Reginald Lisowski (“The Crusher,” “Da Crusher”)

Three AWA world heavyweight titles, five AWA tag titles with Dick the Bruiser, and a Billboard hit that told turkeynecks to do the hammerlock turned a Polish fullback from the Rockets into a lakefront folk hero who still lived in the city while neighborhood kids camped the lawn.

He was born in South Milwaukee on July 11, 1926, played fullback for South Milwaukee High (class of 1944), and at thirteen already weighed two hundred pounds bouncing drunks from his father’s saloon. The Army sent him to Germany, where he learned to wrestle. Back home he packed meat at Cudahy, laid brick, and worked nights for five dollars a shot at a Chicago armory until promoters bleached his hair and named him The Crusher. Baron Von Raschke later said the gimmick was a lie: Lisowski did not drink beer; he preferred wine.

He won his first AWA world heavyweight title by beating Verne Gagne on July 9, 1963. Sons Larry and David wrestled for South Milwaukee High while Dad yelled from the stands. His wife Faye died in 2003 after fifty-five years. He died of a brain tumor on October 22, 2005, at seventy-nine, at Bradford Terrace Convalescent Center in Milwaukee. In 2019 the city poured him in bronze at 1101 Milwaukee Avenue and threw Crusherfest.