FUNK’s CORNER – THE FRATERNITY OF PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING
- 05/10/2006 (3:09:38 pm)
- Press Release
…..
Funk's Corner - The Fraternity of Professional Wrestling
There is a "Fraternity of Professional Wrestlers." One such fraternity exists at the Funking Conservatory. In our training camps, we are all in support of each other. There is no such thing as hazing or harassment of younger athletes as we hear about all too often.
**************
I could feel the electric shock, created by an old telephone crank box generator and spark wire, pulsating across my chest. It felt like someone had stuck a fishhook through my skin and was jerking on a line tearing the skin from arm pit to arm pit then down to my navel. The pain was so much, I couldn't hold it back and screamed at the top of my lungs. At least ten football players held me in position. I couldn't move only scream from the pain. I was branded with a "T" across my chest.
I had earned my "Letter" in football at West Texas State University. All lettermen had to go through "Initiation" as described above and then would be members of the "T" Club. I knew what to expect for the initiation ceremony as the stories of bravery circulated throughout the athletic dormitory. Last year, Wayne Parker was the only one who didn't scream his lungs out during the initiation ceremony. It was a measure of his toughness.
I was now a member of the "T" club, "One of the Boys." I couldn't wait for the following year when I would get to do the same thing to the new young athletes who earned their letters in football at West Texas State University.
Incidentally that year, West Texas State University for the second year in a row won one game and lost nine.
Changes were made in the Athletic department and a new Football Coach was hired. He was a former Marine Corps Captain and assistant under Oklahoma University's Bud Wilkenson, Joe Kerbel.
With a tough attitude, discipline and hard work ethic, Coach Joe Kerbel turned the program around in his first year and we won six games and lost 4.
At the end of the successful season, would come the initiation of the new lettermen into the "T" Club. Now I would be on the punishing side of the initiation ceremony.
Word got to Coach Joe Kerbel what was in the plans for "T" club initiation. Kerbel called a team meeting and laid down the law, there would be so such hazing, no branding of the young athletes and anyone involved in hazing would be immediately dismissed from the team and kicked off scholarship. We were a team working together for a common cause and no hazing of young athletes would be tolerated.
The next season working together as a team, young athletes and veterans West Texas State University had a 9 and 2 season, beating powerhouses Texas Tech, Arizona State University, Bowling Green University and won the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas over Ohio University.
We were a team working together, all on the same side and all in support of each other.
Just as was the case at West Texas State University, at the Funking Conservatory we are all on the same team in support of each other. We are coed and we have a safety program unmatched in the industry. Our program is based on Safety, Television and In Ring Performance.
We are in the "Fraternity of Professional Wrestling."
Dory Funk Jr. / Funking Conservatory Call: 352-895-4658 or visit our website at www.dory-funk.com
Tags:
