Bob Bruggers obit

Former Gophers, NFL player, pro wrestler Bob Bruggers dead at 80

A high school standout at Danube and a two-way player with the Gophers, Bob Bruggers played six seasons of pro football before becoming a wrestler.   

He was not on the list.

Bob Bruggers, who played for the Golden Gophers football team after a standout prep basketball and football career at Danube (Minn.) High School, died Friday in Florida. He was 80.

Bruggers helped Danube — located in Renville County about 100 miles west of the Twin Cities — reach the basketball high school state tournament in 1961 and '62. After the 1962 season, Bruggers was named to the Parade All-America team.

After playing both offense and defense for the Gophers football team from 1963 to '65, Bruggers was signed as an undrafted free agent by the American Football League's Miami Dolphins. A linebacker, he played 2½ seasons for Miami before getting traded to the San Diego Chargers, where he played 3½ more seasons, playing 57 AFL/NFL games in all.

After retiring from football, he wrestled professionally for Verne Gagne and the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association. Bruggers wrestled for other professional wrestling organizations until 1975. He retired after suffering injuries in an airplane crash.

Bruggers is a member of the University of Minnesota's "M" Club Hall of Fame, MSHSL Hall of Fame and Minnesota High School Basketball Hall of Fame.

After his football career ended, Bruggers was introduced to professional wrestling by Wahoo McDaniel, a fellow former Miami Dolphin. Bruggers became a professional wrestler and competed under the ring name "Bob "Rocky" Roller". Bruggers was trained as a professional wrestler by Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson, making his debut in 1972 for Gagne's Minneapolis, Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association. In 1973, he began wrestling for Championship Wrestling from Florida. Reflecting his football past, he used a football tackle as his finishing move. In September 1973, he made a brief tour of Japan with International Wrestling Enterprise.

In late 1973, Bruggers began wrestling for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. In March 1974, he began teaming with Paul Jones, and on April 8, 1974, they defeated The Andersons to win the NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship. Bruggers and Jones held the championship until July 4, 1974, when they were defeated by Ric Flair and Rip Hawk.

Bruggers' career came to abrupt end on October 4, 1975. With Bruggers needing to drive from his home in Kingstree, South Carolina, to Wilmington, North Carolina, for an event, promoter Jim Crockett Jr., who was ill with influenza, invited him to instead take his place on a Cessna 310 that he had chartered. Bruggers took a seat on the plane along with Crockett's brother David and fellow wrestlers Ric Flair, Johnny Valentine, and Tim Woods. Shortly before reaching its destination, the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. The pilot, Mike Farkas, sustained ultimately fatal injuries and all five passengers were injured, with Bruggers suffering spinal fractures and a broken ankle. After having steel rods inserted into his spinal column, Bruggers was able to walk out of hospital three weeks after the crash, but decided not to return to wrestling.