And that's how Eastern Illinois University’s professional wrestling legacy was born. Lillian Ellison became the Fabulous Moolah and served as a women’s wrestling world champion for 30 years. Stan Frazier remained a janitor for awhile, got fired, switched to trucking, got fired again, ran moonshine, got fat and then became a professional wrestler. His wrestling name: “Uncle Elmer.”

The Fabulous Moolah and Elmer were the first. A decade later came ROTC-instructor-turned-wrestler Abdullah the Butcher and then former English major Booker T. They are four purveyors of violence from four different eras from one incredible school.

Fabulous Moolah
Moolah was technically the first wrestler to come from Eastern Illinois University. The darling of the physical plant staff of 1942, then-Lillian Ellison joined the wrestling circuit after being fired for breaking three water pipes in a still unexplained rage in Old Main. A native of Tuscola, Illinois, Ellison – aka. Slave Girl Moolah/Fabulous Moolah – went on to be one of the greatest female wrestlers to ever hit the sport. Her most famous run as a wrestler came in the mid-1980s when she lost her World Wrestling Federation women’s champion to a wrestler managed by rock star Cyndi Lauper. That ended a 30-year run as a women’s wrestling champion.



Uncle Elmer
Next came Elmer. The Anna, Illinois, native dropped out of Eastern after a year-and-a-half of working in food service and studying business. He flunked out. But too disillusioned to go home, he stayed at Eastern and worked as a janitor in the hope of going back and getting the degree. His encounter with Moolah sparked something in Elmer, who went down south, got involved in the wrestling circuit and returned to national prominence as Uncle Elmer.

In mid-1985, Elmer was married on national television during a broadcast of Saturday Night’s Main Event. Wearing blue overalls and a white shirt – a tribute to Eastern Illinois University — Elmer married his bride in the middle of the wrestling ring. When he kissed his wife, someone threw a piece of trash at the two newlyweds.

Rumor has it, it was a crumpled Eastern Illinois University bumper sticker. Elmer faded into obscurity soon after.


Abdullah The Butcher
Now Abdullah was one bad man. He is a man of firsts at Eastern: the first alum to have his own action figure. The first alum to own his own ribs and Chinese food joint. The first person allegedly admitted to Eastern Illinois University to get expelled for hitting someone with a kendo stick and then rolling himself through barbed wire afterward.

Abdullah – aka. Lawrence Shreeve/Kuroi Jujutsushi/Abby – was an ROTC instructor for one of Eastern’s first battalions. Major The Butcher graduated six people in that first fledgling ROTC class, losing three cadets to unexplained injuries involving brass knuckles, a fork and a steel chair. A fourth cadet was never found after falling into one of Abdullah’s incredibly large manboobs.

Abdullah cultivated a violent wrestling image that involved beating people with chairs, barbed wire, forks, brass knuckles and a white piece of plastic simply referred to as “a foreign object.” At one point, to show allegiance to Eastern, he tried to bleed blue. It was not successful.


Booker T.
Booker T. Booker – aka. G.I. Bro/Booker Huffman – is the latest in a series of professional wrestlers to hold an honorary degree from EIU. Booker, an English major sometime in the 1980s and member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, took his wrestling inspiration from ROTC Major Abdullah the Butcher.

Booker debuted as “GI Bro” but later became a hit teaming with his brother Stevie Ray in tag teams called the “Ebony Experience” and the “Harlem Heat.” He settled into his own as Booker T, winning the World Championship Wrestling championship and now competes in the WWE.

Thanks to his studies at Eastern, Booker is not very articulate, constantly peppering every sentence with the word, “Sucka.” And one would have to question how the real Booker T would feel about his name being used in the pro wrestling arena.

Booker is a diehard EIU fan. You regularly see him in Houston Astros jerseys – a tribute to fellow EIUer Tim Bogar, who player for the Astros.

Booker would most likely have lived in Thomas Hall during all four (or five or eight) years at Eastern Illinois University. He also would have been the only person in EIU history to have body slammed the 20-foot tall cast-iron bison that stands outside the Sirloin Stockade on Lincoln Avenue.

Sources for information and some photos: Booker T. Online, Mark's Unofficial NWO page and NWO., Boxing Insider, Vegas Insider.