Young Olympian was not yet a Mad Dog
By GREG OLIVER -- SLAM! Wrestling
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SLAM! Sports covers The Games
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SLAM! WRESTLING'S
OLYMPIAN STORIES
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Earl McCready, 1928
Mad Dog Vachon, 1948
Danny Hodge, 1952, 1956
Dale Lewis, 1956, 1960
Bob Roop, 1968
Chris Taylor, 1972
Bad News Allen, 1976
Brad Rheingans, 1976
Mark Henry, 1992, 1996
Kurt Angle, 1996
The other Olympians
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When people think of Mad Dog Vachon, they think of a wild, snarling
beast, wreaking havoc inside and outside of the wrestling ring.
Too often it is forgotten that Vachon started as a successful amateur
wrestler, and competed for Canada at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London,
England.
"It's an incredible feeling. It's something that's very hard to
explain," Vachon told SLAM! Wrestling.
"It's something that makes you absolutely and totally very proud."
He was only 18 when he won the Olympic trials in Toronto, and headed to
London for the Games.
Vachon recalls his father telling him, 'If you ever go to the Olympic
Games, people will remember it for the rest of your life.' Though he
went on to many, many other significant accomplishments both in and out
of pro wrestling, the Mad Dog thinks that his dad was correct.
"He was so right! I started wrestling when I was 12 years old in
Montreal at the YMCA. Then when you
walk into the Stadium at Wembley in London, there's probably 6,000
athletes there, King George XI is there, the Queen, and they play your
national anthem -- it gives you goosepimples."
Maurice Vachon competed at 174 pounds and finished in seventh place,
having been eliminated in the third round. He said that he doesn't
actually remember where he placed, just his matches.
In his first bout, he beat a competitor from India in 22 seconds. In
the second, he lost a split decision to a Turk named Adil Candemir (who won silver). The
third, he lost by unanimous decision.
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Vachon in 1950. (Seriously!)
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Maurice eventually transformed into Mad Dog.
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He does have an explanation for it all. "What happens is sometimes you
burn yourself out on a tough match like that," he said, referring to his
second bout, where he lost a split decision. "After I finished wrestling
with the Turk, waiting for the decision, somebody tapped me on the
shoulder. It was the coach from Turkey. He said, 'You won that match.'
And they turned around and gave it to my opponent. It's part of
history."
Though defeated at the Olympics, Vachon rebounded to win gold at the
British Empire Games (the forerunner of the Commonwealth Games) two
years later in New Zealand.
The wrestling squad stayed in the Athlete's Village, which was a
converted air force barracks, and they took the London subway to the
competition. It was there that he first met a man who would become one
of his greatest adversaries in the squared circle. "I met Verne there
for the first time.
When asked about meeting the soon-to-be Mad Dog at the London Olympics,
Verne Gagne had a laugh. "He had curly hair and he weighed 175 pounds!"
It was a bittersweet trip to the Olympics for Gagne. He made the U.S.
Greco-Roman team, but the powers-that-be in American amateur wrestling
pulled the squad. "We came right down to the night before we were
supposed to wrestle Greco and they pulled us out. They said, 'We don't
think you guys know enough about Greco-Roman wrestling.' This is '48,
right after the War, and we really didn't, but we sure as heck trained
hard and wanted to wrestle. We were in the parade and were in the
Olympics," recalled Gagne, who treasures his Olympic memories, even if
he didn't compete.
"It was a great experience. Wembley Stadium was the big parade. It was
the first Olympics after World War II and it was a real focal point for
the world at that moment in time and most of the world was there. Russia
was not there, and a couple of those other countries behind the Iron
Curtain didn't make it."
Going from a successful amateur career to the pro game made one a
target, according to Vachon. "At my size, everybody wanted to try me
out. A lot of times, they don't play fair, they sucker-punch you. After
a while you develop [another] instinct, you have eyes in the back of
your head. You see it coming. Before they make their move, they're
already done anyways. It helped a lot in the ring. A lot of professional
wrestlers, they tried to take advantage of me, and I beat the s*** out
of them."
He confesses to loving watching the Olympics, and is really looking
forward to the Games in Sydney. "I love it. It's amazing. I hold my
breath when I see these gymnastics."
After thousands of bouts as a pro, bleeding and making mayhem around the
globe, Vachon can look back now on his two careers as a wrestler --
amateur and pro -- and truly see a difference, one that's not
necessarily evident to the outsider.
"When you wrestle professional, the money goes in your pocket," Vachon
said. "When you
wrestle amateur, the medals, they go in your heart."
