, as noted on the 2006 ''Spectacular Legacy of AWA'' DVD, Gagne settled with making Hogan his champion after Hogan's feud with Bockwinkel ran its course in April 1983, but only under the condition that he would receive the bulk of the revenue Hogan made from both merchandise sales and his matches in Japan. Hogan refused. In late 1983, Hogan accepted an offer from Vincent K. McMahon to go to the WWF. The Iron Sheik has alleged that Verne Gagne offered him a cash bribe to inflict career threatening damage on Hogans knee after it became apparent that he was going to go to the WWF. This allegation was supported by Hogan during an A&E; biography interview

What followed was a purge of stars from various territories and promotions, including Gagne's AWA, by Vince McMahon, who wished to take his WWF "national" and do away with the traditional territorial system that dominated the North American Pro Wrestling landscape for years. The AWA suffered perhaps the most damage, losing nearly every one of its top stars in the mid to late 1980s. By 1991, the damage had been done, and the AWA shut down, after 30 years. Gagne would eventually end up in bankruptcy court.

Hall of Fame

In April 2006, Gagne was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his son, Greg Gagne. He is one of the few wrestlers to be in the WWE Hall of Fame, WCW Hall of Fame, Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, and Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame.

Later life

Gagne was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (or possibly chronic traumatic encephalopathy caused by a lifetime of head injuries.), and has been living in the memory-loss section of a Bloomington, Minnesota health care facility.

2009 altercation

On January 26, 2009, Gagne got into an altercation with Helmut Gutmann, a 97-year old resident of the facility, who fell and broke his hip. Helmut Gutmann was a cancer researcher and violinist, who fled Nazi Germany in 1936. According to Gutmann's widow, Gagne picked him up and hurled him violently to the floor, then pulling back on his body, thus breaking his hip. She was not present during the altercation, however, and Bloomington, Minnesota police chief Jeff Potts said ''"The attack -- which was not a wrestling body slam -- happened quickly while the men were at a table, Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts said. It was more like "a push and a shove" and it caused Gutmann to fall."''

Neither man had any recollection of the incident. Gutmann was admitted to the hospital, and died on February 14 from complications from the injury. On February 25, 2009, the man's death was officially ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County medical examiner's office. On March 12, 2009, the Hennepin County Prosecutor's office officially announced that Gagne will not be criminally charged as a result of the death. Because of Gagne's dementia, he lacked the mental capacity necessary to have intended to harm Gutmann.

Championships and accomplishments

Amateur wrestling

Amateur Athletic Union

*Northwestern AAU Championship (1942)

*National AAU Championship (1948, 1949)

Big Ten Conference

*Big Ten Conference Championship (1944, 1947, 1948)

'''Minnesota State High School League

*Minnesota State Championship (1943)

National Collegiate Athletic Association

*NCAA Championship (1948, 1949)

Olympic Games

Member of 1948 United States Olympic Team

Professional wrestling

'''Cauliflower Alley Club

*Lou Thesz Award (2006)

International Pro Wrestling

*IWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

NWA Chicago

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship ''(Chicago version)'' (2 time)

NWA World Tag Team Championship ''(Chicago version)'' (1 time) – with Edouard Carpentier

NWA Minneapolis Wrestling and Boxing Club / American Wrestling Association

AWA World Heavyweight Championship (10 times)

AWA World Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Moose Evans (1), The Crusher (1), Billy Robinson (1), and Mad Dog Vachon (1)

NWA World Tag Team Championship ''(Minneapolis version)'' (4 times) – with Bronko Nagurski (1), Leo Nomellini (2), and Butch Levy (1)

*World Heavyweight Championship ''(Omaha version)'' (1 time)

NWA Tri-State

NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Omaha, Nebraska

World Heavyweight Championship ''(Omaha version)'' (4 times)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

*PWI Stanley Weston Award (1986)

*PWI ranked him #158 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003

Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame

Class of 2004

Southwest Sports, Inc.

NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

NWA World Tag Team Championship ''(Texas version)'' (1 time) – with Wilbur Snyder

World Championship Wrestling

WCW Hall of Fame (Class of 1993)

World Wrestling Entertainment

WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2006)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

*Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

Training career

Verne trained or helped train 93 wrestlers, including:

Greg Gagne

Ric Flair

Gene Anderson

Ole Anderson

Lars Anderson

Jim Brunzell

Ricky Steamboat Curt Hennig Bob Backlund Iron Sheik

Paul Ellering

Blackjack Mulligan

Brian Knobbs

Jerry Sags

Scott Norton

Ken Patera

Larry Hennig

Jimmy Valiant

Baron Von Raschke

Brad Rheingans

Buddy Rose

Sgt. Slaughter

John Nord

Jimmy Snuka

Bill Irwin

Scott Irwin

Bob Brown

The Undertaker

External links

Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile of Verne Gagne

WWE Hall of Fame Profile of Verne Gagne

Footnotes

References

Category:1926 births Category:Living people Category:American professional wrestlers Category:American sport wrestlers Category:Professional wrestling executives Category:Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Category:WWE Hall of Fame Category:Professional wrestling coaches and trainers Category:Wrestlers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic athletes who wrestled professionally Category:People from Robbinsdale, Minnesota Category:American people of French descent Category:Minnesota Golden Gophers football players Category:Players of American football from Minnesota Category:Professional wrestling trainers

da:Verne Gagne de:Verne Gagne es:Verne Gagne fr:Verne Gagne it:Verne Gagne nl:Verne Gagne ja:バーン・ガニア pt:Verne Gagne

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
Name	Adrian Adonis
Names	Adrian AdonisKeith FrankeKeith Franks
Height
Weight
Birth date	September 15, 1954
Death date	July 04, 1988
Birth place	Buffalo, New York, United States
Death place	Lewisporte, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Billed	New York City
Trainer	Fred Atkins
Debut	1974
Retired	1988 }}

Keith A. Franke (September 12, 1954–July 4, 1988) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Adorable" Adrian Adonis.

Career

Franke trained under Fred Atkins and debuted in 1974, wrestling under his own name. In the late 1970s, Franke adopted the ring name Adrian Adonis and the character of a brawling, leather jacket-clad biker.

American Wrestling Association

In the late 1970s, Adonis joined the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association. In 1979, he formed a tag team with Jesse Ventura. The team was known as the East-West Connection on the basis that Adonis was from New York (in the East), while Ventura was billed as being from California (in the West). Adonis and Ventura were awarded the AWA World Tag Team Championship on July 20, 1980, when Verne Gagne, one half of the tag champions with Mad Dog Vachon, was unable to defend the title because he was vacationing in Europe. Adonis and Ventura held the belts until June 14, 1981, when they were defeated by Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell.

World Wrestling Federation

Adonis and Ventura appeared in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) later that year as a team and in singles competition. Adonis was a frequent challenger to WWF Champion Bob Backlund and Intercontinental Champion Pedro Morales throughout the first half of 1982.

When injuries forced Ventura to stop competing regularly, Adonis formed a tag team with the Texan Dick Murdoch known as the North-South Connection, with their first appearance together in the WWF in late 1983. Around this time, Adonis, who had previously been a beefy but generally conditioned performer began to gain a large amount of weight. On April 17, 1984, Adonis and Murdoch defeated Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. They held the titles until January 21, 1985, when they were defeated by Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo. The team split shortly after the loss.

"Adorable" Adrian Adonis

In late 1985, after an uneventful summer in which he was briefly managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and took to using the DDT as a finisher months before the WWF debut of Jake Roberts, Adonis began altering his gimmick, firstly adopting Jimmy Hart as his manager. Paired with Hart, he defeated Corporal Kirchner to advance in the Wrestling Classic pay-per-view tournament in November, though he lost to the Dynamite Kid in the quarterfinals. In early 1986, Adonis started carrying a briefcase which said "Relax with Trudi" on the outside of it and carried a spray called "Fragrance"; 3 years later, Rick Martel would lift the gimmick, calling his perfume "Arrogance", an apparent ode to Adonis. During an edition of ''Piper's Pit'', Adonis gave his signature leather jacket to host Roddy Piper (who would continue wearing it for years afterward). Adonis' new character was the effeminate "Adorable" Adrian Adonis. The gimmick change saw him bleach his hair blond and begin wearing pink ring attire, as well as scarves, leg warmers, dresses, women's hats, and clownish amounts of eye shadow and rouge. In the same time period, Adonis' weight ballooned, peaking at well over . Although Adonis' physique was startlingly unsightly, he was deceptively spry for someone of such portentous dimensions, he defeated Uncle Elmer in quick fashion at WrestleMania 2 and feuded extensively with the Junkyard Dog and George "The Animal" Steele while also unsuccessfully challenging Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship on multiple occasions.

In May 1986, the garish Adonis (with Hart) debuted his own talk segment, ''The Flower Shop'', during Piper's five-month hiatus from the WWF. These segments were the primary backdrop for Paul Orndorff's slow-building heel turn against his friend Hogan, with Adonis relentlessly needling Orndorff about living in Hogan's shadow. In August, shortly before Piper's return, Adonis obtained the services of Piper's bodyguard, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, who took to wearing a pink cowboy hat. The feud with Piper came to a head when Adonis, Orton, and Don Muraco attacked Piper during a "duel" between the two talk segments, injuring Piper's leg, covering him in lipstick, and damaging the ''Pit'' set. A week later, Piper destroyed the set of ''The Flower Shop'' with a baseball bat. On the October 4 edition of ''Saturday Night's Main Event'', Piper struck Adonis with a crutch, leading to Adonis not appearing on TV for two months with what was described as a separated shoulder. After Adonis returned in November to attack Piper on the ''Pit'', the two eventually agreed to face one another in a hair vs. hair match at WrestleMania III. Piper won the bout with assistance from Brutus Beefcake, who cut off the majority of Adonis' hair afterward.

Return to the AWA

Adonis (now with a shaved head) had a ready-made feud with Beefcake but left the WWF shortly after WrestleMania III, returning to the AWA, where he was managed by Paul E. Dangerously during 1987. During this stint, Adonis maintained his "Adorable" gimmick, feuded with Tommy Rich and lost the final match of the AWA International Television Championship tournament to Greg Gagne in December 1987. Early in 1988, Adonis was scheduled to tour New Japan Pro Wrestling along with other AWA talent, but an ankle injury kept him from participating. In addition to losing the money he would have earned from the NJPW tour, Verne Gagne stopped paying Adonis' weekly pay. When Gagne turned down Adonis's plea for financial help, Adonis unsuccessfully tried to get a job with WWF.

Death

Adonis was killed on July 4, 1988 in Lewisporte, Newfoundland while riding in a minivan with fellow wrestlers William "Mike Kelly" Arko, Victor "Pat Kelly" Arko, and Dave "Wildman" McKigney. Adonis, McKigney, and Pat Kelly were killed when the driver, Mike Kelly, allegedly swerved in order to avoid hitting a moose and, blinded by the setting sun, inadvertedly drove into a lake. Mike Kelly survived, albeit with severe leg injuries.

In wrestling

Finishing moves

DDT

''Goodnight Irene'' (Sleeper hold)

Signature moves

Diving shoulder block

Knee drop

Managers

*Bobby Heenan

*Freddie Blassie

*Jimmy Hart

*Paul Heyman

*Sir Oliver Humperdink

Nicknames

"Adorable" Adrian Adonis

"Gorgeous" Keith Franke

Championships and accomplishments

American Wrestling Association

*AWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jesse Ventura

NWA Hollywood Wrestling

*NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

*NWA Americas Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Black Gordman (1) and Roddy Piper (1)

Pacific Northwest Wrestling

*NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ron Starr

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

*PWI Editor's Award (1988) tied with Bruiser Brody

* PWI ranked him #128 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003.

* PWI ranked him #35 of the 100 best tag teams with Dick Murdoch of the PWI Years in 2003.

Southwest Championship Wrestling

*SCW Southwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

*SCW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling Federation

WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch

Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

*Most Embarrassing Wrestler (1986)

*Most Improved Wrestler (1981)

*Most Underrated Wrestler (1982)

*Worst Gimmick (1986, 1987)

References

External links

Category:1954 births Category:1988 deaths Category:American professional wrestlers Category:Road accident deaths in Canada Category:Accidental deaths in Newfoundland and Labrador

it:Adrian Adonis nl:Keith Franke ja:アドリアン・アドニス

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
Name	Maurice Vachon
Names	Mad Dog Vachon
Real height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight	231 lb (105 kg)
Birth date	September 14, 1929
Birth place	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Resides	Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Debut	1950
Retired	1986

Maurice Vachon (born September 14, 1929) is a retired Canadian professional wrestler, best known by his ring name "Mad Dog" Vachon. He is the brother of wrestlers Paul and Vivian Vachon, and the uncle of wrestler Luna Vachon. He was among the AWA's all-time great heels with a career spanning four decades, while also serving as the leader of one of the sport’s most accomplished families. On March 27, 2010 Vachon was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Early life

Born on September 14, 1929, Maurice Vachon was one of 13 children of Montreal policeman Ferdinand Vachon. He grew up in the district of Ville-Émard, a working-class borough southwest of Montreal. As a child, he regularly attended wrestling shows at the nearby Montreal Forum, where he grew up idolizing local ring legend Yvon Robert; and at just 12 years old, he had already begun grappling at the area's YMCA. He entered a wrestling course advertised at the back of a comic book, and he began training under Chief Jim Crowley. He trained hard and even worked in the docks and on the canal to build up his muscle. By age 14, Vachon eventually established himself among Canada’s premier amateur grapplers.

At just 18 years old, he competed in the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where he pinned the Indian champion in 58 seconds and ultimately finished in seventh place at 174 pounds. Moreover, it was at the 1948 Olympics where Vachon first encountered an American Greco-Roman competitor named Verne Gagne. He rebounded to win the gold medal at the 1950 British Empire Games in New Zealand. He then spent several years working as a bouncer at a Montreal nightclub before he was encouraged to join the pro wrestling circuit in 1954.

Professional wrestling career

Wrestling debut

Vachon initially debuted as a junior heavyweight for Ontario booker Larry Kasaboski; and during his first year as a pro, he won a tournament in Sudbury to claim the North American Junior Heavyweight Title. However, Vachon soon encountered a roadblock when powerful Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn was hesitant to use him for fear that Vachon would use his legitimate wrestling talents to dethrone Yvon Robert, who was still his top drawing card. Consequently, Vachon then took to the road; and in April 1955, he teamed with Pierre LaSalle to capture the NWA Texas Tag Team Titles.

"Mad Dog" Vachon

Despite his exceptional grappling ability, Maurice Vachon nonetheless struggled to distinguish himself from the myriad of image-less grapplers during his early years. As a result, he soon took radical measures to differentiate his persona, bulking up to a more plausible 225 pounds while also shaving his head bald and growing a long goatee. In addition, Vachon would frequently buy local TV time prior to a weekend event, which he then used to boldly proclaim his supremacy while also deprecating his opponent. Such acts of bravado were considered revolutionary at the time, though it was successful in that it attracted attention to Vachon’s new character as well as drawing additional fans to the arena. As a result, Vachon subsequently established himself as a major heel while also portraying a wrestling beast inside the ring who would freely stomp, bite, and pound his opponent into submission. Therefore, Portland promoter Don Owen accordingly bestowed Vachon with the nickname of “Mad Dog,” and the fact that he was so much smaller than the majority of his opponents only added to his mystique. Before long, “Mad Dog” Vachon consequently developed a reputation as perhaps the most feared rulebreaker in all of wrestling. Furthermore, Maurice's younger brother Paul - ultimately known as “the Butcher” - soon also made his debut and on February 17, 1959 the Vachon brothers teamed to defeat Chico Garcia and Chet Wallick for the NWA Canadian Tag Team Titles.

Maurice Vachon's tendency to hurt his opponents with foreign objects, filed fingernails and teeth, and the multiple use of his signature finishing move, the Piledriver, to end matches made him notorious in the business and caused him to be banned in three U.S. states. But it also made his popularity soar among the fans.

He also met his future wife Kathie Joe at a wrestling event, after spitting a shoe string he had used for choking his opponent at her, as she was sitting in the audience.

AWA World Heavyweight Champion

In the early 1960s, Mad Dog Vachon was then recruited to the Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association by his old Olympics acquaintance Verne Gagne, who had replaced Tony Stecher as the region’s chief promoter in 1960 and who also served as its centerpiece champion. Upon debuting, Vachon immediately established himself among the promotion’s top box-office draws as fans despised his vicious, mauling tactics; and he thus made the perfect opponent for the All-American Gagne, as the two rivals soon commenced an ongoing battle that would persist on for nearly 20 years. On May 2, 1964, Vachon stunned audiences when he upset Gagne for the AWA World Heavyweight Title, and although Gagne regained the belt just two weeks later, Mad Dog again recaptured the title when he defeated Gagne on October 20 in Minneapolis. Between 1964-67, Mad Dog Vachon would ultimately hold five reigns as the AWA World Champion while taking on all comers within the promotion’s massive territory, including Gagne, Mighty Igor Vodic, as well as the legendary powerhouse duo of Crusher Lisowski & Dick the Bruiser.

Mad Dog Vachon’s final AWA title reign came to an end on February 26, 1967 at the hands of his arch-nemesis Verne Gagne; and he then briefly left the promotion in order to return to his native Montreal territory, where he captured two reigns as the IWA International Heavyweight Champion while feuding against Johnny Rougeau and Hans Schmidt. Moreover, Vachon would also leverage his close friendship with Montreal Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau to convince the authorities of the Montreal Forum to grant him a promoting license (despite the protests of Johnny Rougeau and Bob Langevin, who had taken over the region from Eddie Quinn during the mid-1960s). Nevertheless, Vachon would soon return to the AWA, where he resumed his fierce battles with The Crusher and Dick the Bruiser, regarded by some as the greatest tag team of all-time, while forming a highly successful and dangerous tandem with his brother Paul “Butcher” Vachon. On August 30, 1969, the Vachon’s defeated Crusher & Bruiser for the AWA World Tag Team Titles; and the following year, the two battled again in a famous steel cage match at Chicago’s Comiskey Park (where the Vachon’s again emerged victorious), as their violent fights ultimately served as the precursor for a new brand of sadistic and vicious brawling that would spawn future mayhem stars like Abdullah the Butcher, Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, and others.

Later career

Over the next decade, the Vachon family would become one of the AWA’s most dominant stables, with sister Vivian (and later on, niece Luna) dominating the women’s scene, while Maurice and Paul ruled the men’s division. In the early 1970s he even appeared alongside his sister Vivian Vachon in the motion picture Wrestling Queen. But after two decades as one the sport’s most evil characters, the fans suddenly began to rally behind the “Mad Dog” in the late 1970s when he formed an unexpected and odd friendship with ex-archrival Verne Gagne. The unlikely partners made for an impressive tag team, and on June 6, 1979, they beat Pat Patterson & Ray Stevens to capture the AWA tag titles, which they held for over a year before losing to Jesse Ventura & Adrian Adonis. But when the AWA began looking to younger stars like Rick Martel and Curt Hennig, Vachon jumped to the World Wrestling Federation in 1984. While his age and lack of size did not make for a good mix in the emerging "Hulkamania" era, the now-face (fan favorite) Vachon put people in the seats and was usually included at WWF house shows (wrestling cards) in the Midwest and Quebec.

In 1985, he appeared as cornerman for AWA World Champion Rick Martel when Martel was challenged by Boris Zhukov in several title bouts in Canada, getting involved in one match on September 19, 1985 in Winnipeg and fighting off Zhukov and his manager, Chris Markoff, after Markoff interfered and helped Zhukov attack Martel, while in a later rematch between Martel and Zhukov held in a steel cage on November 14, 1985 in the same city, Markoff was neutralized by being handcuffed to Vachon. He received a retirement show in his native Montreal in September 1986, and he left the sport as one its most beloved fan favorites after spending almost his entire career as a sadistic villain. His innovative portrayal of a snarling, bloodthirsty monster would inspire a myriad of future “psychotic” wrestlers, including “Maniac” Mark Lewin, Bruiser Brody, George Steele, and “Mad Dog” Buzz Sawyer.

Retirement

Upon retiring, Vachon settled in Carter Lake, Iowa, which is adjacent to his wife's home town of Omaha, Nebraska, but tragedy then struck in 1987 when Vachon was struck by a hit-and-run driver, resulting in the forced amputation of his leg. The Vachons moved to Omaha shortly thereafter. He later turned to acting in beer commercials and was a restaurant critic for a Quebec City television station. He said, "I've eaten in almost every gas station restaurant and roadside diner in North America, I'm one Mad Dog who knows his chow."

He appeared at the WWF pay-per-view In Your House 7, that was held in Omaha. He was sitting in the front row near ringside, when his artificial leg was ripped off by wrestler Diesel and used as a weapon by Shawn Michaels. In addition, he and longtime rival The Crusher made an appearance at the 1998 Over the Edge pay-per-view, in a segment where the two legends were mocked by Jerry "The King" Lawler, including Lawler trying to steal the artificial leg. Crusher and Mad Dog then punched Lawler out of the ring and shook hands.

As of 2006, Mad Dog Vachon continues to make appearances at legends reunions and independent promotions.

He had knee surgery in 2008, which, according to his brother, Paul, was successful.

On March 27, 2010, he was inducted into the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Maurice has been married twice and is currently married to his third wife, Kathy Joe. He has six children, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Maurice is related to former NHL goaltender, Rogie Vachon.

In wrestling

Finishing moves

*Piledriver

Signature moves

*Biting the opponent's forehead

*Body slam

*Leapfrog body guillotine

*Single arm choke

*Uppercut

Nicknames

*"Mad Dog" Vachon

Championships and accomplishments

American Wrestling Association

*AWA Midwest Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bob Orton (2) and Paul Vachon (1)

*AWA World Heavyweight Championship (5 times)

*AWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Paul Vachon (1) and Verne Gagne (1)

Cauliflower Alley Club

*Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2003)

Central States Wrestling

*NWA World Tag Team Championship ''(Central States Version)'' (1 time) - with Baron Von Raschke

Lutte Internationale

*Canadian International Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Edouard Carpentier

International Wrestling Enterprise

*IWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

*IWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ivan Koloff

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling

*NWA Southern Tag Team Championship ''(Mid-Atlantic version)'' (1 time) - with Paul Vachon

Mid-South Sports

*NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship ''(Georgia version)'' (1 time)

*NWA World Tag Team Championship ''(Georgia Version)'' (1 time) - with Paul Vachon

Pacific Northwest Wrestling

*NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship (6 times)

*NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Fritz Von Goering

Pro Wrestling America

*PWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

*PWI ranked him # 166 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.

Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum

*(Class of 2004) - with Paul Vachon

Southwest Sports, Inc.

*NWA Brass Knuckles Championship ''(Texas version)'' (1 time)

*NWA Texas Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Pierre LaSalle (1), Paul Vachon (1), and Duke Keomuka (1)

Stampede Wrestling

*NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship ''(Calgary version)'' (2 times) - with Paul Vachon 1 Time The Tyger

*NWA International Tag Team Championship ''(Calgary version)'' (3 times) - with Paul Vachon

World Wrestling Entertainment

*WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

:*Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

Reference source

CBC Program: ''The Journal'', Broadcast Date: Dec. 29, 1987 Reporter: Allen Abel Guests: Réjean Tremblay, Diane Vachon, Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon

References

External links

sports-reference.com

Maurice's Profile with pictures

Vachon Family gallery

Documentary (Part 1)

Documentary (Part 2)

Category:1929 births Category:Canadian male professional wrestlers Category:Commonwealth Games competitors for Canada Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada Category:Living people Category:Olympic athletes who wrestled professionally Category:Olympic wrestlers of Canada Category:Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Category:Sportspeople from Montreal Category:Wrestlers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Category:Wrestlers at the 1950 British Empire Games Category:WWE Hall of Fame

da:Mad Dog Vachon fr:Maurice Vachon it:Maurice Vachon nl:Maurice Vachon ja:マッドドッグ・バション

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
name	Jules Gabriel Verne
birth name	Jules Gabriel Verne
birth date	February 08, 1828
birth place	Nantes, France
death date	March 24, 1905
death place	Amiens, France
occupation	Author
language	French
nationality	French
genre	Science-fiction
notableworks	''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', ''A Journey to the Center of the Earth'', ''Around the World in Eighty Days'', ''The Mysterious Island''
spouse	Honorine Hebe du Fraysse de Viane (Morel) Verne
children	Michel Verne and step-daughters Valentine and Suzanne Morel
influences	Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Józef Sękowski, Edgar Allan Poe, James Fenimore Cooper, Jacques Arago, Daniel Defoe, Johann David Wyss, George Sand, Erckmann-Chatrian, Adolphe d'Ennery
influenced	H.G. Wells, Hugo Gernsback, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Donald G. Payne, Steampunk, Emilio Salgari, Paschal Grousset,
signature	Firma de Julio Verne.svg
portaldisp	}}

Jules Gabriel Verne (; February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author who pioneered the science-fiction genre. He is best known for his novels ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'' (1870), ''A Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (1864), and ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the second most translated individual author in the world, according to Index Translationum. Some of his books have also been made into live-action and animated films and television shows. Verne, along with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells, is often popularly referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction".

Early life

Jules Gabriel Verne was born in Nantes, Brittany () in France, to Pierre Verne, an attorney, and his wife, Sophie Allote de la Fuÿe. Jules spent his early years at home with his parents in the bustling harbor city of Nantes. The family spent summers in a country house just outside the city, in Brains on the banks of the Loire River. Here Jules and his brother Paul would often rent a boat for a Franc a day. The sight of the many ships navigating the river sparked Jules's imagination, as he describes in the autobiographical short story "Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse". At the age of nine, Jules and Paul, of whom he was very fond, were sent to boarding school at the Saint Donatien College (Petit séminaire de Saint-Donatien). As a child, he developed a great interest in travel and exploration, a passion he showed as a writer of adventure stories and science fiction. His interest in writing often cost him progress in other subjects.

At the boarding school, Verne studied Latin, which he used in his short story "Le Mariage de Monsieur Anselme des Tilleuls" in the mid 1850s. One of his teachers may have been the French inventor Brutus de Villeroi, professor of drawing and mathematics at the college in 1842, and who later became famous for creating the US Navy's first submarine, the USS ''Alligator''. De Villeroi may have inspired Verne's conceptual design for the Nautilus in ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', although no direct exchanges between the two men have been recorded.

Verne's second French biographer, his grand-niece Marguerite Allotte de la Fuÿe, formulated the rumor that Verne was so fascinated with adventure at an early age that he stowed away on a ship bound for the West Indies, but that Jules's voyage was cut short when he found his father waiting for him at the next port.

Literary debut

After completing his studies at the ''lycée'', Verne went to Paris to study for the bar. Around 1848, in conjunction with Michel Carré, he began writing libretti for operettas. For some years, his attentions were divided between the theatre and work, but some travelers' stories which he wrote for the ''Musée des familles'' revealed to him his true talent: the telling of delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures to which cleverly prepared scientific and geographical details lent an air of verisimilitude.

When Verne's father discovered that his son was writing rather than studying law, he promptly withdrew his financial support. Verne was forced to support himself as a stockbroker, which he hated despite being somewhat successful at it. During this period, he met Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, père, who offered him writing advice.

Verne also met Honorine de Viane Morel, a widow with two daughters. They were married on January 10, 1857. With her encouragement, he continued to write and actively looked for a publisher. On August 3, 1861, their son, Michel Jules Verne, was born. A classic ''enfant terrible'', Michel would marry an actress over Verne's objections, had two children by his underage mistress, and buried himself in debts. The relationship between father and son did improve as Michel grew older.

Verne's situation improved when he met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, one of the most important French publishers of the 19th century, who also published Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Erckmann-Chatrian, among others. They formed an excellent writer-publisher team until Hetzel's death. Hetzel helped improve Verne's writings, which until then had been repeatedly rejected by other publishers. Hetzel read a draft of Verne's story about the balloon exploration of Africa, which had been rejected by other publishers for being "too scientific". With Hetzel's help, Verne rewrote the story, which was published in 1863 in book form as ''Cinq semaines en ballon'' (''Five Weeks in a Balloon''). Acting on Hetzel's advice, Verne added comical accents to his novels, changed sad endings into happy ones, and toned down various political messages.

From that point, Hetzel published two or more volumes a year. The most successful of these include ''Voyage au centre de la Terre'' (''Journey to the Center of the Earth'', 1864); ''De la Terre à la Lune'' (''From the Earth to the Moon'', 1865); ''Vingt mille lieues sous les mers'' (''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', 1869); and ''Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours'' (''Around the World in Eighty Days''), which first appeared in ''Le Temps'' in 1872. The series is collectively known as "Voyages Extraordinaires" ("extraordinary voyages"). Verne could now live on his writings. But most of his wealth came from the stage adaptations of ''Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours'' (1874) and ''Michel Strogoff'' (1876), which he wrote with Adolphe d'Ennery. In 1867, Verne bought a small ship, the ''Saint-Michel'', which he successively replaced with the ''Saint-Michel II'' and the ''Saint-Michel III'' as his financial situation improved. On board the ''Saint-Michel III'', he sailed around Europe. In 1870, he was appointed as "Chevalier" (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur. After his first novel, most of his stories were first serialised in the ''Magazine d'Éducation et de Récréation'', a Hetzel biweekly publication, before being published in the form of books. His brother Paul contributed to ''40th French climbing of the Mont-Blanc'' and a collection of short stories – ''Doctor Ox'' – in 1874. Verne became wealthy and famous. According to the Unesco Index Translationum, Jules Verne regularly places among the top five most translated authors in the world.

Later years

On March 9, 1886, as Verne was coming home, his twenty-five-year-old nephew, Gaston, shot him with a gun. One bullet missed, but the second entered Verne's left leg, giving him a limp that would not be cured. The incident was hushed up by the media, and Gaston spent the rest of his life in an asylum.

After the deaths of Hetzel and his beloved mother Sophie Henriette Allotte de la Fruye in 1887, Jules began writing darker works. This may partly be due to changes in his personality, but an important factor is the fact that Hetzel's son, who took over his father's business, was not as rigorous in his corrections as Hetzel had been. In 1888, Jules Verne entered politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens, where he championed several improvements and served for fifteen years. In 1905, while ill with diabetes, Verne died at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules-Verne). Michel oversaw publication of his novels ''Invasion of the Sea'' and ''The Lighthouse at the End of the World''. The "Voyages extraordinaires" series continued for several years afterwards in the same rhythm of two volumes a year. It has later been discovered that Michel Verne had made extensive changes in these stories, and the original versions were published at the end of the 20th century.

In 1863, Jules Verne wrote a novel called ''Paris in the Twentieth Century'' about a young man who lives in a world of glass skyscrapers, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network, yet cannot find happiness and comes to a tragic end. Hetzel thought the novel's pessimism would damage Verne's then-booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was published in 1994.

Reputation in English-speaking countries

While Verne is considered in many countries such as France as an author of quality books for young people, with a good command of his subjects, including technology and politics, his reputation in English-speaking countries suffered for a long time from poor translation.

Characteristic of much of late 19th-century writing, Verne's books often took a chauvinistic point of view. The British Empire was notably portrayed in a bad light in ''The Mysterious Island'', as Captain Nemo was revealed to be an Indian nobleman fighting the British Empire, which had not been mentioned in ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea''. The first English translator of ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'' and ''From the Earth to the Moon, and a Trip Around It'', Reverend Lewis Page Mercier, working under a pseudonym, removed passages describing the political actions of Captain Nemo. However, such negative depictions were not invariable in Verne's works; for example, ''Facing the Flag'' features Lieutenant Devon, a heroic, self-sacrificing Royal Navy officer worthy of comparison with any written by British authors. Another example of a positive depiction of an Englishman is the brave and resourceful Phileas Fogg, the protagonist of ''Around the World in Eighty Days''.

Mercier and subsequent British translators also had trouble with the metric system that Verne used, sometimes dropping significant figures, at other times keeping the nominal value and only changing the unit to an Imperial measure. Thus Verne's calculations, which in general were remarkably exact, were converted into mathematical gibberish. Also, artistic passages and whole chapters were cut because of the need to fit the work in a constrained space for publication. (London author Cranstoun Metcalfe (1866–1938) translated most of Verne's work into English during the first half of the 20th century.)

For those reasons, Verne's work initially acquired a reputation in English-speaking countries for not being fit for adult readers. This, in turn, prevented him from being taken seriously enough to merit new translations, leading to those of Mercier and others being reprinted decade after decade. Only from 1965 on were some of his novels re-translated more accurately, but even today Verne's work has still not been fully rehabilitated in the English-speaking world.

Verne's works also reflect the bitterness France felt in the wake of defeat in the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871, and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine. ''The Begum's Millions'' (''Les Cinq cents millions de la Begum'') of 1879 gives a highly stereotypical depiction of Germans as monstrous cruel militarists. By contrast, almost all the protagonists in his pre-1871 works, such as the sympathetic first-person narrator in ''Journey to the Centre of the Earth'', are German.

Memorials

A restaurant built into the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is named Le Jules Verne Restaurant. In June 1989, the Jules Verne Food Court opened at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the West Midlands of England; however, it had closed by the mid 1990s due to disappointing trade.

Hetzel's influence

Hetzel substantially influenced the writings of Verne, who was so happy to finally find a willing publisher that he agreed to almost all changes that Hetzel suggested. Hetzel rejected at least one novel (''Paris in the Twentieth Century'') and asked Verne to significantly change his other drafts. One of the most important changes Hetzel enforced on Verne was the adoption of optimism in his novels. Verne was in fact not an enthusiast of technological and human progress, as can be seen in his works created before he met Hetzel and after Hetzel's death. Hetzel's demand for optimistic texts proved correct. For example, ''Mysterious Island'' originally ended with the survivors returning to the mainland forever nostalgic about the island. Hetzel decided that the heroes should live happily, so in the revised draft, they use their fortunes to build a replica of the island. Many translations are like this. Also, in order not to offend France's then-ally, Russia, the origin and past of the famous Captain Nemo were changed from those of a Polish refugee avenging the partitions of Poland and the death of his family in the January Uprising repressions to those of an Indian prince fighting the British Empire after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Bibliography

Verne wrote numerous works, most famous of which are the 54 novels comprising the ''Voyages Extraordinaires''. He also wrote short stories, essays, plays, and poems.

His very first and better known works include: ''A Voyage in a Balloon (Un Voyage en ballon, August 1851 as published in ''Musee des familles'').

''Five Weeks in a Balloon'' (''Cinq semaines en ballon'', 1863)

''Paris in the Twentieth Century'' (''Paris au XXe siècle'', 1863, not published until 1994)

''A Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (''Voyage au centre de la Terre'', 1864)

''From the Earth to the Moon'' (''De la Terre à la Lune'', 1865)

''The Adventures of Captain Hatteras'' (''Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras'', 1866)

''In Search of the Castaways'' or ''Captain Grant's Children'' (''Les Enfants du capitaine Grant'', 1867–1868)

''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'' (''Vingt mille lieues sous les mers'', 1870)

''Around the Moon'' (''Autour de la lune'', a sequel to ''From the Earth to the Moon'', 1870)

''A Floating City'' (''Une ville flottante'', 1871)

"Dr. Ox's Experiment" (''Une Fantaisie du Docteur Ox'', 1872)

''The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa'' (''Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais'', 1872 )

''The Fur Country'' (''Le Pays des fourrures'', 1873)

''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (''Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours'', 1873)

''The Survivors of the Chancellor'' (''Le Chancellor'', 1875)

''The Mysterious Island'' (''L'Île mystérieuse'', 1875)

"The Blockade Runners", (1876)

''Michael Strogoff'' (''Michel Strogoff'', 1876)

''Off on a Comet'' (''Hector Servadac'', 1877)

''The Child of the Cavern'', also known as ''Black Diamonds'' or ''The Black Indies'' (''Les Indes noires'', 1877)

''Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen'' (''Un Capitaine de quinze ans'', 1878)

''The Begum's Millions'' (''Les Cinq cents millions de la Bégum'', 1879)

''The Steam House'' (''La Maison à vapeur'', 1879)

''Tribulations of a Chinaman in China'' (''Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine''), 1879

''Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon'' (''La Jangada'', 1881)

''The Green Ray'' (''Le Rayon vert'', 1882)

''Kéraban the Inflexible'' (1883)

"Frritt-Flacc" (1884)

''The Vanished Diamond'' (''L’Étoile du sud'', 1884)

''The Archipelago on Fire'' (''L’Archipel en feu'', 1884)

''Mathias Sandorf'' (1885)

''Robur the Conqueror'' or ''The Clipper of the Clouds'' (''Robur-le-Conquérant'', 1886)

''Ticket No. "9672"'' (''Un Billet de loterie'', 1886 )

''North Against South'' (''Nord contre Sud'', 1887)

''The Flight to France'' (''Le Chemin de France'', 1887)

''Family Without a Name'' (''Famille-sans-nom'', 1888)

''Two Years' Vacation'' (''Deux Ans de vacances'', 1888)

''The Purchase of the North Pole'' (''Sans dessus dessous'', the second sequel to ''From the Earth to the Moon'', 1889)

''Mistress Branican'' (1891)

''The Carpathian Castle'' (''Le Château des Carpathes'', 1892)

''Claudius Bombarnac'' (''Claudius Bombarnac'', 1893)

''Propeller Island'' (''L’Île à hélice'', 1895)

''Facing the Flag'' (''Face au drapeau'', 1896)

''Clovis Dardentor'' (1896)

''The Sphinx of the Ice Fields'' or ''An Antarctic Mystery'' (''Le Sphinx des glaces'', a sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'', 1897)

''The Mighty Orinoco'' (''Le Superbe Orénoque'', 1897)

''The Village in the Treetops'' (''Le Village aérien'', 1901)

''The Kip Brothers'' (''Les Frères Kip'',1902)

''Master of the World'' (''Maître du monde'', sequel to ''Robur the Conqueror'', 1904)

''Invasion of the Sea'' (''L’Invasion de la mer'', 1904)

''A Drama in Livonia'' (''Un Drame en Livonie'', 1904)

''The Lighthouse at the End of the World'' (''Le Phare du bout du monde'', 1905)

''The Chase of the Golden Meteor'' (''La Chasse au météore'', 1908)

''The Danube Pilot'' (''Le Pilote du Danube'', 1908)

''The Survivors of the "Jonathan"'' (''Les Naufragés du « Jonathan »'', 1909)

See also

Paschal Grousset

Karl May

Zane Grey

B. Traven

Emilio Salgari

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Osip Senkovsky

Oshikawa Shunro

Steampunk, a style that took inspiration from Verne.

References

Further reading

William Butcher, Arthur C. Clarke (Introduction) (2006). ''Jules Verne: The Definitive Biography''. ISBN 1-56025-854-3

Herbert R. Lottman (1997). ''Jules Verne: An Exploratory Biography''. ISBN 0-312-14636-1

Philippe Melot, Jean-Marie Embs (2005).''Le Guide Jules Verne''. Les Editions de l'Amateur, Paris.ISBN 2-85917-417-6

Françoise Schiltz (2011). ''The Future Revisited: Jules Verne on Screen in 1950s America''. Chaplin Books, Gosport. ISBN 0-9565595-2-2

:*Translated as

External links

Bibliography

Les Voyages Extraordinaires – list of Verne works Compiled by Dennis Kytasaari. Bibliography.

Sources

Jules Verne's works: text, concordances and frequency list

A Jules Verne Centennial 1905–2005: A selection of early Jules Verne books and illustrations at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries edited by Norman M. Wolcott.

Zvi Har'El's Jules Verne Collection, including the Jules Verne Virtual Library, online sources of 51 of Jules Verne's novels translated into eight languages.

The Jules Verne Collecting Resource Page, complete online sources, posters, cards, autographs, first edition covers, etc..

Biography

Biography of Jules Verne

Reviews

"Jules Verne: Father of Science Fiction?", John Derbyshire, ''The New Atlantis'', Number 12, Spring 2006, pp. 81–90. A review of four new Jules Verne translations from the "Early Classics of Science Fiction" series by Wesleyan University Press.

''Jules Verne: An Exploratory Biography'', by Herbert R. Lottman – a review.

Misc

The maps from the Voyages Extraordinaires, scans of all the maps that were included in the original editions of Jules Verne’s novels.

Category:French science fiction writers Category:Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Category:French Roman Catholics Category:Operetta librettists Category:People from Nantes Category:Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Category:Roman Catholic writers Category:1828 births Category:1905 deaths Category:Maritime writers

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Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
name	Bear Bryant
sport	Football
birth date	September 11, 1913
birth place	Fordyce, Arkansas
death date	January 26, 1983
death place	Tuscaloosa, Alabama
player years	1933–1935
player teams	Alabama
player positions	End
coach years	19361936–19401940–194119451946–19531954–19571958–1982
coach teams	Union (TN) (assistant)Alabama (assistant)Vanderbilt (assistant)MarylandKentuckyTexas A&M;Alabama
overall record	323–85–17
bowl record	15–12–2
cfbdwid	275
championships	6 National (1961, 1964–1965, 1973, 1978–1979) 1 SWC (1956) 14 SEC (1950, 1961, 1964–1966, 1971–1975, 1977–1979, 1981)
awards	3x AFCA Coach of the Year (1961, 1971, 1973)12x SEC Coach of the Year (1950, 1959, 1961, 1964–1965, 1971, 1973–1974, 1977–1979, 1981)
cfbhof year	1986
cfbhof id	70009 }}

Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 January 26, 1983) was an American college football coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships. Upon his retirement in 1982, he held the record for most wins as head coach in collegiate football history. At the University of Alabama, the Paul W. Bryant Museum, Paul W. Bryant Hall, Paul W. Bryant Drive and Bryant–Denny Stadium are all named in his honor. He was also known for his trademark black and white houndstooth or gingham hat, deep voice, casually leaning up against the goal post during pre-game warmups, and frequently holding his rolled-up game plan while on the sidelines.

Before arriving at Alabama, Bryant was head football coach at the University of Maryland, the University of Kentucky, and Texas A&M; University.

Early life

Paul Bryant was the 11th of 12 children who were born to William Monroe and Ida Kilgore Bryant in Fordyce, Arkansas. His nickname stemmed from his having agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a theater promotion when he was 13 years old.

He attended Fordyce High School, where tall Bryant, who as an adult would eventually stand , began playing on the school's football team as an eighth grader. During his senior season, the team, with Bryant playing offensive line and defensive end, won the 1930 Arkansas state football championship.

College

Bryant accepted a scholarship to play for the University of Alabama in 1931. Since he elected to leave high school before completing his diploma, Bryant had to enroll in a Tuscaloosa high school to finish his education during the fall semester while he practiced with the college team. Bryant played end for the Crimson Tide and was a participant on the school's 1934 National Championship team. Bryant was the self-described "other end" during his playing years with the team, playing opposite the big star, Don Hutson, who later became an NFL Hall-of-Famer. Bryant himself was second team All-SEC in 1934, and was third team all conference in both 1933 and 1935. Bryant played with a partially-broken leg in a 1935 game against Tennessee. Bryant pledged the Sigma Nu social fraternity, and as a senior, he married Mary Harmon.

Bryant was selected in the fourth round by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1936 NFL Draft, but never played professionally.

Coaching career

Assistant and North Carolina Pre-Flight

After graduating in 1936, Bryant took a coaching job at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, but he left that position when offered an assistant coaching position under Frank Thomas at the University of Alabama. Over the next four years, the team compiled a 29–5–3 record. In 1940, he left Alabama to become an assistant at Vanderbilt University under Henry Russell Sanders. After the 1941 season, Bryant was offered the head coaching job at the University of Arkansas. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Bryant joined the United States Navy. He served off North Africa, seeing no combat action. However, his ship, the civilian merchantman ''SS Uruguay'' was rammed by another ship and ordered to be abandoned. Bryant disobeyed the order, saving the lives of his men. Two hundred others died. He was later granted an honorable discharge to train recruits and coach the North Carolina Navy Pre-Flight football team. One of the players he coached for the Navy was the future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham. While in the Navy, Bryant attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

University of Maryland

In 1945, 32-year old Bryant met Washington Redskins owner George Marshall at a cocktail party hosted by the ''Chicago Tribune'', and said he had turned down offers for assistant coaching positions at Alabama and Georgia Tech. Bryant told Marshall that he was intent on becoming a head coach. Marshall put him in contact with Harry Clifton "Curley" Byrd, the president and former football coach of the University of Maryland.

After meeting with Byrd the next day, Bryant received the job as head coach of the Maryland Terrapins. In his only season at Maryland, Bryant led the team to a 6–2–1 record. However, Bryant and Byrd came into conflict. In the most prominent incident, while Bryant was on vacation, Byrd reinstated a player who had been suspended by Bryant for a violation of team rules. After the 1945 season, Bryant left Maryland to take over as head coach at the University of Kentucky.

University of Kentucky

Bryant coached at the University of Kentucky for eight seasons. Under Bryant, Kentucky made its first bowl appearance (1947) and won its first Southeastern Conference title (1950). The 1950 Kentucky team concluded its season with a victory over Bud Wilkinson's #1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners in the Sugar Bowl. The living players from the 1950 team were honored during halftime of a game during the 2005 season. Bryant also led Kentucky to appearances in the Great Lakes Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Cotton Bowl Classic. Kentucky's final AP poll rankings under Bryant included #11 in 1949, #7 in 1950, #15 in 1951, #20 in 1952 and #16 in 1953. The 1950 season was Kentucky's highest rank until it finished #6 in the final 1977 AP poll.

Texas A&M; University

In 1954, Bryant accepted the head coaching job at Texas A&M; University. He also served as athletic director while at A&M.;

The Aggies suffered through a grueling 1-9 initial season which began with the infamous training camp in Junction, Texas. The “survivors” were given the name “Junction Boys.” Two years later, Bryant led the team to the Southwest Conference championship with a 34–21 victory over the University of Texas at Austin. The following year, 1957, Bryant's star back John David Crow won the Heisman Trophy (the only Bryant player to ever earn that award), and the Aggies were in title contention until they lost to the #20 Rice Owls in Houston, amid rumors that Alabama would be going after Bryant.

Again, as at Kentucky, Bryant attempted to integrate the Texas A&M; squad. "We'll be the last football team in the Southwest Conference to integrate," he was told by a Texas A&M; official. "Well," Bryant replied, "then that's where we're going to finish in football."

At the close of the 1957 season, having compiled an overall 25–14–2 record at Texas A&M;, Bryant returned to Tuscaloosa to take the head coaching position, succeeding J.B. "Ears" Whitworth, as well as the athletic director job at Alabama.

University of Alabama

Bryant took over the Alabama football team in 1958. When asked why he came to Alabama, he replied "Momma called. And when Momma calls, you just have to come runnin'." After winning a combined four games in the three years prior to Bryant's arrival, the Tide went 5–4–1 in Bryant's first season. The next year, in 1959, Alabama beat Auburn and appeared in a bowl game, the first time either had happened in the last six years. In 1961, under his leadership, with quarterback Pat Trammell, football greats Lee Roy Jordan, and Billy Neighbors, Alabama went 11–0 and defeated Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl to claim the national championship.

The next three years (1962–64) featured Joe Namath at quarterback and were among Bryant's finest. The 1962 season ended with a victory in the Orange Bowl over Bud Wilkinson's University of Oklahoma Sooners. The following year ended with a victory in the 1963 Sugar Bowl. In 1964, the Tide won another national championship, but lost to the University of Texas in the Orange Bowl, in the first nationally televised college game in color. The Crimson Tide would repeat as champions in 1965 after defeating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Coming off back-to-back national championship seasons, Bryant's Alabama team went undefeated in 1966, and defeated a strong Nebraska team 34–7 in the Sugar Bowl. However, Alabama finished third in the nation behind co-national champions Michigan State and Notre Dame, who had previously played to a 10–10 tie in a late regular season game.

The 1967 team was billed as another national championship contender with star quarterback Kenny Stabler returning, but the team stumbled out of the gate and tied Florida State 37–37 at Legion Field. The season never took off from there, with the Bryant-led Alabama team finishing 8–2–1, losing in the Cotton Bowl Classic to Texas A&M;, coached by former Bryant player and assistant coach Gene Stallings. In 1968, Bryant again could not match his previous successes, as the team went 8–3, losing to the University of Missouri 35–10 in the Gator Bowl. The 1969 and 1970 teams finished 6–5 and 6–5–1 respectively.

After these disappointing efforts, many began to wonder if the 57-year old Bryant was washed up. He himself began feeling the same way and considered either retiring from coaching or leaving college football for the NFL.

For years, Bryant was accused of racism for refusing to recruit black players, but he merely said that the prevailing social climate did not let him do this. He finally was able to convince the administration to allow him to do so after scheduling the Tide's 1970 season opener against a strong University of Southern California team led by African American fullback Sam Cunningham. Cunningham rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns in a 42–21 victory against the overmatched Tide. After that season, Bryant was able to recruit Wilbur Jackson as Alabama's first African American scholarship player, and junior-college transfer John Mitchell became the first black man to play for Alabama. By 1973, one-third of the team's starters were African American.

In 1971, Bryant began engineering a comeback to prove that he still had it. This included abandoning Alabama's old power offense for the newly-fashionable wishbone formation. The change helped make the remainder of the decade a successful one for the Crimson Tide. That season, Alabama went undefeated and earned a #2 ranking, but lost to #1 Nebraska, 38–6 in the Orange Bowl. The team would go on to split national championships in 1973 (Notre Dame defeated Alabama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl, which led the UPI to stop giving national championships until after all the games for the season had been played - including bowl games), 1978 (despite losing a regular season matchup against co-national champion USC) and win it outright in 1979.

Bryant coached at Alabama for 25 years, winning six national titles (1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, and 1979) and thirteen SEC championships. Bryant's win over in-state rival Auburn University, coached by former Bryant assistant Pat Dye in November 1981 was Bryant's 315th as a head coach, which was the most of any head coach at that time. His all-time record as a coach was 323-85-17.

Retirement and death

After a mediocre 1982 season (8-4), Bryant, who had turned 69 in September, decided to retire, stating "This is my school, my alma mater. I love it and I love my players. But in my opinion, they deserved better coaching than they have been getting from me this year." His last regular season game was a 23–22 loss to Auburn and his last postseason game was a 21–15 victory in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee over the University of Illinois. After the game, Bryant was asked what he planned to do now that he was retired. He replied "Probably croak in a week."

Only four weeks after making that comment, and just one day after passing a routine medical checkup, on January 25, 1983, Bryant checked into Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa after experiencing chest pain. A day later, when being prepared for an electrocardiogram, he died after suffering a massive heart attack. First news of Bryant's death came from Bert Bank (WTBC Radio Tuscaloosa) and on the NBC Radio Network (anchored by Stan Martyn and reported by Stewart Stogel). On his hand at the time of his death was the only piece of jewelry he ever wore, a gold ring inscribed "The Junction Boys". He is interred at Birmingham's Elmwood Cemetery. A month after his death, Bryant was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President Ronald Reagan. A moment of silence was held prior to Super Bowl XVII, played four days after Bryant's passing.

Defamation suit

In 1962, after Bryant denounced ''The Saturday Evening Post'' for printing an article that charged him with encouraging his players to "engage in brutality" in a 1961 game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the magazine claimed that Bryant and Georgia Bulldogs coach Wally Butts had conspired to fix their 1962 game together in Alabama's favor. Butts, also on Bryant's behalf, sued Curtis Publishing Co. for defamation. The case went to the Supreme Court. As a result of Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts 388 U.S. 130 (1967), Curtis was ordered to pay $3,060,000 in damages to the plaintiff.

Honors and awards

12-time Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year

Three-time National Coach of the Year in 1961, 1971 and 1973. The national coach of the year award was subsequently named the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award in his honor. Was named Head Coach of Sports Illustrated's NCAA Football All-Century Team.

He received 1.5 votes for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination at the extremely contentious 1968 Democratic Convention

In February 1983, Bryant was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.

Bryant was honored with a U.S. postage stamp in 1996.

Country singer Roger Hallmark recorded a tribute song in his honor.

Charles Ghigna wrote a poem that appeared in the ''Birmingham-Post Herald'' in 1983 as a tribute to Bryant.

Super Bowl XVII was dedicated to Bryant. A moment of silence was held in his memory during the pregame ceremonies.

Legacy

Many of Bryant's former players and assistant coaches went on to become head coaches at the collegiate level and/or in the National Football League. Danny Ford, Howard Schnellenberger, and Gene Stallings all won national championships as head coaches for NCAA programs while Neil Callaway, Joey Jones, Mike Riley, David Cutcliffe, and Schnellenberger are active head coaches in the NCAA. Sylvester Croom, Jim Owens, Jackie Sherrill, and Pat Dye were also notable NCAA head coaches. Ozzie Newsome is active as the general manager of the Baltimore Ravens.

Head coaching record

In his 38 seasons as a head coach, Bryant had 37 winning seasons and participated in a total of 29 postseason bowl games, including 24 consecutively at Alabama. He won 15 bowl games, including eight Sugar Bowls.

(*) Before the 1974, the final Coaches' Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games.

See also

List of presidents of the American Football Coaches Association

The Bear (1984 film)

List of college football coaches with 200 career wins

References

External links

Paul W. Bryant Museum

Paul "Bear" Bryant article, Encyclopedia of Alabama

Summary of Bryant's record from RollTide.com

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