The Von Erich Family
Fritz Von Erich:
Jack Barton Adkisson was born on August 16, 1929, in the small Leon County town of Jewett, Texas, the only child of Benjamin Rush Adkisson Jr., a food salesman, and his wife Coren. The family later moved to Dallas, where young Jack attended Crozier Tech High School. There he distinguished himself as a multi-sport athlete—excelling in football as a tackle, in track and field as a discus and shot-put specialist, and even as a clarinetist in the band. His size and athletic ability earned him a scholarship to Southern Methodist University, where he played on the offensive line during the Doak Walker and Kyle Rote era and continued to throw the discus. Marriage in June 1950 to his high-school sweetheart, Doris J. Smith, cost him the scholarship under the rules of the day.
He transferred briefly to the University of Corpus Christi before leaving school, worked as a firefighter and loan collector, and in 1952 signed as a guard with the short-lived Dallas Texans of the NFL. He was cut before the season. After his football career stalled—having played in exhibition games for Texans franchise while nursing a bad knee—Jack Adkisson found himself living in Corpus Christi with his new wife Doris and searching for a new direction. One day he received a phone call that would change the course of his life. Doc Sarpolis, then working as a booker connected to the Dallas wrestling office, reached out and told him, “I had a good name in town since I had been a big athlete at SMU. Doc said I might be able to draw a crowd as a professional wrestler and to come on down to the Sportatorium for a meeting if I was interested.” That invitation led Adkisson to Dallas, where he worked out and took his first steps into the professional wrestling business in 1952 with Ed “Strangler” Lewis, beginning the transformation from local football standout into the business of pro wrestling.
