domingo, 5 de agosto de 2012

INTERVIEW WITH OZZIE STEVENS



See a lot of guys are big name because other people build their name up or whatever. People who don’t fight dogs, they do all kinds of build up on certain people. Their idols, and they might come up with this and this one tells that one and they come up with a big story. The way I look at it, because a guy wins all kinds of fights on one end of town or one state and another guy wins the same amount of fights somewhere else. The difference is, who did you match into? Some kind of amateurs that was easy to beat? Because I know some of the biggest guys that have done some dirty work. Matched into dogs that previously lost… You know, but if I say stuff Fat Bill would put it right in there! He should know himself.

A lot of different dog men, the dummies in the dog game now, they hear these names and they think these guys were great dog men. They never fought a dog in their life. Never did nothing. Some guys that sold dogs for big, big money. I sold Troll to Castillo for $1,500. He sold it to the Germans for $8,000. He certainly didn’t need any money. He had a big job with Ford. He was a 20 year man with Ford. He didn’t work in the factory; he had like a foreman type job. He was up there. His (Castillo) first fight he lost. Then after that he got a good bitch, and I gave him a lot of tips on conditioning and he won three times with the bitch. That’s all he ever did (Castillo). He had four fights. A lot of guys, they hear these names plastered everywhere. Jack Kelly plastered everything. Whoever was his friend, you got big recognition. I matched into Jack Kelly in New York. Jack Kelly, the editor of the magazine he was just starting out. I’m trying to think what year that was. 76? Yeah, 1976. He called me on to come to New York. So I drove up there with Bryan. Bryan, who had Snake JR., Big Brad, Big Brad had Red Danger and he is the one that brought Angus here. Big Brad brought Angus from California then he ended up selling him to Billy Stepp. Now uh, thinking back. Brad and Bryan went with me. We had a camper on a pickup truck. So we drove up to New York City. I get there, and I agreed to meet Jack Kelly. So we are going to fight on Sunday morning and this was Saturday. So we call him, tell him where we were. Tell him to pick us up and take us to the construction site. Pulled the truck with the camper inside the construction site, it’s all big 10 foot high cyclone fence. Pulled inside of there and he just locked us in there. We had food in the camper, we had water. We had everything you needed. So, when I met him he said “Let me see your dog.” We had 31 lb females. He looked and he laughed when I brought the dog out. He said, “That little bitch, I’m gonna kill your little bitch tomorrow!” And he was sure he was gonna do that. So, he rolls his bitch but Jack Kelly was a bullshitter and a dreamer. To me, he was no dog man. He just could write magazines and bullshit. The morning came, right in that place where we were locked in, he had all his people or all his friends came or whatever. He had gone to Georgia, he was still living in New York but he was planning on going to live in Georgia later when retired because he was a cop up there. Now, he wanted a terrible, terrible dog. The guy who was winning all the fights all the time was Andre Giroux. But Andre rolled his dogs so much that they would stay in hold on you; they would lock on your face and stay there. They were on your dogs face, the side of your dogs’ cheek; well your dog couldn’t bite him. It makes the dog panic, he’d wear himself out trying to get loose and when they are all worn out your dog can beat the shit out of him. That’s the way Andre’s dogs beat everybody. Kelly, instead of buying a dog directly from Andre, he takes one of his own bitches and he breeds it to Andre’s dog. He ended up with a terrible hard biting bitch. So he rolled her and she just destroyed everything, 1-2-3. She’d just bite them down and if they didn’t take her off, she’d kill them. Anyway, he had that trophy knife made down in Georgia. He had that trophy knife made by a knife maker. So that was the trophy, the bowie knife. I forget who was the referee. It wasn’t Andre, but Andre was his corner man. We’re in his territory so he’s figured he’s got it made for sure. He figures I didn’t have a chance. So the dogs are released and by three minutes, my bitch is bloodied up. Arteries hit in each ankle. That bitch went to the ankles and bit deep enough where the bloods pouring out of mine. So he hurt mine good within three minutes, but in my situation, most of my dogs would go to your face. Go to your nose or whatever. All my dogs could bite, just like his could bite. Only thing is, my dogs could bite and they were game. My bitch bit his on the nose, grabbed her nose and bit down terrible and his bitch starts screaming. Mine got a grip on the nose and just smashed that nose and lip and the whole bit. His bitch was screaming and couldn’t get loose, so mine just shook her out and had her screaming good. Let go and shot into her shoulder, took a big chunk out of her shoulder, went into her backend and starts shaking her like a rag doll all over the pit. Kelly’s dog had big fangs, snapped in my dogs face, broke loose and tried to run. Tried to jump the pit. My bitch grabbed her by the tail and pulled her back in. Slammed her down and Kelly of course calls a turn and gets a handle on his bitch. Thinks he can get her to scratch, so he goes and this is why he hated me from that day on. He was jealous as a bastard. Anything that I had to do with and the dog was sold to somebody else, there was no mention that I even ever owned that dog. Oh shit, Bulldog Heavens Geraldine, Sextons Bubbles… BULLSHIT! Bubbles was the mother of Virgil, did he breed Virgil? I don’t think so! Bulldog Heavens Geraldine. I sold that dog to them after she got older. I did the breedings, I bred all kinds of god damn Champions and I had ROM bitches. I had them for years. But Jack Kelly, would never let that ever show. Because of what I did to him that day. He invited people. From all different states, from the south, from New England, from Chicago and bragging to everybody ahead of time what he’s gonna do to my bitch. He’s killing her. He was sure. When I put a hurtin on his dog, the nose and the rest of the things I did to her she curred out and tried to jump the pit and my bitch grabbed her tail pulled her back in. He gets her in the corner and he thinks he can get her to scratch. Whatever he was hoping for, he was hoping for a miracle because he was embarrassed he invited all those people. Referee said OK, 25 seconds face your dogs; 5 seconds more release your bitch. He took his hands off her, and he was holding her to face my bitch and she didn’t even want to look at my bitch. When he let go of her, she turned around and ran between his legs and was clawing at the corner of the pit trying to get out of there. He never forgot that ever (laughs).
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN THE DOGS?
I had a friend who got Hetricks yard. Hetricks yard was in North East and they were old and they got real old and they either gave him the dogs or got very few dollars because he didn’t have nothing. A guy named, J. Whitsell. He was in a suburb of Pittsburgh so he took the whole yard of Hetricks. So he got about 35 dogs. Well, he didn’t have anywhere to put them. So he leased this property where he was going to have a summer camp for kids and in the winter he stuck all the dogs there. And when his friends came he had to move them all. Which he ended up doing and then he just started selling them off trying to make money off of them and he didn’t know what he had there you know. He was a terrible dog keeper, eventually he got out of the dogs. He got into trouble and got out of the dogs. But uh, that’s how I got started. Then I got introduced to Jack Kelly and Komosinski though him.

I seen Jack Kelly fight at Walter Komosinskis’. Komosinski had conventions up there. Komosinski had guys coming from Florida who had dogs directly off of Maurice Carver and of course they won. Walter lived in Tarentum. 25 miles north of Pittsburgh. Walter of course was an old time dog man. He had the foreign attitude. The way everybody looked at things in America, he didn’t look at it that way. He just, totally different.

CH HOMER: Homer was a hard biting dog, Homers first fight was 44 lbs against Frank Bunce of Michigan. Frank’s dog was called ‘Black Jack’ and was said to be a four time winner. ‘Black Jack’ came from the Carolinas. When released, Homer over powered Black Jack, and got into the stifles. Homer showed terrible mouth, Black Jack was unable to scratch at forty minutes. Black Jack died on the way home.

Match #2. The match was originally between the Bishop Brothers and Ziggy from Canada. The Bishops lived in Buffalo, NY, so they were close to Canada. The Bishops had trouble with their dog and contacted me to bring Homer instead of their dog. This was four weeks in front of the match. I drove to Canada, and the fight took place in Ziggy’s cellar. Ziggy was using a son of Tombstone, CH Savage. Andre Giroux and several of the French Canadians were there. When the dogs were released, it didn’t take very long for Homer to cripple CH Savage. At the 13 minute mark, CH Savage couldn’t push himself off the floor. Both shoulders and both stifles were gone. Ziggy conceded at thirty nine minutes and CH Savage crawled on his belly like a snake to complete a scratch. CH Savage died one hour later.



Match #3 - This was at a convention, and it was against the oldtimer Clyde Mason. His dog was called ‘Thumper’ and he had a good reputation. They drove from Missouri to Pennsylvania so they must have had a lot of confidence in their dog. He was conditioned and handled by Ray Carter. Attending this convention was Dave Adams of GR CH Zebo and GR CH Art fame. Also there was Jack Kelly, editor of the Sporting Dog Journal and Ralph Greenwood all the way from Salt Lake City, Utah. In this match Thumper showed to be conditioned to perfection, and had such great balance that Homer could not throw him to the mat. Thumper was very effective at holding Homer out. He stayed on Homer’s head, and was very strong. Somewhere around thirty-five minutes, Homer seen he couldn’t get to the stifle, so he switched his style and went to the head. He got a good hold on Thumpers lower jaw and he broke it. That was the crucial point of the match. Thumper could not hold Homer out. Now Homer went in for the kill. He was doing terrible damage to Thumpers stifles and between his legs. There was a handle made with Thumper to scratch. He fell in his corner and was counted out at 52 minutes. He died forty five minutes later. Judges voted Homer ‘Best in Show”. In that same convention, I won ‘Best of Opposite Sex’ with CH Tammy (she was GR CH Vigil’s grandmother). Also winning that night was CH Rastus. I had been winning 98% of his fights for quite a while. Clyde Mason supposed to be the old time southern gentlemen or whatever you want to call him. He was not that. He was crying like a baby. I mean he wasn’t really crying tears, but he was bitching, he was, he just couldn’t believe that his dog got beat because his dog kicked ass everywhere. He had a bad attitude about it.
After the third fight, a lot of guys were jealous because they couldn’t win all the time. So a bunch of guys got together, and they had this one black guy in Pittsburgh. He had GR CH Mickey. A lot of guys, they’re all jealous. There’s no way you can go out and win fights forever and have everybody be your friend. They’re gonna all be jealous. They can’t win, and they are going say “How the hell can you do it?” You have to have the dogs, and you have to be the man! The dog is only as good as the man behind him. You go to convention after convention and you win all the fights and you win the trophies every single time, ha, you think they ain’t gonna be jealous or what!?

About a year later, a combine formed to beat me, they were Ralph Livingston, Big Brad of Red Danger fame, Lonny Woodberry who owned GR CH Mickey and Tony Wolfe who was the owner of CH Saloon, a four time winner. The combine was using a dog called Bear and he looked bigger than CH Homer. This fight was at forty five lbs. This Bear dog was sired by Livingston’s CH Freddie who was a littermate to CH Homer. I accepted this challenge even though I couldn’t work Homer as good as I did previous, due to my wife suffering from Leukemia. During the keep, I missed many days taking care of my wife.

On the day of the fight, I told my opponents, I only had three good weeks of work in him but he was fed good for six weeks. The dogs were weighed and brought into the pit. Both weighed 45 lbs. The bear dog started out ahead in the fight and remained there for 16 minutes or more. Cutting up Homer’s legs. Then CH Homer started biting hard and coming back. I talked to him urging him on to hurt Bear. In a short while Bear went down and Ch Homer was biting big holes in the stifles and between the legs. Ch Homer continued to punish Bear and Bear was screaming. The combine conceded at forty four minutes. Bear died that night.

I was inactive for about a year. When Big Brad came to my house, he said he was sent to borrow CH Homer. They want to take him out for his fifth time. My family objected and they let me know how they felt about loaning CH Homer out.

Brad continued to visit trying to convince me to let them take CH Homer. Finally, I relented and let Brad take CH Homer. I was under the impression that Jim Stinson would work CH Homer and that he would go at 45 lbs. Stinson always worked Billy Stepps’ dogs for most all of his fights. Why not this time? In fact, Billy Stepp himself would work CH Homer. Why? Most everyone in the dog game never heard of Billy Stepp working a dog before. Stepp never, ever, handled a dog in the pit. He was known as a gambler. I didn’t know until three weeks before the fight that CH Homer was going into ‘Jeep’. I was really upset that CH Homer was going at 42lbs. Now that CH Homer was five years old, I felt he should fight at 45lbs.

Big Brad and I arrived in Georgia on Saturday morning. The fight was to be Saturday night. Brad and I went to Stepps’ motel room. The first words Billy Stepp said to me were, “Did you ever have trouble with Homer drying out before?” To which I replied “NO!”

Billy Stepp said that he worked Homer and drove from Dayton, Ohio to Southern Georgia. Homer dehydrated and when he arrived in Georgia and Stepp weighed him, Homer’s weight plummeted down to 40 1/2 lbs (this was Thursday). Stepp said he then gave Homer a bucket of water. Homer drank one and one half buckets of water from Thursday to Saturday. Stepp felt he would be OK.

All the mistakes they made up till now were stacking the deck against Homer. Don’t you think they should have given and I.V. or some drink with electrolytes in it? After all does regular water have electrolytes in it? Once you dog dehydrates and you take him to the vets, would they give him water out of the faucet? I don’t think so!

Homer needed an I.V. He needed electrolytes. They give babies Pedialtye don’t they? Why didn’t they give Homer Pedialyte? Do you know why? Because they didn’t know what they were doing. No previous experience.

Butch House from Texas was there before the fight. He said in his opinion Homer was jacked up and it showed in his head. It was sunken in. Butch House said he seen the same thing before in Texas.

On the night of the fight, Billy Stepped picked a friend from Florida to handle. His name was Kenny Sammons. That was another mistake, as Sammons was having a nervous breakdown in the corner as the dogs were facing each other. The referee never said anything. The next thing you know, here comes Jeep wide open, Kenny Sammons was looking to his right talking to someone, outside of the pit. Homers legs were held off the floor then all the spectators yelled to Sammons to “Release your dog!” The yelling scared and startled Sammons and he threw CH Homer out into the pit. Homer hit the floor and his legs buckled and he went down. Before he could get up, Jeep was in his shoulder. Jeep stayed there for 10 minutes. Now it took Homer ten minutes to bite him out. Where was Homers bite? The answer: Left in the gym, due to the mistakes of cutting him below his best weight, and 3 lbs below.

But Why? You will soon find out.

So now from the 10 minute mark on CH Homer had to fight on three legs. Where does that put you in your ability to wrestle? How can you throw your opponent? You are now behind. Yet the longer the fight went, the more determined Homer became and he evened things up. He was so game; he couldn’t realize how bad the odds were stacked against him. The fight went on — and on — and on. Now it was reaching the three hour mark. Crenshaw could feel the pressure. He started feeling he might lose. So he came over to Billy Stepp and asked for a draw. Stepp then asked me, “Should we agree?” I told him “NO!”. The draw was off. Crenshaw was worried that’s why he asked for a draw. Why? Because at the three hour mark Jeep was sitting in a standing position, his tongue was out and he was breathing heavily, and he was out of hold. At this moment in time, CH Homer was in Jeeps stifle, while Jeep paid no attention and was surveying the crowd.

Homer was working away at the three hour mark, shaking out on Jeeps stifle. When he stiffened up and fell over, and he layed stretched out on his side. By now Homer was dying. Fighting this long Homer had to lose some weight. He probably weighed forty lbs or less. So now that Homer fell over and layed on his side not moving, this excited Jeep and he then goes into Homer’s throat. He digs in for a couple minutes, and then comes out of hold, picks up his head, his tongue is out of his mouth, he is breathing heavily. Jeep then makes a sudden right turn, and walks away from a down dog, heading for the pit wall. Crenshaw immediately ran over and grabbed Jeep before he got to the wall. And that was right where I was on that side of the pit. He looked that direction where them people were, and I swear to god almighty, he made a fast walk away from Homer heading toward the pit boards. And I’ve been around, I had 132 fights, I’ve seen a thousand fights. Jeep was going over the pit. My opinion. Like I said, I’ve seen a thousand fights, all big name dogs.

Dogs were handled and taken to their corners. This was somewhere around three hours and fifteen minutes. Sammons was having another nervous breakdown in the corner with Homer. He was very nervous; when the referee said “Face your dogs” Sammons started shaking Homer up and down. This had no purpose what so ever. You are supposed to hold your dog perfectly still. You’re not supposed to call your opponents dog to scratch and by shaking Homer he encouraged Jeep to scratch. That was a crucial mistake. In a long fight 90% of dogs get discouraged. It is very easy for a dog to walk over within a foot of their opponents and get counted out. Sammons should have held Homer still and not moved at all. Anything can happen when the fight goes close to four hours. But anyway Jeep completed his scratch.

Somewhere around three hours and twenty minutes a handle was made, Homer to go. We all thought he was dying when he layed in his side after the three hour mark. Now he has to scratch?

At the referees’ command, “Release your Dog”, Sammons let loose and Homer tries to go hard but is on rubber legs. He goes down, does a couple somersaults, head over heels, his backend comes over his head. He is down. He is now facing his own corner. The referee starts counting. Within seconds I push past all the spectators and runs to Homers outside corner. I yelled in to CH Homer, “Get up Homer, Get up Baby –up–up–up”. When CH Homer heard my voice, he began yodeling and whining and he came out of the corner and fell and got back up stumbling and falling, completing an unbelievable game scratch.

Another handle was made and Jeep completed his scratch. Dogs handled again and Homer was unable to go at three hours and 43 minutes. He died 30 minutes later.

I didn’t know and I didn’t find out until one year later from Frank Bunce the story here. The reason Stepp conditioned and the reason his weight was cut to 42lbs was that Billy Stepp had a $10,000 forfeit to fight his 42lb Grand Champion into Jeep. If he didn’t show up with a 42lb dog he would lose the $10,000. When I found out it was 42 lbs I almost fell over dead. You know, when a dogs real young you might keep him down pretty thin weight. However, when he gets older it’s impossible to cut that dog thin like that.

The 42lb Grand Champion was on Jim Stinson’s yard as Stinson had to condition him. Stinson had to go out somewhere and he left the dogs alone for a couple of hours. When he returned home the Grand Champion came walking up to him on a broken chain.

Stinston was shocked that the Grand Champion was not still locked in battle. Did he walk away from one of the other dogs?

Stinson took this Grand Champion over to the other dog who was jumping four feet off the ground. The Grand Champion dug his feet into the dirt and refused to budge. Stinson picked him up and threw him to CH Ruby, Zebo’s daughter. She began chewing him up. The Grand Champion broke loose and ran, this is the dog they had $10,000 forfeit on. But how stupid are they. Stinson’s supposed to be a big dogman, where? Where? To pull a dog, a 45lb down to 42? A lot of brains. No, it’s because Stinson was the cause of them ready to lose the forfeit, the $10,000.

How could they use him (the GR CH) now; he curred out today. That’s why they had to borrow Homer. Being as this dog got loose, Stepp wouldn’t let Homer out of his sight. Do you want to know the Grand Champion that was originally matched into Jeep and curred out in the yard fight? None other than Grand Champion Angus.

If you don’t believe this, then how come Angus disappeared after the Jeep – Homer fight???

CH Homer was bred to only two females, yet made ROM before CH Jeep. Although Jeep was bred to hundreds and hundreds of bitches.

You know I had to pay $50 to get into see the fight? Sure did, the people collecting the gate, they didn’t know me. They couldn’t care less.

Would you have let Big Brad borrow Homer if you had known the amount of weight they were giving up? I’m not that stupid. My dog, I know his best weight. Besides that, he’s five years old. He’s five years old. Use your head. I don’t have to come after somebody, some certain guy. Whether Billy Stepp did or whatever, I don’t know. Oh yeah, they had the thing up there. They had the $10,000 forfiet because Angus was to fight into him and Angus got his ass beat and quit in Alvin, Texas. That’s why Angus disappeared from the scene. Nobody ever told that. Everybody protects all these things with their lies, but that’s what happened. Jeep was about half the dog Homer was. That’s the easiest way to describe it. There’s no way in the world he can be compared. He’s on top and he’s heading for the pit boards. He’s conditioned good, he’s fought before. Of course he’s gonna come out smokin. But if he’d of got hurt in the beginning real bad and if he’d a got bit like Homer did to some of the other ones he’d a changed his mind. Homer beat better dogs than him. Clyde Masons dog was way badder dog than Jeep. And secondly, how’s my dog gonna work in there with some guy who don’t know what he’s doing. He aint talking to the dog or nothing. The guy handling was lost.

Did you ever let anyone borrow and of your dogs after letting Homer out? No, Nope! My family didn’t want me to do that no kind of way anyway. They didn’t want me to do that. But when I won four times, I figured so can they. But you don’t do that shit. They had to. They couldn’t change the weight. They had $10,000 riding. What were they gonna do? But they didn’t tell me. Nobody told me. They never told me afterwards. I heard a year after the fight, from Frank Bunce. He said I was talking to Stinson, cause he was buying dogs from Stinson and had been talking to Stinson. He said and Stinson told him how it happened. Then he told me, it was one year after. There was many things that happened in the dog game that they covered over and hid.

CH RASTUS: Looking at all the dogs, I had more than one good dog here. Rastus. I got Rastus from Pat Patrick. Some guy bought a dog from Maurice Carver, he won. He beat some Champion in Tennessee; beat some other guys, he was positive to win. I hit an artery in his shoulder, and the blood shot. Frank Bunce was there. It shot about 4 feet. The blood shot and it made a big noise when I hit this, this white dog right from Maurice Carver. These guys knew Dave Adams and they matched into me. They paid $5,000 for this dog. They might have kicked ass before, it wasn’t there day though. That dog Rastus, he was a Champion dog. He took that dog out, he took out that shoulder and weakened him and then he went into the throat. People are stupid. I told them, I says “You better give up right now, just go ahead and save your dog.” He wouldn’t do it. Wouldn’t do it. He was cocky. Cocky assholes. Just real cocky. So I just went ahead and just, I was there to win and that’s it. I try to help you, and you don’t want help. So, then he says, “I got no money to get home!” I says, “Well, tough shit. I tried to help you before. You didn’t want any help.”

GR CH VIRGIL: Virgil, I went in a convention. Somebody named Chickaman put it on. Now the Chickaman was the only son. He was a miner. His dad spoiled him. He gets in the dogs and he thinks he’s better than everybody. It’s just his attitude. It’s the way his dad brought him up. So I’m talking to him on the phone to come to this convention with Virgil. I’m gonna match into one of the dogs that was the littermate to that GR CH Mikey and GR CH Trouble. They’re littermates. There was another one, and his name was CH Elmo. Well he just killed somebodys dog in thirty minutes. So, they called me on. So I’m in this fight. They told me don’t bring you’re scales we ain’t gonna let you use them. We’re going to use a balance scale because they bought the one off of Walter Komosinski. He had one of them old fashioned ones, balance ones where you put the weight hooks on. I had four scales and I had one scale that cost a lot of money. About a $200 scale, real good scale. All brass and everything. Really good. So I knew my dog was on the weight because I had more than one scale to make sure, I didn’t want to make no mistakes. And I had a test weight. The Chickaman, he said not to bring your scales so I didn’t. I got there, he fights first. He’s such an asshole, that he goes and he fights a female. Females are never fought first. Never. He did. That’s how much of an idiot he was. Then I go to fight, you know, the second fight. I’m gonna go to weigh my dog to show he’s on the weight. He took the scale and he didn’t bring it. What’s this shit!? You tell me not to bring it, now you don’t have it. What a young Jack off! Where he’s coming from… He’s just a young asshole! I weigh Virgil, he’s trying to tell me I’m 2 ½ lbs light. I says, “I was never 2 ½ lbs light in my life of matching dogs. Now I guess the guy I’m into, he’s right on the weight too?” It’s a black guy, got some killing dog. Big black son of a bitch. He weighs, he’s on the weight and I’m 2 ½ lbs light. I says, “No, your 2 ½ lbs over is what it is. Where’s your test weight and your garbage scale?” He says, “Oh, I got a dumbbell.” I says, “Stick that dumbbell up your ass. Yins are trying to cheat me. Go get your dog, you got 2 ½ lbs on me, but go get your dog.” He gets his dog and his dog barnstorms and hits two arteries in Virgil. I’m thinking, boy this son of a bitch can bite. He’s got one bubble in his muzzle and one in his shoulder. Hit artiereis on him. He gets Virgil down for about 8 minutes. I just stand over Virgil and just start talking to him. I tell him, “Get up out of there. Get up out Virgil! Up, up, up!” Virgil bit him in the chest from the bottom, and struggled to get to his feet. When Virgil righted himself and got on his feet, he still had that dogs chest in his mouth. He pressed that dog over his head. The dogs front legs fell over Virgils back, the dogs rear legs were suspended in mid-air. He didn’t have one foot on the floor. So Virgil pressed him over his head, he dropped over Virgils back, the back legs suspended in mid-air. Virgil then slammed him to the floor. Before he could get up, Virgil ran on him real quick and he bit him around the chest or belly or whatever, and he starts running across the floor with him. Like a sweeper. You know, just driving with both back legs and he had big massive stifles. He’s running with this dog in his mouth, and this dog couldn’t get lose. He slid him all the way across the floor until he hit the pit boards. As soon as he hit the pit boards, he let go of where he was at and he went right into the kidneys. He bit through the kidney and then he lifted his lips. He curled his lips back where you could see his gums. You could see big long fangs that Virgil had. You could see all that gum and big long fangs. He pulled them out of the kidney, and then he drove them back in. You could see the fangs go right in the dogs kidney, all the way up to the gum line and he did that three times. That dog stretched out stiff and that was the end of him. It was 30 minutes. That was a brother to two Grand Champions. He bit the dust like all the other ones did too. See, the thing to me; Crenshaw can say what he wants, STP can say what he wants, so could the rest of them. But everybody came against me, got killed. Did they kill everybody? (Laughs)

CH WILEY: Now Wiley was one fantastic dog. I had Wiley and I rolled him when he was 14 months old against his brother and his brother was equal like him. I thought, I never seen a dog at 14 months old that could battle like that. I’ve never seen dogs at 14 months that could fight like that. So, Wileys grandfather was Cholly Boys brother. What happened in his fight, this guy calls me from Detroit. Some white guy. Bud Carpenter, he calls me and he wants me to come in at 37. I says, “I don’t have no dog 37 except my 14 month old dog. I ain’t bringing my dog like that up there.” In fact, by the time he called me he was 15 months old. He said, “That’s what they want, 37 lbs.” I said, “Well, I’m not bringing that dog, I’ll bring other dogs. I have other dogs that’s old enough. Three years old, four years old. You know, 43, 45 shit like that.” He said, “No we want the 37.” I says, “No, I can’t bring him cause he’s too young.” So he keeps calling me back. He’s an old white haired guy. He said, “The other guy out there, his dogs only 18 months old.” I said, “Well if he’s 18 months old, then I got faith in this dog cause this is one bad son of a bitch. I’ll bring him.” When I got there, of course those dirty bastards; now why would this old guy, I mean he was old. If he was 75 or whatever he was, he aged big time. He was old! Why would he do it? I didn’t see no connection why would want to do it. Here’s a dog I’m going into is going into his championship. And it’s double Carvers Stompanoto. He’s a bad dog. Larry Kipton. Black guy. The dogs name was Pee Wee. All black. And Wiley was all black. Wiley’s conditioned really perfect and he’s all gun-ho to go. He’s real young and he’s whacked out of his mind to battle and he’s pointed to the day and exact minute of the fight he’s ready to get in there and get it on right now. He can’t wait to get it on. We get in there and he rushes into the dog, tries to put it on him. The other dog goes to the face and is holding him out. So they go back and forth on the face holding each other. And even though he was young, he was 17 months old. I took him in the fight at 17 months old, which was awfully young to take a dog going into a dog going for his championship. But, he didn’t know. What’s he know? He didn’t know nothing about it. What he does, he breaks loose from the head holds, drops low and that dog shot over his head, and he went straight up and hit him in the throat. He bit hard into the throat and he start rooting in and lifting him. He’s lifting his feet about 3 or 4 inches off the ground. He was ramming him and lifting him up, lifting him off the floor. Next thing you know, blood shoots out everywhere. Bloods pouring on the floor. He won’t come out of the throat, the first fight he stayed there, wouldn’t come out. Would not come out at all. Dogs backend starts shaking, he got weak and all he could, his eyes would look at the crowd, but he couldn’t do nothing because Wiley still had his throat. Had him right by the throat and he punctured through his jugular vein. He bit through his jugular vein. So, his backend starts shaking, finally he’s sitting down. Then he laid down, and then Wiley’s just working him over going deeper in the throat and they threw in the towel at 22 minutes. Their dog died anyway in 30. There’s a 17 month old dog that did that. Then I beat Captain America and then I beat some other guy. His last name was Sonnier. Like a French name. He had a good dog, but he had to pick him up. Because that dog was just taking him apart. When I beat Captain America, with a brother to GR CH King Arthur I beat him with Wiley. You know, it’s the idea. You’re just fortunate enough to get the right dogs.

CH ZERO: If Jeep would have come in against this dog, and this dog, he could of fought at Jeeps weight. Zero. Jeep would have ran out of there in 30 minutes. This Zero would have beat him so bad, that he would have ran for his life. Zero was a high pressure dog. The way he got you, I don’t care if you won 17 fights. When he’s in the corner and you’re getting released to come to fight. What you think he’s gonna do, is meet you in the middle of the pit, you’re gonna start fighting huh? Well you better think again bud, cause he’s figuring how to cripple you before you start in the first seconds. I took one fight, I went to Kentucky. Ken Allen took the fight. He takes the fight and asks me to bring Zero. I traveled down there and there was all these blacks waving $100 bills. They’re all smiling with their gold teeth waving $100 bills. I release Zero, when they reached the center of the pit, the dog reached for Zero, and Zero threw himself on his back. The dog shot over his head, and he reached up and grabbed his joint. And he bit him threw the belly. He pierced his bladder. Within seconds he come off the bottom and slammed that dog and put him on the bottom and I looked down and I see the pee running out his belly. And we’re talking three seconds, he punctured his bladder. (Laughs) So how do you fight a dog like that? I fought somebody else; let’s see what I did to them. I pulled him too thin and I beat a dog, the guy was so mad that I took his dog, and beat him to where he couldn’t scratch. He wanted to shoot him. But the dog was incapacitated so bad he couldn’t do nothing. So I said leave him here, so I kept him around for a roll dog. I start rolling him, the dog was so good I matched and beat somebody. I beat Bunce or somebody. Then I beat somebody else, then I sold him to a friend and he won again. Dog had ability, bite, enough gameness, whether he got counted out the first time, whatever, he was too young, he never made any bad moves after that. That was a dog called CJ. Mike Sogans CJ. I matched into a dog Texas Ron had and he just killed somebody. He just matched a couple months before in a convention and he went into the kidneys and killed a dog. So everybody is afraid of him and Rocco calls me and tells me, “Oh, Texas Ron is saying everybody’s afraid to match into him.” That’s because he called Rocco on and Rocco didn’t want to fight him. Rocco was afraid. So Rocco tried to shove it to me so I’d take him out of the way. So he wouldn’t be after him or embarrass him or whatever. I agree to go and fight in Texas Ron’s cellar. Right in his house. This dog is a pretty rough dog they got and you know; he just killed a dog. We release the dogs, and they are running across to meet each other. They come right at each other, at the last second Zero jumped to the side; that dog went past him. But he whipped and he grabs his nose. Zero bit his nose, took a hold of it but he was running so fast he kept going. He went right past with his nose in Zeros mouth. Zero braced his legs and pulled him back to an abrupt stop. Where his whole body weight slammed against and almost pulled his nose off. He was screaming 5 seconds into the fight. I mean, screaming cause he really got that nose jarred. Zero went to work immediately, starts beating the shit out of him. Went to work in the throat, lifted him off the floor. Kept rootin in the throat, shutting his air off, lifting him off the floor, lifting him off the floor. The initial thing where he threw him off totally was when he side stepped the dog where the dog kept going and he got his nose, and that really got him. He beat him and pressured him and put the pressure on so bad, he went back up for a second and just kept on kept on just pressure, pressure, pressure the worst pressure case you ever want to see in your life the pressure he put on him. Shut his air off like the other dog thought he was gonna die. That dogs name was Evil. And he thought he was gonna die because Zero kept shutting his air off. He tried to jump the pit and as he jumped the pit, Zero was so fast, he grabbed his tail and pulled him back in an slammed him on the floor and went in his throat and a quick flurry in the throat and he busted up everything in his throat good. The dog had to scratch, couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it. It was about 44 minutes. Zero was Virgils littermate brother. He was a hell of dog.

ZERA 2X: And I had a daughter out of him (Zero) that I killed a dog in 25 min down in Kentucky. I went down there and this guy was the dirtiest, lousiest guy I ever seen in my life. Just a low life, never been anywhere where he could ever say he was a gentlemen. He probably don’t have anybody in his family that are gentlemen or ladies, you know because he’s a jack off. He tried everything he could to dirty me out. Cheat me, dirty me. I gave him his reward for the dirty shit that he did before I came to the pit that day. I broke his dogs muzzle. I bit his dog between the eyes with such force that it split the muzzle and both fangs went sideways. Then she come out of there, went in her armpit and bit her in the armpit. His dog was dead. They couldn’t figure out how she’s dead. That was Zera; Zero’s daughter. When she bit her in the arm pit, she broke 4 ribs and punctured her through the heart. That was 25 minutes. My bitch was dragging her around the pit. That guy wouldn’t pick up and the referee wouldn’t say nothing. I wanted to get out of there and everybody was giving me a bunch of shit and how do end the fight. It’s over, your dogs dead. Well, he aint gonna pay me. You know, they’re all on their side so at an hour we’re still there. I says, “Okay, yins are all dirty bastards really trying to cheat me.” Anyway, I scratched to a dead dog, believe it or not. Just to show them. But I gave them a warning. He was holding the dog sideways, I says, “Let me tell ya, I’ve been a gentleman this far. But when I release my bitch and she comes across there. You drop your dog on the floor and my dog hits that wall and breaks her teeth out.” I said, “The next step, I’ll be coming over and I’m going bust all your teeth out.” And he held his dog! (Laughs)

CH CHOLLY BOY: One time, we went to Rhode Island on Captain Americas landfill. Well on a landfill, you’re dumping garbage and rubbish. What does that breed? Trillions of rats. This is Cholly Boys first fight. So he kills Captain Americas dog by one hour, but he won’t let him loose. He will not come out of hold. He dragged him around up until the 2 hour mark. And Captain America would not give up the fight. The referee never even did anything. Everybody tried to cheat me again. I quit talking to him (Cholly Boy) and I just kept moving to where he couldn’t see me so he could wonder what happened to me so he could come out of hold. Otherwise I’d a been there for days. That’s what I did, I just quit talking to him, and finally he come out of hold and wondered where I went, and I grabbed him. Of course, his dog couldn’t scratch. But Captain America, he’s a weasel. He’d let them dogs sit there forever, he hinges to the last second trying to do anything he can to pull it off.

It was about a million rats running around on the ground. We’re in the car, we’re headed to the garage building we’re gonna fight in. Peoples in the pick up truck ahead and they got their feet hanging over the edge of the tailgate. We go, “What the hell’s that?” Something’s moving like a big rug moving. No, it was a rug of rats. They were side by side by the millions all over the ground. It was all moving. There was that many rats! Everybody with me says, “Holy Hell, I can’t believe what we’re looking at!”

OLD CHARLIE: He was cold. A lot of people say they would never breed to a cold dog. Depends who his parents were. If you inherit some genes from him, what do you think you’re gonna get from his parents? And that was Homer and Gearldine. Both ROM’s. People can say all they want. Did they breed all the Champions and Grand Champions I did?

Favorite Dogs: I would put Cholly Boy up there. Virgil was a killing dog; all power. Cholly Boy was a smart dog. Cholly Boy didn’t go out there and try to kill you. Although at some times, he put it on you. He hit an artery on STPs Revenge. And STP said Revenge was going to be a 6 or 7 time winner. And he probably would have been. But what I did to him, I made a total fool out of that dog. Cholly Boy took him to school to teach him what you do. They threw in the towel. He (Revenge) chased for over an hour, couldn’t get a bite. I never gave Cholly Boy penicillin after the fight. Too smart, he stayed right out of his way.

CRENSHAW & STP: Here’s where I put it, Crenshaw and STP. They had the most fights and they were the most well known guys and they weren’t easy to beat, you know, for most people. But for me, I couldn’t care less; because I had killing dogs that were game. And at anytime, they could hold them out for a while maybe, but eventually I’m gonna get you. And my dogs wont’ run out of air. Most of my fights that I’ve been in you won’t see my dogs tongue ever out of his mouth. I went against devastating dogs that could bite your dogs’ leg right off. I had my dogs go so deep into their ear and bite and hit that nerve in there. You know the toughest dogs in the world, I had my dogs go right in his ear and deep down in his ear and hit that nerve. They start growling and then crying and growling and crying and back and forth and they wanted out of there and I wouldn’t let my dog off their ear. I punished them so severely by the time they had a scratch, they are going to stay in the corner and they don’t want no more. Or I had dogs go on the nose, because a dog can take punishment in the body, he won’t take it in the nose. I had a bad battle before; I went into TKO kennels, from New York. Everybody says, oh you’re in trouble. They got a killer back end dog. Never been bit in the nose. She took my bitches shoulder out. First five minutes of the match. Then she went back and tried to do it again, and my bitch was sore there, mine grabbed her by the nose. And when she bit her in the nose, her tusk went inside her lip. Up in the gum and lip, all the way, cause she could bite hard. The fangs come down on top of the muzzle. That bitch might have been going for her championship, but she was screaming bloody murder and then once she did that, that’s a signal to my bitch to really put it on her. Which she starts whipping her and shaking her. I told them, TKO, I can see it right in front of me right now, you better pick your dog up at 30 minutes. They wouldn’t say yes, no, boo, they wouldn’t answer. I said, “Well I’m here for business and this is business and this is the way it goes.” So I talk to my bitch and I tell her to really, really put it on her bad. So I think they let it go another 10-12 minutes and then they threw in the towel. I helped them try to save their dog but she died anyway. Dog died right there.

Crenshaw and STP, I’ll put them up there, you know the highest because they’re the most well known guys. I’ll give them both credit for that. Now as far as Crenshaw and STP, their well known and they had a lot of fights. But all the dogs that I had, if they’d of come into them they’d a got their dogs killed. That’s it. Snake Jr bit a dog one time, one bite in the shoulder. You think a dog could go into shock and die from a shoulder bite? He did. He did, he did. Now my friend Bryan, he was a good close right hand man. He was a Vietnam Marine and he was a hard core son of a bitch. Real hard core guy. So I gave him Snake JR and he pulls him way down below his weight. But he was a biter, really a biter. So he had took the bottom for 16 minutes and I look at my watch and I say, “Oh Jeez, Bryan you really screwed up.” This dog that he was against, he won two fights. He was going for his championship. He had Snake down on the bottom and Dave Adams friends were there. Snake from the bottom reached up and grabbed his shoulder. He was down, getting shook all over the pit for 16 minutes, he reached up, grabbed the shoulder and he just calmly didn’t do nothing, he just paced himself till he got his head together cause he got shook up so bad he didn’t know what state he was in he was shook up so bad. So he hung on to that shoulder. Slowly he got back on his feet. Now he’s standing up facing that dog, he’s still in the shoulder hold. And he moved his feet back and forth. He set his feet. Cause they bite all the way down, the whole body like that where they can really crunch down, up his back and up his neck and the whole bit. He set his legs and he continued to bite on the shoulder a full bite. And all of a sudden that dog fell straight on the floor, BAM! His chin hit the floor and he stared straight ahead. And he never moved. And everybody says, “How the hell can that be. He’s resting, this, yah, yah, yah”. And another guy says, Dave Adams friends, they said “Hey, look at his eyes, his eyes are all glassy. That dog’s going in shock how the hell can that be”. And all the blacks say “No, no, no”. That dog stayed there and he could not, they wouldn’t pick up and Snake just kept chewing his shoulder. They had to pick up in 30 minutes. So they picked up, and they tried to revive their dog but it wasn’t happening. So Adams guys who bought dogs from him, Sexton and something. Sexton and somebody else. They come over to this dog that Snake just bite his, it’s like he shot him. That’s how hard Snake bit him. And they couldn’t figure out how that could happen from a shoulder bite. So he took his foot and he moved his foot up, like to bend his leg, and then he straighten it out. All the fragments flew out of his shoulder. Of bones, in about 30 pieces fell out. That’s how he shattered the bone. Like pieces of toothpicks, like bone fragments coming out. That’s why he went in instant shock. This is gruesome, gory stuff. Now, but this is what happened, but this is how some dogs could bite. As far as Crenshaw, or STP playing with me, they may as well jump in a cage with some Tigers because look what happened to them.

FRANK BUNCE: Bunce was a really good guy. I sold him dogs and every god damn dog he had a grand champion. He had Grand Champion Arrow and he had a dog called Bum. And Frank was a heavy drinker. He matched in to Rocco’s Hauncho. Up in Detroit, there was 150 people there. He won with Arrow and Arrow was a Komosinski cross mixed with my blood. Bum the same way. Rocco’s dog roughing him up all the way and Bunce was drinking, didn’t work the dog good, over worked him probably so he was weak and screwed up. Rocco would bring a dog in, in good shape. So his dog is kicking Bunce’s dogs’ ass. Everybody there thinks and figures it’s over. He’s down; he’s been down the whole fight. This dog called Bum. Bum, he’s determined not to lose. So he got a hold of the ear from the bottom. Rocco’s dog was fine as long as he was ahead. Now Bunces dog grabs his ear and he stays on it. So Rocco’s dog wants to get loose from that ear hold, but he can’t’. So he starts whining. When he starts whining, that encourages Bunces dog to go after him worse. Bunces dog after being on the bottom the whole fight for 20 minutes was never on his feet in 20 minutes, now he stood up. Everybody in the whole crowd, they were all cheering for his dog, 150 people cheering for his dog. He proceeded to kick Rocco’s dogs’ ass and Rocco’s dogs crying and making all kinds of noise. Rocco gave up, dog beat him. So every dog I sold him, he won with. And then he won trophies in a lot of them. Best in Show, he won Best in Show with a few of them. And Gamest in Show. Everything he got from me, he won with. Bunce was a real honest guy, he was really square, but he was a drinker. Yeah he was a drinker.

DAVE ADAMS: Dave Adams was a premier dog man. He’d been around way back. He’d been around. They had been in the dogs before me and from down in there part of Cincinnati. They were in the suburbs of Cincinnati, farm country and they were allowed to do whatever they wanted. They did whatever they wanted and they had ended up getting dogs from people. They had the money, they start buying dogs. They bought Double Ot. The Texans start selling dogs. But the Texans they thought that because they were from Texas they were better than everybody else. They sold Double Ot for $2,500 bucks, way back that’s a lot of money, that’s like $5,000 now days. $2,500 bucks for Double Ot, Double Ot had already quit. See how dirty they were. So Adams never looked to see. He never checked the magazine, it was in there. So, he matches into Big Brad. Big Brad got Red Danger. I was there and they were fighting it out. Double Ot was a son of Eli Jr. I believe and one of them rough dogs. Rough ass Eli dogs. Red Danger went to the ear and Double Ot was searching for the stifle. So the fight went on and on and on. Double Ot turned. So this is where David Adams made his mistakes, prior to that he was doing good. Until he starts buying dogs off the Texans. Because they didn’t give him nothing. They shafted him all the way. Where they thought they were so superior to everybody, in their dreams. So what happened, Double Ot made a turn, he was to scratch, so they start scratching. As the fight went on, the referee says “Release your dog.” Double Ot stood in the corner. He starts counting, “One, two, three, four…” then Double Ot came. Next time; Red Danger to come. Red Danger stood there, “One, two, three, four…” then the next time it was up to the five count before they’d come out, then up to seven! And then finally Double Ot quit. But they were both staying in the corner. This is how crazy, bullshit that I’ve seen. Adams was a tough guy to beat. Big Brad matched into Adams several times, beat him every single time. Dave Adams beat everybody else, but he couldn’t beat Big Brad. Outside of that, Freddy Bowling he would fight here and there. He would, you know, get somebody else’s dog usually. Take somebody else’s dog and bring it in.

(Dave Adams) had to humanity. He had no respect for nothing. No dogs. If I’d won, I would not tell the guy, “Oh, he’s gonna die. You have to put him out of his misery.” “Well how do I do that?” “Well, here I’ll give ya an axe.” I mean this is insanity. As far as, this ain’t my idea of dog men. You don’t do that. He’s killing that dog; he’s hitting that dog with an axe in the head. I mean, if you can’t do it right, then don’t do it at all! There was nothing wrong with that dog and he killed him. I could look in the dogs’ eyes. It was clear as can be. He just got cut up. He had some big cuts, that’s all. Go get the staple gun, pull him together, staple him. Look, you can have cuts like this and that. That don’t mean nothing, if they’re not deep inside you, nothing there. When I had Virgil and I had them other dogs, and I had Homer. Dave Adams didn’t want no parts of that.

BILLY STEPP: Billy Stepp was a gangster. He had all gangster connections. Mess with him too much, you’ll disappear. As a dog man, he didn’t know nothing. He was a gambler, he was a backer. Many of the guys were; they were the guys that put the money up. Somebody else did the work. Everybody can’t be a dog man. It’s very simple.

STINSON: Stinson he was, he wasn’t the most honest guy in the world. He poisoned his, he had a partner. He was in the asphalt business. King Glover, a black guy. And he matched into King Glover and he poisoned his dog. His own friends said that. Stinsons’ friends is the ones that said that, that he poisoned Glovers dog.

JACK KELLY: Kelly’s biggest thing, we’ll give him credit for putting out a good magazine. That’s as far as it goes.

Walter Komosinski: Walter Komosinski would smack Jack Kelly in mouth too… Walter would punch anybody in the mouth! If you screwed with him or pushed him around, you do something to him… I was his best friend for 18 years. I was the referee that day in that fight, against Ralph Livingston, 39 years old. Then Ralph lost the fight, his dog quit. So he walks out of the barn and he sics his dog on one of Walters’ young dogs outside there. The young dog, grabbed Ralph Livingston’s dog but he was only like 13 months old. Walter thought his dog was crying, but it was Ralphs’ dog crying. Walter says, “He’s only a young dog; get your dog off of him.” You know. And then besides that, he was supposed to fight two weeks later, he came early that day Livingston did. And then he didn’t have the money to pay the bet! And then he goes and sics his dog on Walters’ dog, his 13 month old. And Walter told him to leave go, and he didn’t do it. He says, “I’ll make you leave go”, he came over and uppercutted him. He went flying. And he hit the wall of Walter’s barn, slide down on his ass. He get up and Walter had glasses on. He whipped them off his face, folded them put them in his pocket, came in again, pulled back a right hand and blasted him with a right hand and dropped him a second time. Walter’s 80, he’s 39. So, I went and grabbed Livingston I figured oh shit, this young guy is gonna be so mad, he’s gonna kill Walter. When I grabbed him, to hold him back he said, “Don’t hit me again Walter, I’m leaving!” Hahaha. So the old time people was crazy huh!? I seen a lot of crazy stuff, let me tell you.

ON CONDITIONING: When your dog is in perfect shape, and I conditioned. Crenshaw never conditioned as good as me. Neither would STP. They couldn’t keep up to me. Never. They tried. STP did. Captain America did. I mean all the other guys, couldn’t do it. People hired people. You know to condition for them. I beat their ass anyway. But when they hired me, I had to take that 600 dog; son of Mayday. The Cubans sent me $1,500 bucks told me I was working this dog and bringing him down. They sent the dog up. I went into Crossroads Kennels. Both dogs were going for their Championship. I had my dog so strong, that 600, and I just pointed to the backend talking to him… always in front of their eyes. Instead of in the stifles he bit him in the kidneys and that dog gave it up right there. He had a fatal bite, he knew he was gonna die and he didn’t want to fight anymore. They threw in the towel, their dog died. Crossroads Kennels. Every dog I conditioned for Ken Allen won; never lost once.

Flirt Pole is the secret. I took Cholly Boy (working him for J.Rods Whitefoot match) and I had a flirt pole. I could excel with a flirt pole. There ain’t nobody in America could ever keep up once I used a flirt pole. I had an area back there where I used. I’d go in a circle. I had him jumping; I made him jump for the hide on the flirt pole. I had him jumping. I start jumping (25) jumps. Go around a circle, he start chasing it, then I start lifting it. Where he’d go run and jump and I’d move it. He miss it, he’d hit the ground turn in a second, come back a second time and I’d lift it again, he’d miss it. So I had him jumping back and forth, back and forth. I start about (50) jumps. Next day I started adding about (25) a day. I peaked him a few weeks before, I was doing (450) jumps in the morning and (450) jumps in the night. I was gonna try and do (1,000) jumps a day but I had to do (450) in the morning and (450) in the night and I was putting all kinds of stuff in him like feeding him liver and I had carboplex, different carbohydrate powders and feeding the liver I got his blood count up real good. He was doing (900) jumps a day. When he was doing that, I never got past that. That’s the way we went into the match and he never showed no strain at all.

Jesse Rods had that Whitefoot dog. He killed a Champion of STPs and one of Captain Americas. Jack Kelly said this is the baddest dog in America at 45/46 lbs. Cholly Boy beat him.

On Over Working a dog: You just gotta watch your dog, if he starts dragging ass where he… If you walk him and you hand walk him, and he’s pulling you all the time, when he stops pulling you and starts walking beside or behind you. You’ve overworked him right there. You gotta quit. A lot of guys, I heard Frank Rocca say if you have to give off two days to rest, then you have to forfeit because your dog will never be ready. Bullshit. I’ve gave two days off many times. That don’t mean a god damn thing. Never heard of it, that’s his thinking and other peoples.

Frank Rocca, he lost every time he matched into a dog of Frank Bunces or one of the black guys in Pittsburgh that he matched into called Smoker. I bred that dog, I bred him and I sold him as a 16 month old pup to Ralph Livingston. Well Ralph Livingston goes and sells him to this black yo-yo. Well he goes out and he beats Dave Adams, then he beats Big Brad and he beats Rocca. He gives Roccas dog a severe beating. He won four times over known people. That Smoker was a hell of a dog. Oh, he collected a forfeit on Angus.

ON SPORTSMANSHIP/DOGMEN: Here’s a guy with a dog, if his dogs getting screwed up, don’t you think the guy has to give up? See there’s nothing I can do. Should I lose because he’s an asshole? No, it’s not fair to my dog. But you meet people, if got my dog hurt; do you think I’d leave him in there to get butchered? I’d pick my dog up right away and walk out of there. I’d come back and get you another day. My way of looking at it. But people don’t look at it that way. I mean people, get in stuff. If my dog starts ripping one little bit. I wouldn’t put him through it. I give up and get out. Okay, you win. Here’s your money. People are assholes, let me tell ya. I don’t believe in that kind of shit. I do not feel you should go, you know; if you see you can’t win, forget it. Your pride? Bullshit. Don’t expect your dog to go through what you couldn’t go through.

Everybody can’t be a dogman! This guy sees that and he wants to do it because you do it. If you ain’t got it in ya, and you ain’t really dedicated you ain’t getting no where. You don’t show off and brag to everybody, you go and prove that you’re that good.

ON SCHOOLING/HANDLING: I could look at something right now with a dog. You could have 30 people there; you’re all lost in the fog. I know what’s going on right now. That’s why I get in fights and got right out of them. My dogs in bad trouble. I acted like your losing. I’ll scare them. I never showed ever one sign of weakness. I just talked to my dog. I could have been worried to death but I just stayed in front of my dog and said, “OK”. Komosinski told me, “Don’t stand behind him like assholes.” They stand behind them like assholes, dog says where you at you jack off, I’m in the fight of my life and you’re lost! You go in front of them! So I always went in front of my dogs eyes. When I did, he looked at me wagged his tail and fought really hard. So when I was in trouble, I’d come out of it.

Is there anything different you would do if you could do it all over? I would trust less people. Everybody’s jealous out there.

THE OKLAHOMA KID






“The Oklahoma Kid”

By
Don Mayfield

Fall 1982

In 1951 after near 100 years of breeding gamedogs in the U.S.A. the breeding reached a peak.  In Arizona a male named “Bouncer” was bred to a female called “Bambi” by a man called Ed Ritcheson.  In the litter was a red dog with a deep blue black nose.  This dog was bred from the Core of American bred gamedogs, he was raised and named by a black man from a pup.  This dog was named “Dibo,” in the heart of Africa the word Dibo means “Devil.”  In his pedigree were over 100 years of American bred gamedogs that had been proven in the pit, all his close family were the gamest bred in the world.  Dibo and his close family was the product of this American breeding, his bloodline showed all the areas of the U.S.A.  The American Gamedogs in Dibo’s pedigree were dogs that proved their gameness in the Core of the gamedog game in America.  These gamedogs came into our nation near the mid 1800’s from Europe.  Some of the gamedogs that were brought into our nation were of “outcross” breeding.  When different pure families in England, Ireland, and Scotland were bred together in their nations, then imported into our nation and bred with either a pure or cross bred family, that were being “matched” into one another to prove which were the gamest families.  Men like Cockney Charlie Lloyd imported pure family breeding, and “pure” English breeding and cross bred it with the English breeding here in our nation.  These men match few dogs, but proved their breeding was of the gamest bred.  In the days of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Con Feeley who matched more dogs than any man in his time became the breeder of the different outcross English families that had been bred here in the U.S.A., Con bred a family of dogs from what he proved were the games dogs bred in the U.S.A. in his time.  F.G. Henry imported some English red dogs and crossed them with the proven family of the Con Feeleys.

In the same days the English dogs were being matched, proven and bred, on the Northern coast of our nation.  The Irish families were being done the same way in the area of the East Coast.  J.P. Colby was a man that bred together different pure Irish game families with the Irish outcrosses that was being crossed together on the East Coast.  A number of different men matched and proved the gameness of the breeding that were being bred at the “Core” of the “game.”  In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the Irish dogs of outcross breeding, the ones that were proving themselves as the gamest bred, made it to Texas in the yard of Bill Shipley.  Bill imported a pure Irish family from Ireland and crossed it with the crossbred family that had been bred in the U.S.A.

In the early 1900’s the next name to fill the shoes of the number one gamedog man of his time, and only a few men here in this new nation had wore these shoes, the last was Con Feeley from Illinois.  But in 1908 Earl Tudor showed up in Oklahoma from Kentucky.  Earl matched more dogs and proved his understanding of gameness more than any man in his time.  He bred together the families of F.G. Henry to the families of Con Feeley.  In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s Earl was proving his breeding the gamest bred.  At that time he crossed the dogs of the purest that had been proven of the English breeding to the Irish families of Bill Shipley, 200 miles from him in Texas.  This brought together the games dogs bred from the north and the gamest dogs bred from the East to near the center of the U.S.A.  In the days of Earl Tudor when he proved his breeding the gamest bred, dogs from his breeding were being bred in most the States in the U.S.A., this was in the 1940’s.  In the early 1950’s Earl Tudor was in Arizona looking at the breeding of the gamedogs, when he was taken to see the dog “Dibo.”  Earl liked very much what he saw, and took the dog back to Oklahoma with him.  At first he called this red dog “Runt,” but later he changed his name back to “Dibo.”  Earl bred “Dibo” to a number of females bred from his family of dogs.  In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s Earl began to bring together a family of dogs breeding them “pure.”  His dogs were different than any of the different families being bred in the U.S.A.  The one’s from his families were the ones at the “Core” with most all the other breeding in the U.S.A. being of outcross breeding from Earl’s yard.

In the years of early 1960’s to the early 1970’s Earl bred his understanding of “American Gamedogs” into a family of dogs that all looked alike

In the early 1960’s to the late 1970’s we proved the gameness of more “American Gamedogs” than any man of our time at the “Core” of the game.  (Before the game became against the “law.”)  Today in the early 1980’s society around the world is seeking the gamest family of dogs bred in the world.  Here in Texas on a mountain top beside a long creek we have bred from the “Core” a family of very “pure American Game bred dogs.”  In the last number of years we have bred only a small number of dogs from this family.  At this time when a number of nations are seeking the gamest family of dogs bred, it being the “American Gamedog,” it being “proven” in a number of nations matched into the different men’s understanding of gameness.  At this same time “Paul Harvey” a newsman said, “in a nation today man is trying to prove a dog has a “spirit and soul” that goes to “heaven”.  I am an outcross bred Texas man that has spent over 20 years looking into the insides of dogs, I am a believer the dogs house the “spirit and soul” of the devil, and is becoming man’s best friend.  Here in the U.S.A. where the people of the most outcross breeding are born, we are the breeders of the gamest dogs bred in the world.  Here in Texas where the most outcross bred people in the U.S.A. are raised, we breed a game family of American Gamedogs to the point of gameness that that only (3) kinds of people can bear to be around them.  Those three kinds of people are people that feed them, and people like a “saint,” are a person with the faith of the devil himself.  The ones like the “saint” the dogs will be scared of, and show fight along with the jump in his lap and lick him all over his face.  But when a man of little faith looks eye to eye with this kind of game bred dog, the man become within great danger of this dog.  But the dog will be scared of the ones more like saints and turn their heads away from them.  I have watched many of these game bred dogs as they are looked in the eye of by a number of men we have met in our time with these dogs.  I have looked also at the men when hey do the looking.

This story I write you seeker of gamedogs comes from my understanding of the research we have involved ourselves with in over the last near 25 years, of Gamedogs and Gamemen who I have been a lover of both.  In my eyes the gamest man ever bred was our Lord Jesus.  He being an outcross bred man of God and mankind and took his death on the cross other than tell one little lie.  That is the faith and spirit of a gameman.

One Fall morning at sunrise in the year of 1961 we met Earl Tudor at his home in Oklahoma.  We had with us a nice bred female bred from his family of dogs.  We came to meet him and talk to him about breeding the female.  We did a lot of talking and bred the female, then drove the near 250 miles back home in Texas.  Within the next number of years we made the trip to Earl’s place many times.  On one trip I remember sitting on a couch with Earl as he had bad eyes and always wanted me to sit close so he could look me in the eyes when we talked.  We most always talked about breeding, as we sat talking, trying to stare each other down.  We had our own ways of understanding conditions and taught each other what we had done, and were doing.  But when it came time to talk about breeding I only asked questions.  I remember one time Earl who was in his mid 60’s about that time, broke down in tears and cried like a bay as he told me, “these damn so called friends of one dog deal or another who steal the credit of every dog bred, never gave me one damn bit of credit for “my dogs.”  Then he would wipe the tears from his eyes, put his glasses back on, get in my face and say; it’s all in the “breeding” Don, it’s all in the “breeding.”  Then he would tell dogs and others, he would tell me about the breeding of those dogs as the pure ones, the family bred dogs, not the cross ones, the pure ones.  Then I would say Earl, what was the best ones that you had, he would cock his head, and his wife Flo would speak up and say, “the best dogs Earl had were the old Henry dogs, you never lost a match with a Henry dog did you Earl???” and Earl with a smile on his face would say; “You’re right Flo, the dogs of old man Henry’s family were the red eyed dogs and were game to the core.”  He would say to me, “The eyes were as red as a coon’s eyes, they had a big mouth with a lot of muscle in the head, most were black, but some were white, and some were red rednose dogs.”  He said all the Henry dogs could bite hard and were very wild to work and handle.  And like the preacher man from Oklahoma he would scream like a cat in the middle of the night, get down on the floor on his knees and say they were deep game dogs, bred of the English breeding.  I set there on the couch like a red headed stranger thinking don’t cross him, don’t boss him, he’s wild in his sorrow he’s ridden and hidden his pain.  He would then get in his place and say, “they were good ones, Don.”  He was like a wild black stallion, and his wife, Flo, was as frail as a bay.  His love for the gamedogs was like a mountain so big, and for hours we set and talked on and on.  He would speak up like the bright lights of Denver of 10 thousand jewels in the sky when he talked, looking me straight in the eyes.  He said, “if only I could call back the days when it was nobody’s business where you’re going, or where you come from.”  Then, he would ell me about “Dibo,” “Demon,” Black Jack jr. and his sire, and dam.  He would say to me, “Don, in the 20’s here in Oklahoma times were hard to survive, we fought dogs and cocks to survive.  In the 30’s the men still took an Indian squaw anytime they cared for one.  Then in the days the winds came and blowed for 7 years it took two feet, to three feet of top soil from the farm land of the Irish race of people.  And in those days when the Irish race in Oklahoma could not survive in the “Grapes of Wrath” they picked up and moved to California to become the farmers of the world.In those days we had three “pits” on our place, we fought cocks and a few dogs each week for a number of years.  He would then tell me, he had been shot 6 different times by 6 different men, and never once went to the hospital, the doctor came to his house.  Once his brother-in-law shot him and they never called the doctor, as Flo dressed the hole where it went in, and the hole where it came out.  He said; “In those days we kept 7 dogs close to ready at all times, they were matched in one week’s time.”  He said I would run in the fields with my dogs, in those days, there were no fences to cross just open land.  He said; We had a mound built of sand with a chair that turned all the way around.  We kept 7 dogs staked around the chair, I had a long fishing pole with a tail tied on a line.  We would go from dog to dog for two or three with one working while the others worked the coontail.  Earl then said we never had a tread mill in those days, if we had one we wouldn’t use it.  The catmill was the best to work a dog on and I would say, “yes Earl I know, I have one in my yard,” and then he’d look me in the eyes and say, tell me the way you work ‘em, and I would start to talk telling him each and every thing we did as his eyes started to shine like saying, stay a little longer.  As I talked on he would move quick with his head high saying that’s right that’s right.  And as the stories were told over the years on his couch, we always ended in talking about “breeding,” as he would say; “The Irish dogs were also deep game dogs.”  He would tell me about the different pure breeding of the different families.  Then, the tears would come with shakes, and the cry of agony as he looked me in the eyes and said, “these damn so called friends never gave me one bit of credit for my family of dogs, those big shots Shipley and Feeley they got all the credit.  Earl always called Bill Shipley the “Big Shot.”  He sent his female Flash with a black man to be bred to Red Jerry.  He would tell his black friend just what the dog looked like to breed the female to.  He would then laugh like and angel flying too close to the ground, he would speak up and say, it was the English dogs Don, you can hear these know it alls talk about the Irish dogs and they were good ones, but the English dogs was where it was at.  Red eyed dogs as red as a ruby.  Wild to go very hot dogs that would eat up a person, and Flo would speak up and say “Lord yes,” as she pulled up her long cotton dress to her knees and pulled her knee socks down to her ankles to show her scars from dog bites.  Earl then laughed and said Flo got bit two or three times trying to part some that would break loose when I weren’t here.  I got where I told her to stay in the house and let them fight to the death.  So she don’t get bit no more.  She would speak up and say; Phyllis those Henry dogs had a big mouth and you had to beat them in the head with a piece of iron to get them to turn loose.  Earl would say, “Ya’ll she’s telling you the truth, she’d have a iron bar or hammer in her hand and if one got on her she’d beat it in the head and kill it.  Then he would say she’s a sweet little old thing ain’t she, I don’t know how I could have ever made it without her.  Flo was a slip 5 ft., 3 in. small woman of near 90 lbs.  Earl being a small man, in his prime 117 lbs. with gloves on.  He said he would have been a fighter if he had not got shot in the belly one time.  As he said Bert was the stronger fighter of us two, but I was like the sun from over the mountain with a sunlight that dances on your skin, but Bert he did me wrong and I never him.  And we would talk on about breeding.  Earl carried the famous name of “Tudor,” the famous King’s who went by the names of Henry the First, and so on, in Europe.

In the 1400’s in England the way was open for the only surviving Lancastrian with strength to take and keep the throne.  Henry Tudor was a descendent of John Tudor of Gaunt.  He had spent half his life in Wales, the rest on the Continent.  Urged to intervene, he found Welsh forces eager to join him when he landed at Milford Haven, and led them on into England.  King Richard met them outside Market Bosworth, near Leicester, on 22nd of August 1485.  The first battle was the gamebred “wardogs.”  The royal army was larger but fought with less conviction.  Many nolles on whom Richard was relying had already decided to defect.  Richard himself fought bravely, but was accorded little respect for this after his death.  The crown of England found in a bush was placed on Henry Tudors head, and the corpse of the dead King was stripped naked, tossed across a horse, and carried unceremoniously to Leicester.  The last of the Plantagenets was gone.  The stage was set for the “Tudors.”  The mark of the Tudors were the dog and the dragon.

Earl never told me he was from the English Tudor family, but he had the same little beadie eyes as the pictures of the Tudors of England.  He had the courage of a line of Kings that would get in your face the last days of his life that came in 1977.  Earl became a hard man to be around the last year or two of his life from the hate he had within, he kept a pistol in his pocket from sunup to sundown, and did a lot of crying the last years of his life.  He told me stories about bad men he knew who always stopped and visited him as they came through east of the Texas Panhandle in Western Oklahoma where the rocks peer out of the ground in rows as if they had been planted.  Poor land that at this time is too poor to grow weeds.  He told me about a time he spent in court as they tried him for murder.  He told me stories about life and gamedogs that can only be told in a “Book.”

Earl Tudor was a man that liked all of us that kept only two kinds of dogs.  Those he liked, and those given to him by a friend.  He started breeding his family of dogs in 1908 after being around them all his boyhood life.  His first dog to match was a Henry bred dog called “Jack Swift.”  He bred him to a Henry bitch called “Black Star” and produced a dog called “Judge,” and he went to trial for 60 years proving his value of truth and understanding of breeding to be unbeatable over the years.  It was like a whiskey river that never went dry in most of Earl’s grown life.  He was the town bootlegger and his friend Jim Williams was the law.  Jim always bred his females at Earl’s house and it was Jim Williams who led Earl’s last stud dog out of his yard.  Jim and Earl lived 19 miles from south to north from one another, on the same road.  They were just another sample of two friends that had come to the point of hating each other from their many dog deals, but were friends to the end of them both.  Earl would say of Jim, “that no good old popper hanging dogpeddler” and Jim would say “I don’t know why Earl talks to bad of me.”  Jim could come and deal dogs with Earl all his life and he did.  Earl would say about his life as a bootlegger and the “law”, that he never gave as much as a cigarette to, and he was never busted in his many years.  And Jim he would tell how he would call Earl and tell him to close shop till the state men left town, each time the state men came to town to try and bust a bootlegger.  Earl knew people like Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Frank Nash who was raised just a few miles from Earls in what was then called the Bad Land of Oklahoma when survival of life was hard, but like a Oklahoma preacher Earl climbed high on his mountain and screamed like a cat, after walking from Kentucky when a young boy rode in a wagon pulled by oxen.  But like a red headed stranger that rode into red rock on a black stallion he made his mark ion the world of life and gamedogs.  And like he said you can’t hang a man for killing a woman who’s stealing your horse.  And out on the edge of life is where Earl lived in the Badlands of Oklahoma.  He told me one time he won 24 matches in 24 months, he said; “Hell there ain’t nobody that can win 24 straight fair, not even me, as he would laugh, and give me a fake right and left to the jaw.  He was like the sun from over the mountain top dancing on your skin.  And like a light house that stands alone Earl traveled down the roads of life in and around Oklahoma.  At one time he had over 100 gamedogs and 200 cocks.  He made his own cock spears from bed springs.  But the gamedogs was his love from the hate he had within of men.

The game we as men play when seeking the gamest dogs bred, is in life as seeking t hat true friend, after the man deals in life where men are having a hard time to survive in land that is called “bad.”  As Earl cried out in pain from his butchered body as he lived one day at a time.  He told me so many stories with so many different dogs names, we talked for days.  He lived by the graveyard where his folks lay to their amazing grace, as he too lay there to rest.  But at the time of God’s grace we will all arise and be counted for, as I can sometime hear his voice and spirit saying “go for it Don.”  “Go for it.”  It was like take this job and shove it I’ll make it my way and he did, but I tell you for sure his last years were as hard as any I have seen.  He told me, he said Don; “If a man told me could win over my dogs I would tell him I would beat him within so much time and he did.”  He told me; “one time we were matched into the “Big Shot.”  Shipley and his friends came down with an old timer a month before he died of old age.  His name was Frumble of Arkansas.  He was a good old man, I told him after the dogs met, bet your money it don’t go 20 minutes.  And at 18 minutes the “Big Shot’s” dog fell dead in the center of the pit, and old man Frumble was the only man there that seen what I did, he shaked my hand and told me how glad he was to get to meet the “Oklahoma Kid” before he died, he just hugged my neck and left, and sad I seen what you did, I seen.  And Earl just laughed and said he was one hell of a man he was, one hell of a man.  He then stood up then he set back down.  And told me each time we visited many dog stories of too many different dog names to tell about at this time.  Earl bred the Henry dogs as pure as he could an crossed it with the Feeley and Shipley families from his understanding of what he had seen in the different matches of his life.  “Dibo” was a dog bred of 41 years of Earl’s life.  In the pedigree of Dibo for 8 generations the three men whose names show up the most, was Earl Tudor of Oklahoma 39 times, Con Feeley of Illinois, 36 times, Bill Shipley of Texas, 24 times.  Compared to those three men the others in the pedigree of Dibo were gamedog feeders.  Those three men were at the Core of the game where only the truth was.  The female Gordons “Red Lady” was an American bred female where Tudors name showed up 38 times in her pedigree.  When Earl bred Dibo to Red Lady his name showed in their offsprings Jeff, Spike, & Buck 77 times.  In the pedigree of Black Widow, Earl Tudors name shows 69 times.  When he bred Spike to Black Widow his name showed in the pedigree of Baby 146 times.  He thenbred Spikes brother Jeff to Baby, and produced “Nigger” his last and purest family bred stud dog.  His name appeared in Nigger’s pedigree 223 times.  He then bred Nigger to his sister and produced one lone female called “Spookie,” and his name appeared in her pedigree 446 times.  Those two American Gamedogs were the purest bred of Earl Tudors understanding of the game he had played near 67 years of his life.  And at this time after he is dead and gone there is still some of his so called friends trying to take his credit of breeding.

A Breeder of American Gamedogs

CH PLUMBER'S ALLIGATOR POR




I am constantly being asked questions about the Alligator dog and the family of dogs that has come about from this great old warrior.
It seems the more that’s said the more is left unsaid or at least overlooked and not purposely so.
Alligator came about as almost an after thought. Mr. Williams of Ft. Worth had obtained the Satin Lady bitch from Maurice Carver. She was a big, black pretty bitch that I never cared much about as an individual. She was one of these scatter-bred dogs Maurice was famous for. Unlike most of the Carver dogs she was cold. When it came time to breed her Mr. Williams went to Wichita Falls, Texas and bred her to Tudor’s old Nigger dog, which was owned at that time by J.E. King. Nigger was some of the last of the old Tudor stuff and had been on several yards before King got him.
The breeding was made, and as they grew into adulthood I was able to see and handle all three of these dogs. Alligator, as great as he was, had two littermates that in my opinion were at least as good if not better than him. There were Soko and Susan Renee’, both real bulldogs in every way.
Mr. Williams kept Alligator until he was just over a year old, so he could breed him back to his dam, which he did. Soko had shown so good at a young age for the little Plumber that the Plumbers went in together to buy Alligator.
When they bought him, I was certain they had an albatross, because he was so big. I figured they would never be able to get him hooked up. I also figured his chances of being as good as Soko were little to none at all. You have got to figure this was during an era of really great dogs, and who would ever expect this big, ugly dog to be anything special.
The Plumber’s started out with such a good bunch of dogs that they expected everything to be really fast lane. They had roll dogs better than most people’s match dogs, and were always looking for action and better dogs.
They felt they never had the luxury of a methodical schooling process. They were great dog men, but were hard on the dogs. They felt their dogs were either ace or near ace, or they were out of here with little regard for mediocrity.
Gator was started out on good dogs that were smaller than he was and most were just dominated by this optical illusion.
There were also several Brush Matches where Alligator would just run over the competition. The Plumbers were concerned because they had never seen him get his oil checked, even though he had been double dogged on several occasions.


They had got a Tudor dog from me named Zeke that was a plug, but very game. A fellow showed up on that place, and in the course of conversation said the old black dog did not impress him that much and he would bet ole Zeke could whip him. The Plumbers, being ever ready to show what sports they were, agreed on the bet and down they went. The fellow who underestimated Alligator was soon separated from his money when he told them to pick up Zeke, who was no match for the Alligator dog. As the stranger left, he made a statement that always holds true in the Bulldog world. “You sure can’t tell one by how they look”.
In their quest for perfection, they made a request to use Trussell’s Dum Dum dog to see if Alligator was truly game. Dummy you see was a game dog that was even bigger than Alligator. It seems that in that day and time any dog from a cross, scatter bred or real rough were suspect of being a cur, so they did everything they could to stop Alligator. When they got to Trussell’s they ran Alligator on the tread mill for one half hour then fifteen minutes road work to cool him down, then to the roll pit, where he went over half an hour with the larger Dum Dum dog. It was nip and tuck and Alligator went across when he shouldn’t have on wobbly legs. This roll turned out to be a pretty good game test for Dum Dum too. When asked how it turned out, Trussell said, “The black dog gave Dummy everything he wanted.”
The next match for “Alligator” was in the Big League at one of Maurice’s big ten match shows. He went in as a definite underdog, going into Bryant, males fifty eight pounds. Both dogs appeared to be in excellent shape and came to fight with a fast hard pace set for big dogs. Alligator goes to the legs with Bryant’s dog Satin swapping it out and going from legs to nose, and then getting into Gator’s stifle, where they swap it out. A turn is called on Satin at twenty-six minutes. A handle made at thirty minutes and Satin makes a good scratch. A handle is made and Alligator makes the scratch at forty minutes, taking Satin down to work the front legs. Satin takes the count at forty-five, making Gator the winner. There was much speculation among the huge crowd present if any one had a big one for this hound dog looking goof .His next match was into a dog called Jack at catch weight. Alligator came in sixty pounds heavier. These heavy weights hit and the fight was on. Jack, a big staff looking dog takes Gator down and works him over for twenty minutes with Gator being content to take the bottom where he is always in hold. Gator is coming to the top and by thirty minutes it’s an even fight. Jack was a seasoned dog who had never met his equal and you can see Alligator has begun to come to the top as Jack begins to fatigue and get that far away look in his eyes. During the earlier part of the match, Bobby Ackel had commented on Gator may have met his match and Jimmy Jobe turned and said to me, as Gator was being trashed like a stepchild, “that if Jack was game and keeps this up, ole Gator could be in trouble”. As the match was winding down Bobby Ackel said, “Ole Jack looks like he has bout had it”, and sure enough in just the hour mark he takes the count. I went over to check on the Jack dog and offer any assistance I could and I noticed his stomach and chest. I could see what had made the difference in this match and it was the punishment Gator had dished out from the bottom and it was unbelievable. I heard later that Jack lived out his life in luxury after Gator ended his ring career.
There was some time after this match, as no one wanted any of the Gator Dog, so during a roll session at the Plumbers’ place; the Caddell’s showed up with several to school. These boys had some old time stuff the old man had been breeding for years and some were sure solid, from the Lightner-Colby stuff. They had a male named Jeff that was a big spotted dog, too big for everything on the place except Alligator. So he was taken off the chain to oblige the Jeff dog. This dog was the closest thing to Gator’s equal that I saw during his career. The roll ended early due to a bleeder being hit on Gator. Jeff went to the Midwest where he did very well and where I heard he made Champion.


When the Plumbers had about given up on another official match, word came from Oklahoma that a man named Brown had one he would run at the Alligator dog. Up to then, several had fallen through, but this one came off and as they say in the dogs these boys “brought a paddle for the Plumber’s ass.” They had done their homework and rather than a punisher, they brought one that not only could punish but was versatile and smart. This dog could have whipped Gator and on another day might have. The dogs were conditioned by two of the best conditioners of the day. Gator conditioned by Burton and Joker conditioned by Fox. The match was males at fifty-seven pounds and Oklahoma Shorty was the referee. The dogs hit and Gator takes the bottom but is coming up from time to time and being frustrated by Joker’s style, that had never been too effective on him with the defensive dogs he had met earlier in his life. A turn was called on Joker at twenty-five minutes, but a handle was not made until fifty-two minutes and Joker scratches strong. Alligator has started to dominate the match by the hour mark. At an hour nine, Gator is screaming from his corner to scratch and is showing what he is said to be famous for, “Killer Instinct” and you can plainly see he plans to finish the job if allowed to do so. At an hour twelve, Joker takes the count. We all agree, we have just witnessed two of the best big dogs to ever come down the pike and what a show they put on. The Plumbers are quick to commend Mr. Brown and Mr. Fox on bringing an excellent dog in top condition. They also say they plan on retiring the old warrior, no that he is officially a Champion.
As I look back, I can only recall a few heavyweights that were ever in Alligator’s league. Hooten’s Butcher Boy, Sampson (Alligator’s half brother) were two very good dogs that ended each other’s careers. There was also a dog out of Tennessee that sure impressed me, but in my mind Alligator will always be the best.
Besides a great combat dog, Alligator was a pleasure to be around and always a clown. He was never bred to an army of bitches, but produced what I consider his share of really good dogs. This story goes further than Alligator himself and must include his littermates and both his and their offspring. They represent not just a few good dogs, but a great family of dogs that have stood the test of time, not just in this country but on five continents. You must remember these dogs were never mass-produced, but still have made a tremendous impact on the dogs of today. I have never been overly sentimental about my dogs, but have had a few of these dogs that were special to me.
Of all the things said about the Alligator family I think the most impressive trait I’ve seen is how well it crosses with most any other good family of dogs. I sincerely believe it is a genetic pool that cannot hurt any breeding program, and in most cases adds that something special that comes along from time to time, that makes them special and that is what we are all looking for, right?





JESSE ROD'S WHITE FOOT




This story is based on half-facts, half-truths and is wishful thinking in a certain direction that could be close to the truth, but is by no means the whole truth. It is just a hint for the readers to think in a certain direction when breeding bulldogs and why some of the legendary old-timers are still on the top of the mountain after all these decades of breeding their family, because they carry a big hidden secret about the truth of one of the greatest clicks in history to produce awsome bulldogs. Some time ago I was studying the roots and backgrouwnd off my bulldogs again and of other major bulldogs from the past with the help of pedigrees on line. It went pretty good and fast I came across the Eli/Boudreaux dogs and especially the Eli dog himself and the dogs before him. To my surprise I saw that he came from light coloured dogs who where red bred and/or white buckskin and white brindle dogs traits from the Colby bloodline The Eli family turned from these colors black almost overnight he’s heavy Dibo inbred bred and since Dibo was one of if not the most important prepotent producer of his days it kinda looked odd that the Eli family turnd black overnight.

When I arrived at my friend’s yard in Texas, USA, we started to talk about the various Eli familys and stuff and my friend told me (who was close with Jerry Clemmends for some time and who owned the Niggertoby dog for some time that he bought off Clemmends) that Clemmends and one of the less known but best Eli breeder of the past, J.D. Elliot, had said to him “If you ever breed these dogs good and tight and a red one comes along, keep that one, as it most certainly will turn out good and you need him to breed back into your black family stock”. My friend never understood why and he told me that they never told him why. He took me to Jerry Clemmends place who I met and his very nice wife we saw the yard and his famous Six Bits dog and some others and youngsters. He didn’t have a lot of dogs around, about 12 or so, but it was educational and very nice to meet up with this old-timer and the man who bred Bullyson, Eli Jnr and Brendy. A couple of days later I was picked up by another friend off mine from the Bulldog Ranch. He took me up to Louisiana and we visited Floyd Boudreaux. I was impressed to some extent by the same looks his bulldogs had as our dogs and what I liked the most was that 90% of them were all black. He had a couple of red rednosed dogs and you could see that they were old-time stuff like the Wallace dogs were looking and sure enough that stuff when back to that old stuff he one or 2 lighter coloured dogs as well. Now I knew that his dogs were awful tight bred, but looked so good something that didn’t hit me right then. We had a lovely day and me and my wife and friend and Mr Boudreaux had dinner at a sea food restaurant cajun style!!. When I got back to my friends place a couple of days later I told him that these Boudreaux dogs looked too good compared with there inbred peds and that I found it odd that these 2 men after so many years in the game, still were and are the best Eli breeders around. I couldn’t help thinking about an interview with Danny Burton who once I said that Earl Tudor loved the Henry dogs the best and that they were big headed black dogs with reddish eyes and they were crazy to fight and nobody knew where they came from????

I suddenly realised that it could be that Earl Tudor kept 2 familys registered under ONE name which is known as the Dibo family so he could have these Henry dogs registered as Dibo dogs but infact they were a secret family, who when bred together made one hell of a click. Ain’t it funny that these Boudreaux bred dogs turned black overnight?? and are bred so tightly that they actually would not be able to function. Ain’t it funny that the red ones that popped up should be used to be bred in. Why was Carvers Black Widow stolen back by Tudor, bred to his (Dibo) Spike dog 2 times and destroyed. Why was the ****** dog, Earls favourite dog, with his favourite pedigree?? In them days he had the same pedigree as many other dogs around Earl’s group. There was one difference and that was that ****** was black!! All of a sudden, in a time span of not that many years apart, these great known ace dogs in the likes of Eli Jnr, Bullyson, Zebo, Pit General, Alligator, and so on, pot up. It sure is funny that most of these lines clicked very well together and/or more important clicked with the same outcross families who YES WERE HEAVY DIBO BRED, like Snooty blood or Boomerang blood. Some of us will know the Eli(Henry) x Snooty (Dibo) crosses of yesterday, together with the Zebo(Henry) x Snooty(Dibo) crosses and the Alligator (Henry) x Snooty (Dibo) crosses or the Zebo x Eli breedings or Alligator x Eli breedings, Bullyson (Henry) x Arts Missy (Dibo) or the Eli x Boomerang crosses. Most of these legendary dogs where a product of Henry x Dibo cross registered under one name as Dibo dogs, but in fact they where battle crosses which could be the reason them pure bred Eli dogs are still looking so good and perform good, while on paper are bred awfully tight, too tight if you ask me. Don Malony had them pure Dibo dogs, the best one he probably ever had was the Toot dog who was double bred Tudor’s Ch. Spike. Toot was like his Dibo ancestors, a real Dibo dog, light coloured red dog like Dibo and Tudor’s Ch. Jeff or what about Tudor’s Ch. White Rock and so on. Where did the black colours in Eli and the ****** and Zebo bloodlines poses came from?? Why was Black Widow stolen? Why did they steal the old Eli dog? Why did Zebo come out of the same part of the country where they knew Eli went to. Why those he has a reversed Henry pedigree, why do they say he’s a son of Eli? Why was Pit General stolen? Why? Why? Why?

Too many coincidences surround the legendary black aces of the past. Last but not least, the conning and stealing probably started with Tudor’s sins. ****** was his favourite dog in colour and pedigree but he later sold him becouse he wasn’t a hard mouthed ability dog , he was not a cut that a lot of people think. This rumour was spred by Don Maloney who was present only with Tudor and Burton. Maloney didn’t like Tudor taking a liking in Burton. He named his son Earl. Maloney got the Dibo dogs and Burton the ****** (Henry blood) producing Pit General. Another ace dog who is believed to be a Henry/Dibo cross is Gr.Ch. Art. His daddy being Eli Jnr and his mommy the Java bitch, a red Carvers Pistol bred dog with some Miss Spike and Coton Bullit in there. Last but not least, bloodlines built around dogs like Chinaman whose daddy came out of Eli Jnr (Henry) x Curtis’ Sugar (Dibo) and as mentiond before Gr.Ch. Art out of Eli Jnr x sister of Sugar called Java and also the Nelis (Henry) x Tug (Dibo) or Spike (Henry) x Tug (Dibo) breedings, Tug being Tombstone/Toot/Carvers Pistol/Miss Spike, bred all pure dibo red bred dogs, while Nelis /Spike are Henry black bred through Alligator x Eli blood. A coincidence? I dont think so! I can go on and on, but it would be nice for the readers to do some pedigree researching themselves and seek out the hidden secrets used for 30 or so years to breed outstanding dogs. Like I said it’s half-truth, half-fiction and wishful thinking, but I’m sure the truth is up there with it …

LIMEY KENNELS NELIS (1XL)-ROM



“Nelis” was born around 1980-1981 and was sired by Mr Bulldog’s Champion “Spike” (Hammond’s Ch. “Jo”). His dam was Hammond’s (Mr. Bulldog’s) “Jessy”. “Nelis” was one of six pups from the litter, his brother J. B. “Spike Jnr.” won one and another “Klinker” lost dead game to a son of Pieter’s “Pilot” who outweighed him by six pounds.
His brother “Trouble” was schooled and tested. Sisters “Lucky” and ”Paddy” was schooled and tested hard, and a sister called “Suzy” was said to have quit, yet when bred to Champion Willy Booger and a Rufus / Heinzl dog produced some good ones.
“Nelis” was sold to a man called Van Leeuwen. At eighteen months old he began his career and was brought back to be two-dogged by his sire Champion “Spike” and a half-brother Champion “Ringo”. He was then matched into Nico’s Champion “Sting” who was out of “Handsome” & “Hot Lips”. “Handsome” was out of “Bolio”, and “Hot Lips” out of Grand Champion “Hank” Because of a lack of conditioning, bad advice and going two pounds uphill, he lost this contest in a deep game fashion. When the match was over “Nelis” was left dying in the pit.
Mr Golden Eye asked that if he could save the dog, could he then keep him and was told he could. So Mr Golden Eye worked all night to reconstruct the dogs face and ultimately save his life. A few weeks later Mr Golden Eye came back to collect “Nelis” and were told by Mr Bulldog and U & S kennels that they wanted a treadmill for the dog. So, Mr Golden Eye built them a treadmill and returned once again to collect the dog. He was told he could have the dog, but would have to pay two hundred and fifty pounds extra.
He then started making arrangements to bring “Nelis” into the United Kingdom. As the dog was so badly damaged he knew that he couldn’t bring him in the conventional way and would therefore have to smuggle him into the country. A small rowing boat with an outboard motor was rented and the North Sea was crossed. Having had to swim the remaining part of the journey Mr Golden Eye changed into some dry clothes and finally walked “Nelis” into the UK.
At the time King Limey had a two-time winning bitch called “Tug”, who was a litter sister to Irish Tim’s Champion “Lochem”, one of the two best match dogs Jack Kelly ever saw? (The other was Tudor’s “Spike”) “Tug” came out of Curtis’s “Fox Jnr.” and Uptown’s Champion “Snubby”. When “Nelis” and “Tug” were bred the mating produced a R. O. M. litter containing Champion “Dutch”, Champion “Gnasher”, Champion “Smuggler” and “Fatso”.
“Nelis” was bred to “Tug” three times and they produced high calibre dogs in every litter. “Nelis” was bred twelve or thirteen times and subsequently produced six Champions. When inbred on his mother Champion “Dutch” produced Champion “Neilson” and “Popeye”, who in return are registered R. O. M. dogs. “Nelis” and his ability to reproduce is pure gold. You can cross it with every bloodline and it will produce winners. His inbred son Champion “Neilson” R. O. M. was bred to an English Show Stafford and produced Grand Champion “Bella”.

sábado, 4 de agosto de 2012

WILDSIDE'S RAPID ROY (1XW)






Hmmmm. Where to begin? First off I would like to give credit to where credit is due. Other then raising Roy and matching him I would have to say that most credit should go to WildSide Kennels. These are the people who bred the dog and supplied him to me. I also suppose this is as good as place as any to begin Roy's Story.
I had originally wanted a pup off of Ed & Chris from Bandit and another Gyp they had on the Yard. Well that breeding couldn't be made, so they had to send me another one in replacement. With my authorization of course, This pup was out of the same Sire, their Bandit dog and the Dam of Roy was "Wildside's Wild Cherry" knowing that I liked Eli dogs crossed with Snooty dogs they couldn't have made a better choice for me.
I received Roy when he was a young pup around 10 weeks old, from that first day I knew he was a real Character. The weather was rather cold for that time of year in fact we had an early snow, so I decided to bring Roy inside. Well this lasted about a week! I could tell to try and housebreak this dog there was a good chance he would have been ruined before he hit the show circuit.
Roy took life on life's terms and never really seemed to care one way or another. Since it was my Wife's dog he did get a little extra now and then. Such as toys and time to play with them, I had to build the dog a ginny and Spring Pole for his amusement. So in essence by 10 months old Roy was being introduced to the tools of his trade which he took too well.
It was around this time that I decided to give him a taste of the four walls with a dog about 18 months old. He took to this as well as his toys. He did show lack of interest; not that he didn't Scratch when he was supposing to or take hold, as a dog should. It was more like the interest a dog has to come out and play at 20 below freezing. They come out cuz they want to, such was Roy when he first met another dog.
The second time out Roy showed us that he had a lot of brains and handled himself quite well for 23 minutes. (He was 14 months old) I suppose that was the last of the easy times for Roy. His next three rolls were into bigger dogs then him (50lbs) nothing went under 40 minutes. In these rolls Roy had his foot broken, tendons in his Front legs torn for life and his legs would never be the same.
It was late August/93 I had lost a Match and was thinking about bringing Roy out to the circuit. I had some Prominent Dog people from East Texas up for a week and my friend told me He thought Roy was a Cur. I said maybe so but there doesn't seem to be enough dogs on this Yard to make him quit. Well we set him down on the floor around midnight and he did 1:06, I decided I might as well pull him out. The next morning over coffee my friend said "You know, now would be the time to find out if he is a Cur or not." Well we went back out to the Yard and got Roy, nine hours after doing 1:06 off chain. When I let Roy go, he came over as well as he physically could, took hold and proceeded to show he was not about to hang it up yet.
Well I told my friend to get back to me in a month and I would have his weight for him. In one month we had Rapid Roy Hooked at 45lbs into Kirkland & Faul. I Started my Keep in the crisp month of October, as the show was to be in November.
Roy was an easy dog to work as he had been using his tools for most of his life from 10 months on. After checking with my Vet and getting a clean bill of Health and a Health Certificate we were ready to travel in a week. My partner came over to visit and to get a few pictures of Roy before we left, he told me that he figured it was the last time he would see Roy alive, as he knew it would have to be one special reason before I would pick the dog up.
When I left Canada the temperature was a nice 45 degrees. When I touched down in Houston it was 90 degrees. I had 3 days to accustom Roy to this drastic change, which was hard considering my entire feed program had to be changed to take in for the hot, humid air.
Show day we traveled about 6 hours to Louisiana today was the day for Roy to show us what he was all about. I heard I was going into a pretty physical dog with allot of mouth. My plan was to weather the Storm and hopefully Roy's brains and Gameness would prevail, as we had no real mouth to speak of.
We were second to go off in a 5 dog show, many of the big names were there along with this Canadian, that not too many people knew other then the crowd I had traveled with. At weigh in we came at 44.5lbs the same as Roy's opponent. Faul was handling Bossman, Kirkland was his second in my corner and I have to be honest I was more worked up then my Roy.
At the command Pit I released Roy and he went to business! Within 7 minutes of this Match you couldn't get a $5.00 bet against Rapid Roy and the Canadian. He blew Bossman's shoulder out with one bite and begins to go to work on the dog. This was the first time in Roy's life he had the upper hand. I had a friend over in Faul's corner and he yelled out "Shit that ain't the same dog we rolled up in Canada!"
I have to say that Kirkland and Faul brought one Game Bulldog, fact is Bossman won "Gamest in Show" that night. We had passed the hour mark, Roy had run a bit hot in the first 20 minutes, but grabbed his wind back. Petie from Bleedwater was in my corner, and when I brought him in for the 30 seconds he would scatter everybody from the open door as I hauled Roy up in the air so he could get the cooler night air. I would have to say it was over 100 degrees in the Pit and Petie was more worried I was going to overheat then Roy. At 1:04 T.Grubs the Judge said, " Well boys in case you're wondering it's been 1:04. Com'on Roy let's get this over with! I said.
It was at this point Roy finally decided he was gonna be a Bulldog! He put the lower half of his jaw around the bottom of Bossman's neck, upper jaw on the back of his neck and bit! There was a crack and Bossman straightened out and lost his bowels. He was stone cold dead! Roy continued to crunch on Bossman's skull! Rapid Roy was declared the winner at 1:07.
There were some older Dogmen there that said "They haven't seen mouth like that for years!" I must say I haven't seen a finer Bulldog then Roy's opponent either for awhile. This dog continued scratching to the face of death until he took his death.
In closing Roy is now at WildSide Kennels, I don't believe he should be matched again due to an accident he had up here in which he had to have an operation on his Salivary glands. This we believe may have caused Paralysis in his Jaw. Taking from him the once great mouth he had.
When I think about what makes an Ace this is it:
A dog that loves to work

A dog that has no fear of crowds before he has even been with one
A dog that will travel anywhere and perform as he should
A dog that will kill his opponent for the want of killing him/her
Well Roy has all these qualities and more. I believe he will pass this on to his Offspring. I already have dogs out of him that to us seem to be much the same as him.