The Amazing True Story Of Victor, The Wrestling Bear

February 28, 2014 6:59 AM

"I mean, my God," Chet Coppock said. "We're 35 years removed from this, and I still have people who when I go to Indianapolis will see me and go, 'You know, I still remember the night you wrestled Victor the Bear.'"
posted by Chrysostom (5 comments total)

Mike Herbert should have spent the rest of his life popping up in a canoe anytime Truesdell got anywhere near water, chasing him relentlessly like the newspaper kid from Better Off Dead, bellowing "I WANT MY CAMARO!"
posted by Naberius at 7:47 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

A wrestling bear came to Muncie IN in the early 80's. It was at the Armory downtown and offered a cash prize to anyone who could pin the bear. The star heavy weight wrestler from Delta High School beat the bear so badly that the bear's trainer was crying and begging him to let his bear go. I beleive the story was written up in the Muncie Star Newspaper.
posted by Hoosier Prospector at 8:10 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

...an Alaskan brown bear came out onto the court to wrestle some people...

Victor, sporting a weight advantage of at least a quarter-ton...

Victor was a black bear and probably didn't weigh anything close to a quarter-ton himself.

/pedant
posted by klanawa at 9:57 AM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

"As the bear was licking and chewing on the fingertip," Smith's lawyer recalled, "the trainer walked over, scooped up the finger, handed it to him and said get out."

Victor sounds at least as awesome as Smokey Bear.
posted by asperity at 11:26 AM on February 28, 2014

Cookie-Eating Bear Provides Brief Respite From Horrors Of Daily Existence
posted by homunculus at 6:13 PM on March 1, 2014 [1 favorite]