Liberal, Kansas

The first thing I said when I was told by Heart of America Sports that I would be there, was, "Where is Liberal, Kansas? … And why would I want to go there to wrestle?”

Angus said it was probably between a couple of wheat fields next to a dinosaur park. In reality, it turned out to be on the Kansas - Oklahoma borderline.

I was happy that we were in Wichita the night before, and it was only a short 190-mile drive to Liberal, where we would spend some of the day beside the pool on the adjacent lot. The Cimarron Hotel was the only three-star place within 100 miles.

I had not liked the stay in southwest Kansas at Dodge City, as the St. Joseph wrestling office made the bookings for Angus and me. I think they were very jealous of the success we were enjoying in the Central States area.

I found out that day that Liberal was first settled by Mr. S.S. Rogers in 1872. He would always give his water free to passing travelers. Quite often, he would hear a reply of, "That's mighty liberal of you" from the grateful recipients.

By 1885, Mr. Rogers had opened a general store, and the government established an official Post Office. It seemed only natural to call the new town "LIBERAL."

The plot of the town site of Liberal was opened on April 13, 1888. Within a week, there were 83 wooden constructed houses in Liberal. In 1920, gas was discovered west of Liberal. In early 1951, oil was discovered southwest of the city limits.

The railroad is actually credited with keeping Liberal alive in the early years. Some maize and kaffir corn was raised with some success in the early 1900's. Broom corn proved to be very successful with many hundreds of acres being raised. Hard winter wheat came to Seward County from the eastern counties, and, by 1910, it had replaced broom corn as the major crop. Hard winter wheat could stand the hot, dry weather and proved to be the best variety to mill into flour.

One of the largest tourism draws to Liberal is Dorothy's House. This attraction was made famous by Frank Baum, who wrote the story "Wizard of Oz," which was later made into a movie starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. Located at the "Gateway to the Land of Ah's," Dorothy's House mimics the house in the movie, including coal oil lamps, period furnishings and other memorabilia. During the summer months, "Dorothy" is on hand to greet visitors along with other "Oz" characters.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his troop of 36 men entered Kansas at or near the Liberal town site in 1541, in search of Quivera, the legendary kingdom of gold.

It's simply amazing how much knowledge one can gain from just a little bit of snooping. I was always intrigued by the history of various towns and soon found Liberal to be full of rich stories and a wonderful past.

I found out from the front desk that we were only a few miles away from the big city school gymnasium where the matches would be held later that evening. Unlike the desk clerk in Dodge City that had given me what for, the clerk seemed very happy to have celebrities staying at the historic hotel.

At 6:30, we left the hotel and went to the high school, where we would begin a one hour workout to get all the kinks out of our bodies. Doing many pushups and situps, along with squats and pulling on surgical tubing that we carried in our bags, we soon had a lot of sweat coming out of our bodies.

The other end of our dressing area began to fill up with many of the stars of Heart of America sports. Bob Orton came over to our section and said hello and asked how our day had been. We talked for nearly a half hour, and, suddenly, Frankie Diamond yelled out, "It's bell time!"

Ronnie Etchison, the old pro from St. Joe, opened the card by facing Benji Rameriz from Mexico City. Benji was the former masked star The Mummy. These two guys should have been the second main event, as they put on one of the best offensive and defensive matches on the entire card. They had the overflow audience of nearly 3000 fans just eating out of their hands for an entire 20 minutes. With neither man scoring a win, it was declared a draw. Ronnie tried to shake Benji's hand at the end, but Benji jumped from the ring and returned to the dressing room.

We had met Ronnie Etchison on a few cards, and he was just as powerful as the announcers claimed him to be. His workout regime, I was told, consisted of placing his hands against each other and pushing the palms together in an isometric move. His legs would be kept toned by jogs of at least five miles a day.

The second match featured Terry Martin, from Minot, North Dakota, facing Juan Sebastian from Madrid, Spain. Juan was known in his earlier years on the mat as El Gaucho. A Gaucho is a Spanish cowboy. Juan was happy after 15 minutes of hard fought action to gain a defeat on Terry, using a big swing and a body press for the three-count. It took Terry nearly five minutes to get back to his feet and not stagger doing so.

To be continued…

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers

2003 BWC Hall of Fame Inductee
2004 CAC Hall of Fame Inductee
2006 LWA Hall of Fame Inductee