Luverne Klar Wrassler extraordinaire

Coach Klar died last Saturday. I got word from the webpage set up for my fellow Mankato High classmates. I will write a little note to the family on the obituary website where I learned more about my old physical education teacher.

On the one post I mention Luverne Klar I got my facts wrong which is to be expected since I probably hadn’t seen him since I graduated in 1969. He didn’t attend the University of Minnesota which is one of the things I wrote on my post Wrassling:

I really didn’t need to hear my physical education teacher, Luverne Klar, telling me in high school that professional wrestling was phony. He had been one of the light-weight wrestlers on Vern’s University of Minnesota Wrestling team. Mr. Klar never tired of telling his classes how disgusted he was with the sham. He never forgave Vern for becoming a millionaire by claiming that professional wrestlers were serious athletes. Claudia had him for homeroom and didn’t much care for him but Mr. Klar once defended me from a bully and I had a sort of soft spot for the old curmudgeon.

Neither did I know that he was a World War 2 veteran although kids in the sixties would have taken that for granted of our elders.

Klar was a champion Iowa wrestler who took up the sport again after the war while attending UNI or the University of Northern Iowa (not the U of M) no doubt under the GI Bill. He was a tiny man and must have been champion in the 90 pound weight class in his glory years.

He once stood up for me when I was being harassed by a guy who had a chip on his shoulder about me. His name was Gary and he happened to die two years before Coach Klar. I wrote about him too on the blog. I don’t know that I needed Mr. Klar’s help but I appreciated it when he told the class that I could have pounded Gary if I had a mind to. It probably would have been one of those embarassing circle around for half an hour affairs. Gary and his buddy Glen hadn’t done much more than keep trying to trip me as we were playing basketball in gym class but Klar commented on it while everyone was back in the locker room afterwards.

Whether Mr. Klar’s help was necessary or not, it was the thought that counted.

About the author