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Sandy Scott 1934-2010
Rest in Peace
Sandy Scott passed away on
Thursday March 11, 2010 after a
tough fight with pancreatic
cancer.
The Mid-Atlantic Gateway
sends its heartfelt condolences to
the family and friends of Sandy
Scott.
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Can you imagine being 12 years
old today and writing a letter to one of the WWE wrestlers
and actually hoping for a response? Well, of course, today a
12 year old wouldn’t write a letter; he’d send an e-mail, I
suppose. Do any of us actually write letters anymore? But
if, in a grand gesture to an earlier, gentler time, a 12
year old would indeed put pen to paper and write one of his
childhood wrestling heroes, what are the odds that same
wrestling hero would put pen to paper and write him back?
Probably slim to none.
In July of 1975, a young kid by
the name of George South was a fanatical wrestling fan who
did his best to attend every Monday night wrestling card he
could at the old Charlotte Park Center and would never think
of missing wrestling on WBTV-3 television every Saturday
afternoon. At 12 years old, the only way his grandmother
could make him behave was to threaten to not let him do
either.
That worked, by and large, and
he immersed himself in the wonderful, colorful world of
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and closely followed all the big
stars - Paul Jones, Blackjack Mulligan, the Anderson
Brothers, “Mr. Wrestling” Tim Woods, Wahoo McDaniel, Johnny
Valentine, and even a very young Ric Flair. But one of his
very favorites was a wrestler who had begun to phase out of
his active wrestling career, his matches at the Park Center
becoming fewer and far between. This star was a legend in
the territory, a wrestler who had main-evented in singles
and tag team competition for as long as George could
remember. His legend was bigger than life, especially to
this young kid who lived every moment for his wrestling
heroes. That wrestler’s name was Sandy Scott.
Before
the Anderson Brothers there were the Scott Brothers. The
“flying Scotts” they were called then, Sandy and George
Scott, wrestling’s greatest brother tag team at that time,
champions in various territories for parts of three decades,
and bonafide legends in the Mid-Atlantic territory. George
Scott no longer wrestled, but Sandy had continued his ring
career, teaming with other partners like Nelson Royal. Sandy
Scott and Nelson Royal won the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team
championships just weeks after George South's 11th birthday.
Now at age 12 and school out
for the summer, with a baloney sandwich and a glass of milk,
he watched Mid-Atlantic Wrestling every Saturday afternoon, hoping to see
Sandy Scott. Host Bob Caudle would announce that if fans
wanted to write the wrestlers, they could send their letters
to the TV station where they taped studio wrestling. He
faithfully gave the P.O. Box address in Raleigh each week;
it was the same address if you wanted to reserve tickets for
the TV matches in Raleigh, too. George knew he would
probably never get to go to the tapings; Raleigh seemed a
world away to a 12 year old boy. But that wouldn’t prevent
him from writing to one of his favorites. At Bob Caudle's
suggestion, he decided to write Sandy Scott a letter.
George sat down at his
grandmother’s kitchen table with a pencil and a piece of
notebook paper and wrote Sandy the nicest letter he knew how
to write. He told Sandy how much he loved him, how much he
loved the Scott Brothers team, and how he was Sandy's most
loyal fan. George also drew a picture of Sandy, working hard
to duplicate what he had seen in a wrestling magazine.
George carefully folded the
letter and the drawing, slid them into a plain white
envelope, applied a 10-cent first class postage stamp,
placed the envelope in his grandmother’s mailbox, and raised
the red metal flag.
He didn’t really expect
anything in return. Surely, he thought, a wrestler as
important as Sandy Scott wouldn't have time to write a
letter back to a fan. But a few weeks later a large white
envelope arrived from Charlotte, the mailing label bearing
the logo and address of Jim Crockett Promotions. It was the
coolest thing George had ever seen. He held it for a while
before opening it, marveling at the words on the label –
“Member of the National Wrestling Alliance.”
Inside was a letter from the
one and only Sandy Scott. And it wasn’t a form letter that
someone from the office had sent him; it was in Sandy’s own
handwriting, and mentioned things that George had written in
his original letter. He knew Sandy had written it himself.
Not only was there the letter, but he had also sent an 8x10”
black and white photograph that Sandy personally signed: “To
George, Yours in Sports, Sandy Scott.”
The letter, dated July 15,
1975, read:
Dear George,
It was good to receive your
letter and to know you’re such a good fan. I’ll be sure to
tell George that you said hello and the nice things you said
about us as a tag team. Enclosed you will find a picture
that I have autographed for you. Good luck to you.
Yours in Sports,
Sandy Scott
And on the back:
PS – The picture you drew of
me was very nice and I enjoyed it very much.
It’s hard to imagine today’s
superstars taking the time to write fans, if one could even
imagine fans caring enough to write the wrestlers to begin
with. Wrestling today is just one of many amusements to pass
the time, a few hours on Monday night, and not another
thought given to it after the show is over. No one is
reaching out to make a personal connection, no wrestler is
talking you into the local building for the next show in your
home town. Today they just hope you’ll tune in the following
week, hoping they can pull a good rating. No emphasis is
given to filling the seats at the Park Center on a Monday
night, or other arenas like it, once the life's blood of the
wrestling business.
Lost is the personal bond
between wrestlers and fans. But that summer in 1975, Sandy
Scott had made a 12 year old fan very happy with a short
hand-written letter. And that young fan held on to that
letter to this day.
Thanks to George South for
sharing this story with us. •
Article published 2/10/10
Copyright ©
2010 Mid-Atlantic Gateway
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