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Bob King: Pelican wrestling ‘Godfather’ has Park Rapids roots By Louis Hoglund ment hobby has been woodworking Pelican Rapids Press in his home. As far as wrestling, following is a I planned a column about the generscratch-the-surface rundown. ally dismal state of affairs confronting King launched the Pelican program us.....blah, blah, blah..... in a school hallway, because there was Then...I went to a couple wrestling nowhere else to practice. He barely kept matches down the street, at Pelican records the first three years; and King’s Rapids High School. penmanship was so awful, that his late Everything changed. assistant Dean Fox took over the books Why on earth would I wallow in the – and forbid King from touching them. mud of national politics when local Heck, King wasn’t much of a stories are much more interesting? wrestler himself. Stories like Bob King. He had a little bit of mat experience He’s the northern Minnesota guy at a feeble program at Park Rapids from the wrong side of the tracks – and High. the wrong side of the river – in Park At Bemidji State, the guy coached Rapids, who single-handedly founded from a U.S. Navy wrestling manual the Pelican school wrestling program because he didn’t know what he was 60 years ago. doing. Plus, the Bemidji football and He spent a career in the Pelican school wrestling coach was a complete and system, teaching shop and coaching, total jerk, said King. “He was burned in and raising 50 or so kids along the way: effigy six times while I was up in BemThe Kings took in Foster kids. Dozens idji,” said King. of them. Juvenile delinquents, for the For those of you who didn’t grow most part. From the wrong side of the up during the American Revolutionrailroad tracks, most of them. ary War – or the 1950s – “burning in “Well, these kids had a choice: Go to effigy” may require some explanation. reform school, or go to the Kings...If You create a likeness of the King of they didn’t make it at the Kings, they England, and torch it during the Boston were sent away.” Tea Party. As Bob tells it, the Kings would get a In the 1950s, you might create a couple new ones each year. look-alike of then-vice president Rich“I think the most we had was 12 ard Nixon, or maybe Elvis, if you held at one time.” religious convictions that rock and roll Twelve??? truly was the Devil’s music. A dozen delinquents?...Under the Or you could burn the effigy of some same roof?...At the same time? numbskulled college professor – which Unfathomable, for most of us moris what they did up in Bemidji. tals. Point being: King wasn’t exactly an But Bob had secret weapons. Olympic-level wrestler. A couple dozen cows, for starters. Still, he managed to build a program “We’d get the kids up at 5 or 5:30 from a motley crew of Pelican-ites a.m. to milk the cows. The kids who that went on to nine conference titles, got in the most trouble had to clean the seven district championships and two pens.” Submitted photo Another weapon, his late wife Cleo. Pelican Rapids wrestling coach Harold Holt, at left, with the guy who started it all six decades ago: Bob King, regional titles. I could have written a column about She didn’t take any guff from the ruf- 87, who is originally from Park Rapids. national affairs – this week, U.S. Presfians. idents born with silver spoons up their “She made them go outside and King was a Park Rapids High School football player, you-know-what. Or about congresswomen who ponsmoke their cigarettes – even if it was 20 below,” who spent a couple years with Uncle Sam’s Army in recalled Bob. Of course, that also applied to whatever the mid-1950s, and returned to the northwoods to tificate about disadvantaged and troubled youth at San Francisco wine and cheese and Perrier parties. Or other stuff they might have been smoking. Most of attend Bemidji State University on the GI Bill. I might have written about big, fat, hot air machines the King foster kids were “troublemakers,” placed That’s the abbreviated backstory on 87-year-old out of the criminal justice system – not by social Bob King. Foster parent, educator, farmer, father of like talk show right-winger Rush Limbaugh. So, decided not to write about politics this week. services. three (Scott; Mike, who wrestled for him; and Sherri, Bob King’s a better story. (Cleo, who died about 25 years ago, also became who still works on the sidelines during meets). Also, a faithful wrestling fan herself. Widower Bob later foster parent to a few dozen transient ragamuffins; Louis Hoglund is managing editor of the Pelican Rapids Press. This column appeared in the Feb. 12, 2020 edition. married Cheryl Larson.) and a couple hundred rag-tag wrestlers. His retire-
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