'Burgh's Best to Never Wear It: Bruno Sammartino forged authentic connection with fans

The Tribune-Review is following its Best to Ever Wear It series, a daily countdown of the greatest college and pro athletes to wear every jersey number from 99 to 0/00, by honoring the Best to Never Wear It. The six athletes spotlighted didn’t wear a numbered uniform but brought pride to Pittsburgh through their sporting achievements.

Wrestling: Bruno Sammartino

In some ways, the story of Bruno Sammartino’s professional wrestling career is dated, a quaint reminder of a time when many fans thought his remarkable record in the ring was a legitimate athletic achievement.

In other ways, his story is as fresh as today’s headlines.

According to a story in the Wrestling Observer after his 2018 death, Sammartino was an up-and-coming star in 1961 when he met a bodybuilder-turned-wrestler named “Sailor” Art Thomas and they became friends. After a match in the New York territory, Sammartino decided to take Thomas to his favorite Italian restaurant in the area.

As the pair walked in, employees told Sammartino that Thomas wasn’t welcome because he was Black. Because they were big fans of Sammartino, they’d do him a favor, they said, and prepare a meal for Thomas that he could eat in his car.

Sammartino walked out and never visited the restaurant again.

No, Sammartino’s win-loss record wasn’t authentic, but his appeal surely was. He was the consummate wrestling good guy, an earnest, hard-working immigrant who fought the forces of evil as he was cheered on by an adoring crowd.

He wasn’t WWWF heavyweight champion for more than 11 years over two reigns because of his wrestling ability. It was his authentic emotional connection to the ticket-buying public that helped him sell out Madison Square Garden a record 45 times.

Born in 1935, Sammartino’s mother hid him away from Nazi soldiers in the mountains of Pizzoferrato, Italy, during World War II. He also contracted rheumatic fever.

Perhaps because he was a sickly child, he was drawn to weightlifting after arriving in Pittsburgh. He played football at Schenley High School and trained with legendary Pitt wrestling coach Rex Peery. He first gained fame performing strongman stunts on Bob Prince’s TV show in 1957.

Art Rooney offered him a tryout with the Steelers as a lineman, but when he found out a football contract was worth about $7,000 and wrestling promoters were offering him $15,000, his direction was set.

On May 17, 1963, Sammartino defeated “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers with a backbreaker in 48 seconds to win the WWWF title.

He didn’t lose until Ivan Koloff beat him Jan. 18, 1971. When the ref’s hand slapped the mat a third time to signify the dastardly Russian’s victory, legend has it the Madison Square Garden crowd fell silent in disbelief. Koloff was hustled out of the arena without an announcement to prevent a riot.

Sammartino’s last match came when he and Hulk Hogan beat King Kong Bundy and the One Man Gang in a tag team match in Baltimore in 1987.

Sammartino isn’t the only member of the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame to call Western Pennsylvania home, of course. Another wrestler so honored actually has a resume superior to Sammartino’s when it comes to legitimate sporting conquests.

Mt. Lebanon’s Kurt Angle has a uniquely decorated wrestling career as the only athlete to win WPIAL, PIAA, NCAA and WWE championships. He’s one of only two Pennsylvania natives to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal, a feat he famously accomplished in 1996 in Atlanta, competing despite suffering two fractured vertebrae in his neck.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.