Thursday, July 6, 2023

GEORGE AND SANDY

 

Today I salute one of the top tag teams who ever worked for JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS. I refer to the fabulous GEORGE and SANDY SCOTT, known in the business as THE FLYING SCOTTS.

GEORGE slams BRONCHO LUBICH.

SANDY applies the 'abdominal stretch' to LUBICH.
It was a bad night for BRONCHO.

Here SANDY gives THE MISSOURI MAULER a free chiropractic adjustment.

At home, GEORGE poses with his son, GEORGE JR. and family pet Sam.
---
Next to BECKER and WEAVER, the SCOTTS were the top 'babyface' team in the MID-ATLANTIC WRESTLING area during the 1960s. In fact, GEORGE and SANDY were already world renown before ever coming to JCP in 1957, nearly five years before George and Johnny ever got together.

In 1967, Gene Gordon said that 'the SCOTT brothers have done more for tag team wrestling than the Smith brothers have done for cough drops. Jumpin' GEORGE and Slammin' SANDY have been flattening the best in the business for the past ten years like a pair of Mack trucks driving over balloons.'

It was at Central High School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, that the wrestling bug first bit GEORGE. Already an ice hockey and football player, he was asked to work out with the wrestling team one day, and that workout changed his life. He turned professional in 1949.

It wasn't until five years later, in 1954, that younger brother SANDY joined his brother in the wrestling ring. At this point, they began wrestling all over the world, holding tag team championships in numerous countries. Then in 1957, they landed in CROCKETT country for the first time.

GEORGE stated, in a 1967 interview, that LOU THESZ was the best he personally ever met in the ring, with GENE KINISKI a close second. In terms of tag teams, SANDY credits BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY as the most rugged team he and GEORGE ever butted heads with, with ALDO BOGNI and BRONCHO LUBICH right behind.

Ironically, the very first live wrestling I ever attended at Charlotte's PARK CENTER (around 1965) was headlined with GEORGE and SANDY challenging BOGNI and LUBICH for the SOUTHERN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP, then held by the 'heels'.
The champions took the first fall, the challengers evened the match winning the second fall. The match ended in a sixty-minute Broadway.

Disappointed that the good guys did not win the titles that night, we consoled ourselves by making a stop on the way home at the KRISPY KREME on Independence Boulevard.


SANDY has BRONCHO LUBICH wishing he had stayed at home.

GEORGE acknowledges the crowd after an introduction.

One of wrestling's ALL-TIME great tag teams.

SANDY after hanging up his tights.

No comments: