Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Before John Cena and Hulk Hogan there was Bruno Sammartino and Gorilla Monsoon.

In the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s my friends and I went to the old Boston Garden to watch wrestling. Guys like BoBo Brazil, Professor Turo Tanaka and Andre the Giant thrilled us with their highly choreographed moves. We loved it and bought into the antics. We watched it on TV and we went to see the live matches. My pals and I actually used to wrestle down in one of the guy’s cellars. We couldn’t do a flying drop kick, but we did try to toss each other around in our makeshift “ring.”

The tickets for a star-studded match were cheap. I think I remember paying about $2.50 for an afternoon of grappling and body slamming.

I asked my fellow Somerville wrestling fans to share their memories of these dramatic and suspenseful matches. As usual my Somerville social media friends chimed in.

“I used to take my two sons to the Boston Garden. My two brothers would also go. My favorite was Chief Jay Strongbow, Bruno Sammartino, and George the Animal Steele. Those were the days, wrestling was fun to watch.”

“Nov. 4, 1967, at Boston Garden. It was actually my bachelor party. I got married the very next day. I wish I could find the card for that event.”

“My dad used to manage Hay Stack Calhoun and Killer Kawalski.”

“I saw (Haystack) fight Killer Kowalski in a steel cage match at the Garden.”

“We went every month and every Friday night at Jack Witchies in N. Attleboro. I got to know a lot of the guys well. Even wanted to go to Killer Kowlaskis school in Stoneham.”

“The wrestlers used to come into the restaurant where I worked. They were the nicest bunch of guys. Very respectful to the staff. Gabe used to take me to the matches at the garden. He loved wrestling.”

“Bruno was my favorite, followed by Chief Jay Strongbow!”

“Yup, went with my dad back in the 70’s.”

“My brother and I worked The Garden selling popcorn, ice cream, and Cokes, and the 1st Saturday of every month was always reserved for wrestling. Roughest crowd, bar none. Some little 80-year-old lady dressed in black from head to toe (must have been widowed) cussed me out, threw her Coke at me and threatened me with bodily harm, because I was blocking her view of Bruno. I learned some new curses that night!”

“My dad took us on Saturday’s. I like tag team Tony Garea, Dean Ho! Chief Jay Strongbow, Haystack Calhoun, bad guys Killer Kowaleski, etc.”

“My brother and I used to take my grandfather to see them at the Garden. He would always be so surprised when they pulled out a “foreign object” as if he was the only one that could see it. Great memories!”

“They were great times at the Garden. Saw Sammartino take a trophy that was given to Lou Albano for being the first to manage both champion Ivan Koloff and the Mongoals and smash all of them with it and left them in a bloody mess.”

I recall taking the bus and train to The Garden with all my friends. We fell for wrestling lock, stock and … dropkick. I’ll never forget waiting at Lechmere for the trolley to take us to North Station. I even sent the JP my photo and bio into a wrestling magazine and got hundreds of letters from fellow fans from all over the wrestling world.”

One of my Facebook friends said that his uncle was Bruno Sammartino, who was from the same region in Italy my family comes from. He was my favorite and I wish I got to meet him before he recently passed.