Thursday, August 8, 2013 • 31
sports
OVER THE MOUNTAIN Journal
Mountain Brook Green All Stars Show Some Spartan Swagger
Team members include, from left, front: Coach Jeff Rusert, Alastair Harris, Aidan Behr, Will Brooks, Lleyton Hargrove, Avery Crump, Topher Hays, Will Rusert, Wells Watts, Brennan Taylor and Landon Neese. Middle: Coach Mike Coffey and coach Jason Rusert. Back: Head coach Mark Hand, Alex Gilleland, Zac White, Luke Hand, Pierce Dalton, Robert Martin, Durston Snyder, Len Irvine, Marcus Yacu, Luke Maluff, Matt Lippy, Alex Tarassoli, and coach Brad White. Not pictured: Amos Alexander and Micah Moon.
U11 Bamalax Wins Georgia Southern Shootout The U11 Bamalax Select travel lacrosse team won the Georgia Southern Shootout tournament held in Atlanta on July 13-14,, defeating teams from Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
The win earned the team an invitation to the Dick’s Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions national championship lacrosse tournament in Tampa in December.
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be without an epic Vestavia-Hoover clash? The Rebels visit the Bucs on Sept. 27. Anderson and others rightly believe that those traditional battles are the core–from a financial and community-interest position–of high school football. Students and parents from those neighborhood communities comingle at work, church and the local supermarket. Common sense tells you that more people will go from Vestavia to Spain Park for a game than would go from Wetumpka to Spain Park. And that’s where you’re talking dollars and cents. Hoover may find itself in the oddest arrangement. The Bucs share a league with Bessemer City, Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa, Hueytown, Jackson-
From back cover
aligned with Carver of Birmingham, Gardendale, Hewitt-Trussville, Huffman, Shades Valley and Woodlawn. And while the overall grouping isn’t terrible from a geographic standpoint, a Spartan or Rebel matchup with Spain Park or Oak Mountain would be more attractive from a fan perspective. Vestavia coach Buddy Anderson deserves enormous credit for scheduling two Over the Mountain schools that are not in his region. The Rebels open on the road against Homewood on Aug. 30. And what would high school football
Kaiser,
From back cover
He studied voice in college and later sang tenor in productions of Susanna and The Barber of Seville at Birmingham’s old Temple Theatre. Tenenbaum also became a lover of opera. Wrestling and body building was still his first love. While working out at the downtown YMCA, Tenenbaum made the acquaintance of Joseph (Steel Dawson) Honeycutt, a prominent pro wrestler and promoter. “He thought I’d be a terrific wrestler,” Tenenbaum said. So, in 1968, Tenenbaum had his first match in a one-time movie theatre in Oneonta. He and his partner, Johnny Davilla, faced the popular tag team of Nick Carter and Tarzan White, a former All-American football player at the University of Alabama. The crowd was not friendly. “Nick Carter was very popular in Oneonta. He was like the mayor,” said Tenenbaum. “We didn’t have much of a chance.” Tenenbaum and his partner lost badly, but the night wasn’t a total downer for the first-time wrestler. He got himself a “ring” name. Honeycutt had given Tenenbaum the name “Bob Kaiser” for his match against Carter and White, and later changed it to the “The Great Kaiser.” Tenenbaum continued to be a journeyman on the wrestling circuit until meeting manager/promoter Dr.
‘I met Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was in Birmingham filming the movie Stay Hungry. He suggested that I wear the hooded mask – and it worked.’
Johnny Peebles III. Peebles promoted Tenenbaum as the “Operatic Tenor Who Sings”, and then added another touch shortly thereafter: The Kaiser’s famous mask. “I met Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was in Birmingham filming the movie Stay Hungry,” said Tenenbaum. “He suggested that I wear the hooded mask – and it worked.” So armed with the mysteriouslooking mask and Peebles’ promotional skills, the Great Kaiser’s career skyrocketed. One of his Tenenbaum’s favorite memories was a match in the 1970s against the popular Bearcat Brown. More than 5,000 fans jammed Birmingham’s Municipal Auditorium to watch the 20-minute match, which
The 7U Mountain Brook “Green” All Star Team finished a successful run of games in two local tournaments earlier this summer. In the Homewood Tournament of Stars, Mountain Brook Green secured a #4 seed out of 14 teams. One week later, the boys improved to a #2 seed in the AL Metro Tournament played at Mountain Brook High School.
Team members are, from left, front: Thomas Lambert, George Mange, Tucker Crawford and Connor Hofbauer. Back: Watts Alexander, Thomas Norris, Stewart Griswold, Luke Schwefler, Brad Hart, Luke Johnston, James Graphos and Drew Bodnar. The team was coached by: Trip Griswold (manager), Andy Bodnar, Peter Graphos and Eric Schwefler.
Olin, Minor, Northridge and Tuscaloosa County. On the positive side, the grouping draws teams located generally to the west of metro Birmingham. On the down side, is there really a less appealing 6A matchup than Hoover playing JacksonOlin? The Mustangs haven’t been much of a factor in Alabama football since David Palmer starred there in the early 1990s. Certainly, a Hoover game against Spain Park or Mountain Brook would draw more interest than the Bucs’ almost-certain rout of J-O. And let’s be honest, whatever reasons you might get from the powers-that-be at either school, the fact that Hoover and Spain Park aren’t playing is ridiculous. Two schools in the same classification, and the same city, can’t work their way into each other’s schedule? Seriously? You might as well ask Alabama and Auburn not to play one another anymore. The situation is better in Class 5A, as the three local schools in that classification–Briarwood, John Carroll Catholic and Homewood–are mem-
ended in a draw. The crowd gave both wrestlers a standing ovation when the match ended. The only problem was, the match wasn’t supposed to end the way it did. “I was supposed to lose,” said Tenenbaum, laughing. “Bearcat was supposed to win, but was a total gentleman about it. The promoter of the match wasn’t so happy about it. He really dressed me down when it was over.” Another favorite memory is when the Great Kaiser took on local sportscaster Herb Winches at Boutwell Auditorium drawing almost 6,000 fans to the event. The Great Kaiser’s popularity continued into the 1990s, when he met Bullet Bob Armstrong for the National Wrestling Alliance Southern Heavyweight Championship on a sizzling June afternoon at the Birmingham Race Course. Both wrestlers punished themselves to the limit – and the Great Kaiser emerged as the champion. “I reached the top,” said Tenenbaum. “Of course, it had been pre-planned for me to win, but it was a triumph. It also raised my value on the circuit.” The Kaiser ended his wrestling career in 2003 after a victory over the Destroyer at Boutwell Auditorium. Two years later he was inducted into
bers of Region 4. Homewood, of course, also plays Vestavia. Although the region alignments have greatly reduced local rivalries, there is an upside: More local teams have a shot at qualifying for post-season play. Under the present AHSAA format, the top four teams in each eight-team circuit qualify for the playoffs. So if Hoover, Vestavia, Mountain Brook, Spain Park and Oak Mountain were in the same league, at least one of those teams would be sitting at home on the first Friday night in November. With the five schools split among three regions, all of them can be playoff-bound. For those who love those neighborhood border battles, there is good news. The AHSAA will realign the regions again in 2014, and maybe we will see a return to the days when Hoover vs. Vestavia was not only a big game–it was a big game that actually counted in the league standings. And yes, perhaps Hoover and Spain Park could actually play again.
the National Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame. Tenenbaum said professional wrestling in his era is far different from the present-day version of the sport. “There is less pure wrestling today,” he explained. “We used actual holds like the Whole Nelson. The game is much more about acrobatics now. The young fans are looking for soap opera-type entertainment. The wrestlers are like cartoon characters.” Just because Tenenbaum doesn’t wrestle anymore, don’t think he’s gotten out of shape. He is still a regular at the Levite Jewish Community Center gymnasium. Tenenbaum hasn’t
given up on his love of singing either. He regularly participates in services at Temple Emanuel, which is led by his long-time friend Rabbi Jonathan Miller and Cantor Jessica Roskin. He sings the national anthem before local sporting events including the upcoming Ring of Honor Wrestling Event at the Boutwell Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Sat., Sept. 7 to be televised on Channel 68. “I’ve been very blessed,” said Tenenbaum. In a career that saw him double as an opera-singer and masked worldclass wrestler, you’d have to say that Sam Tenenbaum brought new meaning to the term jack-of-all-trades.
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