John Van Slyke
An auto dealer over on the west side of Wichita put on a public relations and promo. Year was 1959 or so. The owner hired a guy with a wrestling bear to come in to his dealership. The guy and his bear traveled the country putting on bear wrestling shows. The dealer’s show room floor was cleared out. For $2.00 you could go into the ring with the bear and wrestle it for 2 minutes. Guys went in one side of rhe showroom and out the other side when their two minutes of fame were up.
For some reason, guys who left the arena did not go around and talk
the newbees. And none of us in the queue to go in to the show room had the sense to go around and talk to anyone who had been in with the bear. Part of this was trying to preserve competitive advantage in bragging rights as the Bear Wrestling King of ’Ta.
There was a prize for anyone who could take the bear down and keep him down for 10 seconds.
Piece of cake, right. No.
First, I am guessing the black bear we were supposed to wrestle was 275 lbs or so. That’s a lot of mass even for high school and college linemen of those days. A bear has very loose skin. It can turn almost 180 degrees inside of its skin. This makes it nearly impossible to get any leverage or even get a grip on the animal. Moreover, bears have short arms and legs with strong muscles attached. This makes them much stronger than humans. Finally, as part of a traveling entertainment act, this particular bear had years of experience dealing with fools, particularly high school and college guys.
My turn comes. I go in to see what I could do. I lock up with the bear, 
and the first thing that hit me was the stench. The guy who owned the bear fed the critter garbage, and I am sure he never washed it. Unreal. Results? What results. I’m a swimmer. I did not get close to taking the bear down or even pushing it backward. In fact, I had a hell of time holding on to its skin as the bear twisted around inside of it. Truth be told, I was extremely glad to hear the bell ring after 2 minutes. Enough was enough.
After I got out side, I joined other fools from East and other high schools in town and Wichita State, including football players and wrestlers, standing around talking about two things (1) how hard it was to get grip on the bear and (2) the stink. No one went around to buy a ticket for another round with the bear.
No one stuck around to see the bear get its reward — a pail of garbage and some fish.
Bottom line, I think this is another example of how the world was a much more civilized place back in the those days.
Good one John, very good!