69 E.G. - Flight of Fear
- The man behind the success of the Florida
Territory was Eddie Graham. Eddie had come to Florida after spending several
years in the Amarillo Territory. He watched and learned from my father, Dory
Funk Sr. Eddie built his territory on a foundation of wrestling credibility and
community involvement. A wrestling promotion (Or a business) cannot always take
from the community it serves, it must also contribute. CWF's support of Florida
Sheriffs Boys Ranch was much like the Amarillo Territory's support of Cal
Farley's Boys Ranch in Texas. Eddie knew that you must entertain the fans and
give them more than their money's worth at the arena.
Eddie Graham was a genius in the wrestling business. He was also an
Instrument rated pilot, one of the best I have ever known. I first became
interested in flying when Eddie flew out to Amarillo in his Cessna 182 and
personally introduced me to flying. He was now flying a twin engine Beech Craft
Bonanza. Even on short trips, Eddie preferred flying to the dangers of driving a
car on the crowded highways.
When Eddie was on track, he was the best, as a wrestler, promoter, or a
pilot, but he did have one problem that some times reared it‘s head, he was an
alcoholic. Some times it would be years between drinks, sometimes months. When
he did drink, you never knew what to expect. Past experiences were a dressing
room fight in Borger Texas with my father, shooting out the lights above the
ring during a show in Orlando, Shooting off a gun in the Tampa dressing room,
and substituting Nair for whipped cream at a charity pie throwing event. The
fellow who took the pie on the head went to the sink and washed off his hair.
In the spring of 1980 I was the booker of the Florida Territory. Terry and I
drove from Tampa to Ft. Myers to work a sell out crowd at the Lee County
Coliseum. Talent in the territory at that time were Jerry Lawler, Sweet Brown
Sugar, Hacksaw Butch Reed, Tommy Gilbert, the Brisco Brothers, The Funks, Haru
Sonoda, Masanobu Fuchi, and Bubba Douglas who always asked to work Ft. Myers
because there was an old pond by the coliseum where he loved to go bass fishing.
On occasion, Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, World Champion Ric Flair and Andre the
Giant worked the territory. We were blessed with talent.
The show in Ft. Myers was half over when Eddie walked in the dressing room.
He usually didn't come to Ft. Meyers. Everyone was surprised he was there. He
stood in the center of the dressing room clasping a cup filled with something
that periodically, almost unnoticeably went to his lips and back down to his
chest. Terry said, "Eddie is on the turpentine again."
As he stood there, gazing at the talent in the room, he said, "Who would
like to fly back to Tampa with me tonight?" There was silence. Finally Terry
said, "Well Junior and I would love to Eddie, but we came down from Tampa in my
pickup truck and we have to take it back." Eddie looked around. The room was
still silent. Everyone was scared to death to fly back with Eddie but he was the
boss of this territory and no one wanted to insult him, especially not about his
flying. More silence. Eddie looked at the referee for the night, Frenchy
Bernard. Suddenly, Frenchy, fearing the worst, jumped out of his seat and said,
"Tell you what boss, I'll drive Terry's pickup truck back to Tampa and the Funks
can fly with you." Eddie smiled, turned and left the room. I wanted to punch
Frenchy in the nose that night in Ft. Meyers. I told Terry, "No way, I don't
care what, I am not flying with him tonight.” Terry said, "Junior, we must,
Eddie is our friend. He is too bad off, you can always take over the plane and
bring us back to Tampa." Stupid as I was, I said, "OK."
Warm up on a Twin Bonanza is difficult. I watched from the front seat, right
side, (Pilot flies left seat) Eddie was perfect. He reassured me that he was all
right. From the back seat, Terry put his hand on my shoulder and said, "It's
okay." --- The tower called and said, "69 E.G. (Call letters for Eddie's Twin
Bonanza) hold short, there is a Boeing 727 on final approach." Eddie said, "We
don't wait for anyone, "watch this!" He gunned the engines! We were on the
runway taking off with full power right in front of a landing 727. No changing
things now, we had to go. As Eddie brought the Twin Bonanza to full power on
take off, we could hear the roar of the jet engines as the 727 gunned it’s
engines making a last second go around.
Climbing out, I wished we were back on the ground. Eddie turned on country
music loud, Merl Haggard singing Okie from Muskogee among others. You could
hardly hear a thing. I watched the altimeter. He didn't pick an altitude. He
just merrily flew north in and out of clouds listening to the music in the
darkness of night. We were heading north at various altitudes, sometimes
dangerously low. There was never a thought of filing an IFR flight plan.
(Required by FAA when flying in weather)
We approached Sarasota, heading north, 69 E.G. made a gradual turn due west.
“OH SHIT, now we are flying west over the Gulf of Mexico into the darkness.” I
looked back, the lights of Florida were getting farther away. I said, "Eddie,
we've got to go back. "There was no response as he continued to listen to Merle
Haggard and drift between a thousand and three thousand feet of altitude with
nothing but Black in front of us.
Our prospects weren't good. If I tried to take the controls there would be a
fight. Not likely anyone would survive. To continue west would mean fuel
exhaustion and a fatal dip into the Gulf of Mexico at night. If we went much
further, Terry was prepared to knock him out from the back seat with one blow
however, chances of success would not be good. I tried one more time I grabbed
Eddie by the arm hard, shook him and said, "Eddie, we have got to turn around.
GO BACK NOW!" He looked at me eye to eye. There was nothing but blackness ahead.
He turned back to the controls. 69 E.G. entered a gentle turn to the right of
180 degrees back to the East.
What a wonderful sight to see the lights of Sarasota in front of us. 69 E.G.
was now in contact with Tampa Air Traffic Control. They knew who was at the
controls of 69 E.G.. I felt better as we approached Sarasota, then turned sick
over Sarasota when we turned south, back toward Ft. Meyers. Air Traffic Control
came on the radio and said, "69 E.G. What is your destination? Eddie responded,
"Tampa International, I got the airport in sight." (He couldn't have the Airport
in sight Tampa is north of Sarasota, not south.) ATC responded, 69 E.G. make a
left turn to 360 degrees (North toward Tampa) Eddie responded as if it was
automatic. We turned back to the north.
We were still flying various altitudes including, below minimums of two
thousand feet over McDill Air Force Base. I am sure all traffic was cleared out
of the area to make room for 69 E.G. Soon we were over Tampa International
runway and the landing was perfect.