The Man

Richard Morgan Fliehre was adopted from the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis in 1953, when the young boy was four years old. His adopted parents moved him to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was raised in a modest, lower middle class home. Quite an humble beginning for the philosopher that he was to become. Not that philosophy was his chosen vocation, or that he ever considered himself very smart. Rather than an academic scholarship, he received a football scholarship to the University of Minnesota, only to drop out of school after his junior year. He began working as a bouncer at a nearby club, and met another bouncer Ken Patera, an Olympic weightlifter. Working out with Patera in the mornings, and working at the club in the evenings, he finally found his way to the career for which he would be known. Patera introduced him to Verne Gagne, who looked at Fliehre with his long flowing blond hair and dark tan and said to him, “I guess you think you’re a real nature boy, don’t you.” And the name stuck. For Richard Morgan Fliehre became “The Nature Boy Ric Flair” of professional wrestling fame. With his “Woooo!” and ornate fur lined robes, he became one of the wealthiest and most well known wrestlers of all time. Oh, and as for philosophy….well, he is the one who came up with the line, “To be the man, you gotta beat the man!” In fact, it is the title of his autobiography. In a sense, it is a book that gives a roadmap of one man’s rise from orphanage to the top in his game.

The Franklin System is supposed to do the same thing. In fact, listening to Tony Franklin, and reading his words about the Kodi Burns / Chris Todd fight to become the #1 quarterback for Auburn, one can almost hear The Nature Boy. “To be the man, you gotta beat the man!” Franklin says it is like watching a prize fight. One of them makes a play and you think he’s knocked the other one out, and then, the other one tops it. “To be the man, you gotta beat the man.”

As of this writing, neither of them has beaten the other. All indications are that both will play, and play a lot, on Saturday. Hopefully, this dual quarterback situation is good and not bad…..fruitful and not contentious. It certainly should be exciting. I can hardly wait for the weekend as the Tigers try to become the Man. But to be the man, we gotta beat the man…..one week at a time.

Woooooo!!!

War Eagle!
WJLaneSR