Rod Marinelli Wrestled a Bear

Rosemead High School, Rod Marinelli's alma mater, recently named its field Marinelli Stadium. Typically, at these ceremonies, you'd discuss Marinelli's excellence on the high school gridiron, how everyone knew that he'd be destined for success one day. Instead, Marinelli's pals discussed the day the Lions coach fought a bear. Sometimes, you've just got to let the blockquote take it away....

There were a lot of car dealerships on Colorado in those days, and they started using gimmicks to attract people. The guys saw a sign: "Wrestle Victor the Bear." All you needed was $10, and you could take him on.
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"It was cold, the mat was all wet, and this bear was smelly, let me tell you," Schram said. "So we put the money up there, and in goes Rod. Rod did then what he does now: He went in to win."

"There was no hesitation on the guy's part," Gomez said. "He flew into that thing." "And let me tell you," Schram said, "he had that bear on his back in about 10 seconds."

The Russian guy started poking Marinelli with the stick. It startled Marinelli. The bear recovered and pinned him. Marinelli reversed on him, and they went back and forth. The Russian guy declared Victor the victor. Schram and Gomez said they cheated. Marinelli tried to be a good sport.

"Rod goes over to shake the bear's hand," Gomez said, laughing. "The bear doesn't know he's coming to shake hands. The bear attacked him again."

I guess Marinelli actually expected the bear to be familiar with the very human act of shaking hands? Still, that's ballsy. Somewhere, Stephen Colbert is appreciative.