The next few installments of this column will deal with the wrestling career of Verne Gagne. Being I'm 36 years old and started watching the AWA in 1969 at the age of 5, I didn't get to see Verne Gagne wrestle in the early part of his career. For the most part though, I had to rely on resource materials researched by James Melby, Don Luce, George Lentz, Dave Meltzer, Royal Duncan, Gary Will, Dale Litwaki, Steve Yohe and Steve Slagle in addition to various posts on the Kayfabe Memories message board, the Wrestling Classics message board and the Wrestling Legends mailing list to compile the information for this column.

Verne Gagne was born on May 10th, 1923 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. Gagne attended Robbinsdale High School where he starred in wrestling and football gaining many local accolades including the Northwest AAU wrestling championship in 1942 and the Minnesota State High School wrestling championship in 1943. Gagne received a scholarship to the University of Minnesota where he competed in both wrestling and football. Verne was named to the all conference football team as a freshman in 1943 and won the Big Ten conference wrestling championship at 175 pounds in 1944. After completing his freshman year, Verne entered the Marines for a tour of duty. Verne Gagne was stationed in California and played on the El Toro Marines football team. Gagne also taught hand to hand combat during his stint in the Marines.