Robert Michael Roop was born on July 22,1942 and is an American retired amateur wrestler and professional wrestler whose career spanned high school, college, the United States Army, amateur and professional wrestling.
16 Facts About Bob Roop
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Bob Roop was an American heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
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Robert Bob Roop began wrestling in the eighth grade in East Lansing, Michigan.
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Bob Roop entered Michigan State University on a football scholarship.
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Bob Roop received paratrooper training, and signed on to become a Special Forces medic.
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Bob Roop competed on the All-Army wrestling team and, later, the All-Services wrestling team.
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Bob Roop finished in seventh place, losing to Aleksandr Medved, who went on to win the gold medal.
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Bob Roop began his professional career in 1969 after a meeting with his long-time friend Larry Heiniemi, better known as Lars Anderson.
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Heiniemi's tales of global travel and financial success appealed to Bob Roop who began working for Eddie Graham, the promoter of Championship Wrestling from Florida and who trained Bob Roop.
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In 1976, Bob Roop received a possible career ending knee injury while wrestling Eddie Graham.
11.
The masked Gladiator used the shoulderbreaker, Bob Roop's signature finishing move, and crowds shouted Bob Roop's name when he appeared in the ring.
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Bob Roop wrestled and sporadically commentated for a time in Mid-South Wrestling, and he is often incorrectly credited for being the man who created the reversal to the figure four leg lock, the hold that "injured" him in Florida.
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Bob Roop retired from wrestling in 1988 due to a neck injury suffered in a car crash.
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An early student of his was Lawrence Pfohl, the future Lex Luger, who Bob Roop broke into the business before turned over training duties to Hiro Matsuda.
15.
Since retirement, Bob Roop has lived in Michigan and worked as a Boy Scouts troop leader.
16.
Bob Roop made a cameo appearance in the 1978 Sylvester Stallone movie Paradise Alley.