THE GREATER LANSING AREA SPORTS HALL
OF FAME
INDUCTION CEREMONY
2017
Robert Roop
Robert Roop won the State Heavyweight Wrestling Championship while at East Lansing High School in 1960. He also had great success wrestling for the United States Army and at two colleges. He was on the Olympic Grego-Roman wrestling team at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
He had a long career in professional wrestling, where he won 12 Regional, 4 National and 2 World Wrestling titles.
Bob brought a prepared speech, but decided he would prefer to tell stories. He had a great sense of humor as he related stories, especially from the beginning of his wrestling career.
He told of the football and wrestling environment at East Lansing High school, where he watched Art Brandstatter play football and actually had former MSU football coach Biggie Munn as his seventh grade line coach. (He equated that to Einstein being someone's math teacher.)
He told the story of how East Lansing needed a heavyweight wrestler, so a match was staged in eighth grade where a high school wrestler went easy on him to make him see that high school wrestling would not be an impossibility. He joked about how things were different in ninth grade when he had to practice against the guy for real and put him through many challenges.
He thanked his family and his wife for supporting him in his journey through professional wrestling. He related how he was grateful that he was able to return his wife's support by helping to nurse her through her final years. He said that it was a time to remember her in joy, not in despair.
He completed his speech by thanking the committee and reminded the audience that the honor of this selection will last forever, even after he passes on.
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