Anyone remember Ray Eckert?

Great story Debraco.

An interesting quote from Lou Thesz, in his autobiography, "Hooker", This isn't in the early spiral bound versions that lou made at kinkos and sold out of his house, only the kindle editions

"I remember one time when I was a young wrestler and was returning to St. Louis from some bookings down south. I was riding with Ray Eckert. who was a great wrestler, both as an amateur and as a pro. It was early evening when we passed through this small town in Tennessee and we spotted a good-sized carnival there. Lo and behold, there was a big sign advertising an AT show, so we decided to stop and see what was happening. We parked the car and then headed for the bally, where the outside talker was doing his ballyhoo. We listened for a while, then I raised my hand. 'My friend here will wrestle your guy,' I said. The outside talker didn't even acknowledge me, so I repeated myself three or four times and was attracting some attention from the crowd. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a guy slipping out of the back of the tent and circling way around the crowd, heading in our direction. The guy came up and stood right behind us and said in a low voice, Are you with it?' It was carnie talk for 'Are you with the program?' or 'Do you understand what's going on here?' I played stupid and looked at the guy as if I was puzzled. 'With it? No, I'm with him,' I said, gesturing at Ray. The carnie said, 'No, do you work?' I said, 'What kind of question is that? Yeah, I work. I've got a job in St. Louis.' Well, the carnie obviously wasn't buying my act. He looked both of us over real closely and said, 'Which one of you is the shooter?' I said, 'Shooter? Well, I carry a .22 in my car, but neither one of us is much of a shot.' Finally, the guy decided he'd had enough of us. He'd recognized Ray and figured out we were wrestlers. 'Look.' he said, 'we're not going to wrestle you guys. I know your friend here was a state champion in Missouri, and we don't have anyone who can beat him.' So I said, 'Well, how about me then? I'll wrestle your man.' The carnie wasn't buying any of it. 'We're not here to lose any money,' he said. 'If you persist with this, we'll just fold the tent and move on.' Well, Ray and I decided we'd had our fun and should let them off the hook — after all, they were just trying to earn a living — so we left. And that was the closest I ever came to actually being involved with a carnival."

You should understand I'm sarcasm impaired

It was Wembley Stadium in Johannesburg, a frequent site of wrestling cards, it hosted some big cards in it's time, Ray died in a little town in Missouri named California, he was from st louis originally, was a stablemate of Lou Thesz at the businessman's gym under George Tragos, who was the founder, and inaugural head coach of wrestling at the University of Missouri. No-one remembers ray anymore, but he was one of the most legit "hard" men in the game, as an amateur he was a one time state champion and one time runner up in Mo, at the time a state championship in MO, Iowa, Nebraska or Oklahoma was looked upon very highly.

Hi D. Im a little confused. The flyer says'Wembley Saturday 8th Sept 1951, so how would this be in South Africa? Is this THE Ray Eckert? (died in California in '96). I'm obviously missing something here! Cheers, John.

I have no idea why that didn’t occur to me until after I had posted. I’m donating some of his memorabilia to the local historical society and was hoping for a remembrance or two to add with the items. I know he made a few tours so maybe someone will remember a different match. Thanks for the response

Yes Henri Irslinger was the major promoter in South Africa at that time.

I just realized this is probably in South Africa, which would make more sense, seeing as Liebenberg and a lot of the other names on the card sound Boerish