Message-ID:  

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/enquirer/living/8842166.htm

Sun, Jun. 06, 2004 

A lifetime in WRESTLING

"Wrestling is something you have to want to do. You can teach someone
the holds, but you can't teach him athletic ability, agility and
timing. And if you don't have that, you can't do it."

BY SANDRA OKAMOTO

Staff Writer

WRESTLING

Local wrestler, Jerry Oates working hard to bring Georgia championship
wrestling back to Columbus

Jerry Oates still looks like the fit wrestler he's always been. But at
56, he's realizing the time to quit is coming.

"I know I won't be able to do it much longer, but I will know when to
quit," he said quietly in his empty Sports Arena recently. "I know
it's coming. I'm not stupid. But only Jerry Oates can make that
decision. And as long as I'm able to produce in the ring, I'm going to
do it.

"Wrestling is in my blood."

Born and reared in Columbus, Oates was a Jordan High School wrestler
who made the transition to professional wrestling in his late teens.

Rose Maree Ogle, whose father was Fred Ward, the wrestling promoter
for the Columbus area, remembers seeing Oates at her father's arena.

"I've known him since he and his brother and sister came to the
matches," Ogle said. "Mr. and Mrs. Oates (Ermine and Jimmy) lived over
near Jordan High School. Jerry was the middle child.

"Jerry has a good character and integrity. My father always admired
him. He had a lot of trust in Jerry."

Oates' older sister, Jannell, a former Miss Columbus, married a
professional wrestler, Dick Steinborn, who was a big name in the
1960s. Right after high school, Oates first started lifting weights
and competing in bodybuilding contests. He later moved to Orlando to
train with Steinborn and started to learn all about wrestling.

In 1970, when he was 22, Oates made his debut. He last wrestled on May
18.

Younger brother Ted decided to learn to wrestle as well, and for a
time, the Oates Brothers were a tag team. The two brothers are now
estranged, with no one in the family talking about the split.

All-American type

Steve Beverly and Mike Mooneyham are two guys who have watched Oates'
career.

"Jerry Oates was the good, steady performer in wrestling who was
probably in his prime five-to-seven years too late," said Beverly, the
Ledger-Enquirer's wrestling columnist. "The industry shifted away from
the Jack Brisco-Tim Woods All-American-type character Jerry typically
portrayed to the comic book, exaggerated heroes and villains Vince
McMahon began to emphasize."

In the early 1980s, one of the initial feuds on Atlanta's TBS
superstation was between Jerry Oates and Ronnie Garvin vs. Ted Oates
and Rip Rogers (the Hollywood Blonds).

"Other than Ole vs. Lars Anderson, no one had ever seen a brother feud
before," Beverly said. "The feud didn't really capture the imagination
of viewers as the promotion had hoped. That wasn't Jerry or Ted's
fault. It was the timing. The Hulk Hogan era had begun and the two
brothers from Georgia feuding with each other in a small TV studio
paled in relation to the big-time production values which were coming
out of New York. Had that feud occurred five years earlier, it may
have had traction."

Beverly says Oates is a wrestler who always came back to his roots.
While he worked in other parts of the country and overseas, he always
came back to Columbus.

"He is one wrestler who has always given back to his home community,
which cannot be said for many in the wrestling business," Beverly
said. "He's trained a lot of young wrestlers who have gone onto bigger
things and his effort to restart Georgia Championship Wrestling is
indicative of his commitment to try, against the odds, to bring
traditional wrestling entertainment to his home area."

Mooneyham, who writes a wrestling column for The Post and Courier in
Charleston, S.C., says Oates was a "smooth worker inside the ring and
out and, being a native of Columbus, was quite popular throughout the
state of Georgia. I remember seeing Jerry wrestle many times at the
old Savannah Sports Arena and he was always a crowd favorite.

"Of course, it was in Columbus where Jerry really made his mark,
forming a top team with brother Ted, a very accomplished matman in his
own right. It was also in Columbus where Jerry teamed with former NWA
world heavyweight champ Ronnie Garvin to capture the NWA Georgia
tag-team belts from the Road Warriors on July 4, 1984."

Like Beverly, Mooneyham is excited that Oates is trying to bring
wrestling back to the area.

"It's refreshing to see Jerry recapture some of the glory days of
Georgia Championship Wrestling 20 years later with his shows in
Columbus."

Skinny kid

"I like to say he (Jerry) is older, but I am," confessed Jannell
Studdard, now a nurse. "He was an awesome brother. He and I fought
like all kids did. But he is my hero.

"He was just a skinny little kid. No one ever thought he'd turn out
this big."

She tears up as she speaks about her brother. "He's worked so hard.
This is his dream."

Oates' dream is the Sports Arena, a 10,000-square-foot warehouse that
he's converted into a multi-use space. It's in an old Burnham Van
Lines warehouse off Milgen Road.

Later this month, Deborah Hatcher, who owns Mademoiselle Modeling
Agency, will hold her final model search in Columbus there.

Oates says there can be receptions, dances and other sporting events
there.

When he closed Oates Gym, which he operated on Warm Springs Road, in
2002, he started working on the Sports Arena.

Studdard says he worked day and night on the facility, often sleeping
there so he could get a head start in the morning.

Wrestler reviews

The wrestlers who have performed at the Sports Arena love it.

"I think it's perfect for wrestling," said Brad Armstrong, who is from
a wrestling family. His father, Bob, was a top wrestler in his day,
and his brothers, Steve, Scott and The Road Dog (Brian), all wrestle.

"I grew up watching Jerry and Ted," Armstrong said after his match
Tuesday. "I think this place has a great atmosphere." He says he hopes
to be a regular in Columbus again.

Vordell Walker, who's been wrestling professionally for three years,
says it's the best arena of its size in Georgia.

"Right now, this is the best quality of wrestling in the state," he
said. A native of Jessup, Ga., he learned to wrestle in Hemingway,
S.C. He now lives in Savannah, and was going to drive home after
having dinner with some of the other performers.

Julius Jordan, 15, is not a wrestler and doesn't want to be one. His
brother, A.J. Steele, is the wrestler in the family. Jordan was
impressed with the Sports Arena, having followed his brother around
all over the Southeast.

"It's nice," he said. "This should be televised."

Fans love it, too.

Michael Gammad, 16, a ninth grader at Hardaway High School, is a big
fan of wrestling. He says he'll be back.

So will Maritza Fleming of Columbus. "I love it. It's great. Jerry has
done a great job." She loves the action, and loves to watch the
wrestlers like Sonny Siaki.

"I've been watching wrestling since I was a little girl," Fleming
said. "I used to watch it all the time with my Dad."

She remembers watching Oates wrestle. "He was young," she said. "But
he still has it."

Unlikely couple

The love of Jerry Oates' life is his wife Kathy.

When they met, she was a professional ice skater with Holiday on Ice.
Her father, Aaron Newman, was a wrestling promoter in Savannah.

"Wrestlers were always taboo," Kathy Oates said with a smile. "Then he
(Jerry) walked in. When I first saw him, I felt that I'd known him
forever. It's like I'd loved him in a past life."

And that was that. "Daddy wasn't too happy" with her choice, she said.

Jerry and Kathy got married and decided to make Columbus their
permanent home in 1972.

"Jerry is a man with a big heart," Kathy Oates said. "He's giving,
loving, kind."

Studdard, her sister-in-law, approved. "Kathy has helped him in every
way."

While Kathy and Jerry Oates don't have children, Jerry's son from his
first marriage has given them two grandchildren. Bo Oates, 33, is a
teacher at Hardaway High School. He says all kids wanted to wrestle,
but his father encouraged him to go to school and get an education. So
he did. He's now working on his master's degree.

Hitting the gym

As Oates' wrestling career started to slow down, he and his brother
Ted decided to open the Oates Brothers Gym in 1978.

Jerry Oates later bought out Ted's share of the business and changed
the name to Oates Gym.

Oates Gym was a no-frills gym in an old auto shop with concrete floors
and no air conditioning. It was a place for hard-core bodybuilders,
and he kept the gym going until 2002.

Three years ago, Oates was in a bad automobile accident, and spent a
lot of time recuperating. He got in the ring for the first time since
the accident on May 18. He ended up with some deep scratches on his
forearm from the ring restraints.

He's had surgery on his knees, shoulder and elbow and suffered
concussions.

"I have a good team at Hughston Hospital that keep me going," Oates
said with a smile. "I still have a few matches in me.

"It's not my age; it's the injuries. You have to know when to stop.
It's a young man's game. But in my mind, I'm still 25 years old."


--- Internet Rex 2.29