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| A 1998 Cougars wrestling card featuring Brock Lesnar. |
That question echoed in whispers throughout the crowd at the
University of Regina’s Physical Activity Centre on a cold winter night in
January of 1998. University of Regina Cougars wrestler Adrian Gilmore left his
team’s bench for his heavyweight match in a dual meet against the Bismarck
State College Mystics and immediately stared into the eyes of an imposing
opponent.
Off the Mystics bench came this monster looking of a man,
who was built like a tank.
Gilmore stood 6-foot-1 and weighed 243 pounds and his
opponent was 6-foot-3 and weighed about 270 pounds, but the sheer mass of the
visiting wrestler made Gilmore, who was an all-Canadian the previous season,
look small. A gasp came from the crowd as the hulking huge Mystic wrestler
glared back at Gilmore with a stone-cold look. The Bismarck State College
wrestler’s name was Brock Lesnar.
That’s
right – Brock Lesnar. The same Brock Lesnar who would go on to fame as a UFC
heavyweight champion and a WWE star attraction.
Back
in that January day of 1998, no one would have fathomed Lesnar would become famous.
At
the time, the Cougars men’s wrestling team were the defending Canadian
Interuniversity Sport champions locked on a mission to repeat. A few of the team’s
members had been part of Canada’s national team system.
The
meet with the Mystics was scheduled to spark the Cougars into the second half
of their season. As defending national champs, the Cougars also drew big crowds
to their small home gym, who would overflow the two sets of stands that were usually
set up for match nights.
Gilmore
had aspirations at the time to represent Canada at the Olympics and was also a
standout defensive lineman for the Regina Rams, who were still in the Canadian
Junior Football League at the time. He had helped the Rams win their 14th
CJFL title in November of 1997. The Moose Jaw, Sask., product was a finely
conditioned athlete, and you could see in the eyes of the spectators they
wondered what magic Gilmore could pull off to beat this beast that stood in front of him.
Going
into the heavyweight bout, the Cougars claimed the vast majority of the matches in
the other weight classes and had already won the meet. Gilmore was looking to
add a cap to what was already an impressive night for the host squad. Lesnar had
other ideas.
Very
quickly, it was obvious to see that Lesnar was overpowering Gilmore with sheer
strength. The U of R standout tried to attempt a leverage move and ended up
getting stuck up in the air.
Lesnar
caught Gilmore and proceeded to power bomb him into the mat.
The violent look of the image was shocking. Gilmore ended up being cut open on his forehead, and the officials called a timeout.
The violent look of the image was shocking. Gilmore ended up being cut open on his forehead, and the officials called a timeout.
When
the match resumed, Lesnar’s power was too much to overcome and the visitor
claimed victory by a pin.
For those that saw that match, Lesnar’s victory was hard to forget.
For those that saw that match, Lesnar’s victory was hard to forget.
With
the Mystics located in Bismarck, North Dakota, their visit to the U of Regina
would ultimately become a footnote in the Cougars 1997-98 campaign.
The
Cougars continued to romp over the opposition at dual meets and tournaments and
would repeat as CIS champs.
Gilmore
would soon bow out of competitive sports. After failing to earn an individual
medal at the 1998 CIS championships, Gilmore tried his hand at sports
entertainment’s version of wrestling. He performed on various independent circuits
as “Crazy Horse Eddie Mustang.”
Lesnar
went on to finish the 1997-98 campaign as the national junior college
heavyweight champion in the United States. He transferred over to the University
of Minnesota to compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s top
level and won the NCAA’s national heavyweight title in 2000 to close a four-year
post-secondary career with a 106-5 overall record.
From
there, Lesnar embarked on his storied forays into the WWE and UFC. In a twist
that is unrelated with his 1998 match against Gilmore, Lesnar and his family
have spent a large amount of time residing in Regina in recent years.
Almost no mementos exist from Lesnar’s amateur wrestling
match in Regina, and the Queen City’s CTV and Global affiliates likely no
longer have footage stored away from that night.
For those that were there to witness what happened, they were
treated to one of Lesnar’s early star moments, even if they didn’t know it at
the time.
Cougars champ could have rocked the UFC
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| Lease Bertram was U of Regina's most outstanding male athlete in 1998. |
The Cougars 1997 and 1998 CIS championship teams were filled
with stars, and Lease Bertram was the star that shone the brightest during both
those campaigns with all due respect to heavyweight and 2000 Olympian Dean Schmeichel. Bertram won an individual CIS national championship silver medal in
1997 in the 65-kilogram class and an individual CIS national championship gold
medal in 1998 in the 68-kilogram class. Bertram was a member of Canada’s
national team program at one point in time and was also the U of R’s most
outstanding male athlete in 1998.
The Eston, Sask., product was one of the best athletes ever in the history of
the athletics program at the U of R.
Pound for pound, Bertram was likely the toughest athlete the U of
R ever saw, but he wore that toughness in a quiet manner. When he hit the
wrestling mat, Bertram was all business.
Besides being extremely well conditioned, Bertram was gifted
in the sport technically, and that gift was taken to a higher level under the
guidance of Cougars head coach Leo McGee. When Bertram competed in a match, you
knew you were watching something special due to the way he made it look easy,
when he put three to four moves together.
He almost always won matches by technical superiority gaining a
10-point lead often in under two minutes and frequently in under a minute. Away
from mat, Bertram became part of Cougars folklore, when he helped catch a
couple of punks that tried to rob the U of Regina’s Campus Recreation office in
late February of 1998.
At the height of his success, Bertram walked away from
wrestling at the end of the 1997-98 campaign at age 22, when he still had two years of
CIS eligibility remaining. Amateur wrestling isn’t one of the most popular or
followed sports in Canada, and Bertram’s motivation to continue wasn’t there.
When Bertram was a Cougars’ superstar, mixed martial arts
was still viewed as an underground, freak-type sport, and the UFC was a
fledgling body. That all changed when Dana White became president and a minority
owner in the promotion in 2001.
White was instrumental in vaulting the UFC into the
mainstream and turning mixed martial arts' top professional loop into a
billion-dollar business, where fighters could make millions in income.
Traditionally, fighters with strong amateur wrestling
backgrounds have excelled in the UFC. Playing the “what if” card especially with the UFC making
its Saskatchewan debut on Sunday with its Fight Night 74 card set for 4 p.m. at
the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Bertram might have remained in wrestling, if
the UFC would have been the powerhouse entity it is now back in 1998. He could
have taken his skills into a very viable professional outlet.
With his work ethic and gifted ability, I could see Bertram
posting submission victory after submission victory and being a dominate force
and title holder in the lightweight division. Thanks to the UFC’s platform, the
masses around the world would have gotten to see just how special of an
athletic talent Bertram was.
Unfortunately, the timing in real life wasn’t there, but for
those that saw Bertram compete, it is always cool to dream of what might have
been.
If you have any
comments about this blog post, feel free to email them to
stankssports@gmail.com.
