Marvez: A Cauliflower feast for Bob Roop

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The Cauliflower Alley Club hasn't forgotten Bob Roop.
The CAC, a nonprofit group composed primarily of retired pro wrestlers, honored Roop recently at its annual banquet in Las Vegas. Roop was presented with the Lou Thesz Award for his technical prowess as a regional star throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
During a telephone interview, Roop joked that his commitment to attend the banquet was the main reason he won. Roop, though, was a worthy recipient of an award named after one of pro wrestling's most storied grapplers and in-ring wizards. Roop was an Olympic wrestler who parlayed his athletic talent into an 18-year pro career.
"I read the qualifications and they say Lou wanted the (winner) to have some kind of amateur background," said Roop, who estimates that he appeared in roughly 4,500 pro matches. "I was never a world champion, but when an honor like this comes to you, you don't turn it down."
After a seventh-place finish in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1968 Olympics, Roop embarked on a pro career the following year in Florida. Roop admits it took him time adjusting to the industry's show-business aspects.
"It wasn't an obstacle physically going from amateur wrestling," he said. "The problem was being flamboyant. Trying to become the next Hulk Hogan is a lot harder for amateurs.
"A younger guy might be able to do it easier. In my case, I was 26 years old. I had three years of military service. I had gone to college and graduated (from Southern Illinois University). I had established a personality. Bob Roop was, in my mind, a real person."
Roop eventually got the swing of things and even ended his career in Florida performing with a half-shaved head under the alias Maha Singh. Roop's greatest success came as a heel using the shoulder-breaker as his finishing maneuver. He headlined territories across the country. He also won several tag-team titles with "Cowboy" Bob Orton Jr., the father of current World Wrestling Entertainment star Randy Orton.
Roop said his most memorable story line came in 1976 while working against current WWE trainer Steve Keirn. Roop harshly insulted Keirn's father Richard -- who had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam but was eventually released -- during a television interview on "Championship Wrestling from Florida."
Keirn charged to attack Roop as scripted, but cracked his ankle on a camera stand en route to Gordon Solie's announcing table. Fans never knew that the emotional, tear-filled interview Keirn delivered about his father stemmed from the pain in his leg and not in his heart. (Keirn's father had signed off on the story line beforehand.)
The feud became a box-office success, but Roop encountered backstage fallout he never envisioned.
"If Steve had done that interview screaming and yelling, it wouldn't have had 1/10th the impact," Roop said. "Because of the way it happened, I started getting death threats that same day. A person I knew at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa called and told me some airmen were watching on TV and wanted to find my house to throw a tank grenade through the window. Some people even pulled guns on me."
Roop survived those threats but was forced to retire in 1988 following a car accident. Roop broke ties with the business in the early 1990s and moved his family from South Florida to outside Lansing, Mich.
Roop became heavily involved in Boy Scouts with his sons. He completed a second bachelor's degree, to work as a special-education elementary-school teacher. Roop, 66, also wrote a semi-autographical book ("Death Match") about some of his wild wrestling road stories.
While he doesn't follow the current wrestling scene, Roop has taken an interest in mixed-martial-arts fighting because of his son. Ryan Roop made his pro debut in March 2008 and has trained under MMA legend Dan "The Beast" Severn.
Like other star amateur wrestlers of the 1960s, Roop wishes that a potentially lucrative career option like the Ultimate Fighting Championship had existed in his heyday. If it had, Roop might never have followed in the footsteps of Dale Lewis, Jack Brisco and Army grappling teammate Jim Raschke (a/k/a Baron Von Raschke) into pro wrestling.
"In my prime, I would have been able to handle a lot of these guys today," said Roop, who wrestled as a 6-foot-1, 270-pound heavyweight. "I didn't like getting hit in the face. But if you told me how much money I could have made, I would have done it."
For more information on Roop, visit www.myspace.com/bobroop. For information on the CAC, visit www.caulifloweralleyclub.org.

(Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro-wrestling column for Scripps-Howard News Service. Contact him at alex1marv(at)aol.com.)