Gone to the dogs Part 2 and wrestling with a bear

A few weeks ago I wrote about some special animals in Hawaii: Patches the horse, who was traded in for a car; Queenie the dog, who went to Baldwin High School on Maui for 10 years; and the Galapagos tortoises at the Honolulu Zoo.

Retired neurosurgeon Max Urata wrote to tell me about another interesting Hawaii animal: Dammit the Dalmatian.

“The most famous dog at UH while I was there (1951-55) was Dammit the Dalmatian,” Urata said. “That was because he had a column in the student newspaper, Ka Leo.”

It was believed that Dammit lived nearby and hung out on campus while his owners were working.

“I first got acquainted with Dammit as a freshman,” Urata recounted. “‘Iolani grads gathered on the west side of the Hawaii Hall portico, and Dammit used to visit us to mooch. He got his name because people would say, ‘Dammit. Get away.’

“My pet story of Dammit was an event that occurred in a Chem. 100 class in the large lecture room in Bilger Hall. Dammit could be heard coming because his toenails, which were never trimmed, would clip-clop on the concrete floor. He also had dog tags around his neck which would jingle.

“Dammit walked into our lecture clip-clopping down the concrete steps, and lay down in front of the experiment table where professor Zeitlin was lecturing.”

He looked at the professor, attentively. Then he put his head on the floor between his legs and napped, Urata said. After a bit he stood up, gave a huge yawn and clip-clopped out of the lecture hall.

“Professor Zeitlin looked a bit nonplussed, then said, ‘He is my severest critic.’ This, of course, brought the house down.”

Tom Nickerson wrote about Dammit the Dalmatian in the Star-Bulletin in 1971. He said the dog was an extrovert who enjoyed hanging out with the students and liked to eat chalk.

“He would place his muzzle in the trough at the base of the blackboard and slide it along until it came into contact with the white substance. If the professor happened to be in his way, he would become annoyed and nuzzle him aside.

“Dammit had the distinction of being, perhaps, the most avidly read and frequently quoted dog in history,” Nickerson continued. This came about because the editors of Ka Leo gave him his own column, attributing to him, as a sort of trial balloon, views which they regarded as somewhat shaky.”

I looked through 1954 issues of Ka Leo and found The Four-Legged Sage of Manoa, as some called him, penned about 10 columns. Most were in Q&A format.

Dammit wanted to abolish the student council, Ka Leo and the yearbook, and lower tuition. He thought the cost of attending UH — about $100 a semester — was too high.

In one column the “Clever Campus Canine” argued with fellow Ka Leo columnist Ben Wood over who had more readers. Wood had the last laugh, writing for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Star-Advertiser for decades. Dammit couldn’t lick that.

Dammit said he was a junior but had not picked a major. His favorite books were “Robin Hood,” “Huckleberry Finn” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

The high point of Dammit’s career might have been running for Associated Students of UH president. His platform included suggesting the College of Business Administration be donated to Cannon’s School of Business, and lowering cafeteria, snack bar and bookstore prices.

The paper didn’t say how many voted for Dammit. I like to think he lost by a whisker.

Dammit the Dalmatian was famous at UH. But another Hawaii dog was world-famous. Sandy, a stray dog, was adopted by beachboy Joseph “Scooter Boy” Kao­puiki in 1950.

Grady Timmons, in “Waikiki Beachboys,” reports that Scooter Boy taught Sandy to surf. Hundreds of tourists snapped pictures of him hanging 20, and he appeared in news­papers around the world. The poi dog also appeared on the TV show “You Asked for It.”

John “Menehune” Ohelo said Sandy “could go anywhere in Hawaii, scratch on any door and get a place to sleep or go into any restaurant and be served.”

When Sandy died in 1958, his ashes were scattered at sea off Waikiki by the beachboys. A tourist on the scene asked which famous person had died.

“Menehune” replied that it was the funeral for a beloved dog. “That does it,” the tourist told his wife. “We’re moving to Hawaii!”

Steve Miura reminded me that when wrestling was big in Hawaii, promoter Ed Francis brought a 6-foot-6, 400-pound wrestling bear named “Victor the Great” from Hollywood to challenge Hawaii’s best at the Honolulu Civic Auditorium.

Victor the Great was pitted against former Detroit Lion Don “Hard Boiled” Haggerty in a 1965 match. A wire cage enclosed the ring to prevent escape and protect the crowd. Victor was declawed and wore a muzzle.

After a few minutes of wrestling, Haggerty said he was looking for a zipper. “I figured there had to be a man inside that bear skin.”

Victor needed just five minutes to pin Haggerty and win the match. After his victory his owner, handler and best friend, Tuffy Truesdell, rewarded him with a large bottle of his favorite orange soda. Victor drank it while sitting in the middle of the ring.

My friend, columnist Jim Becker, reported that Haggerty congratulated the bear and gave him a box of chocolates. “He’s strong as an ox,” Haggerty said, although I doubt he ever wrestled an ox. “I’m trying to get on the good side of him.”

Truesdell said he had raised Victor from a cub and adopted him after a hunter had shot his mother. Truesdell found the cub in his lair, nearly frozen. He put the cub under his jacket to keep him warm.

Truesdell was a former wrestler himself and had grappled with alligators for a living, Becker reported. He taught him to wrestle and named him Victor because he had an almost perfect white “V” on his neck. Victor was 7 years old in 1965.

Victor loves to wrestle and enjoys people, the trainer said. He eats 20 pounds of carrot tops, apples, celery and lettuce a day and a big box of dog food. He also loves soda pop and can drink 10 bottles of it at a time.

A week after the first match, the bear appeared at a sold-out “Texas Battle Royal” that featured Victor and 10 other wrestlers. The last man or bear standing would be declared the winner.

Victor usually grappled with just one wrestler at a time. He became flustered with all of the wrestlers in the ring at the same time and panicked.

The bear jumped over the chicken wire and ran through the crowd to the locker room with his trainer, Truesdell, in hot pursuit.

Pandemonium erupted as the 4,000 fans ran for safety. Fortunately, no one was injured, but it made for an exciting story for all of those in attendance.

Victor returned to Hawaii many times over the next dozen or so years. Tuffy took him all over the country and calculates Victor wrestled over 50,000 men … and lost only three matches.

I’ve put a collection of columns that Dammit the Dalmatian wrote for Ka Leo on my Rearview Mirror Insider website. Visit RearviewMirrorInsider.com. On the lower right, under “categories,” you’ll see the link. You also can sign up for my midweek newsletter there.

Bob Sigall’s “The Companies We Keep 5” book contains stories from the last three years of Rearview Mirror. “The Companies We Keep 1 and 2” are also back in print. Email Sigall at Sigall@yahoo.com.