DIANE DEVINE

Diane Devine, a native of Springfield, MO was humbled and honored to be the first recipient of the Red Bastien Friendship Award.  Diane first watched pro wrestling on TV in the early 1950s with her grandfather, Charles Wadlow, who was related to a real giant - Robert Wadlow.

Her favorite at the time was Baron Leone who they saw on the Hollywood Legion Stadium shows. When he came to Springfield's Shrine Mosque to defend his junior heavyweight title Diane begged her mother to take go. That was April 5, 1955 and she sat in General Admission seats costing 75 cents.  Diane was fortunate to see her favorite retain his title over St. Louis native, Ricki Starr and she was hooked from that time on. 

Soon she was sitting first row  for a whopping $1.50 every Wednesday night.  Diane's foray into "superfandom" began In September 1959 when she started a fan club for Tulsa fireman/wrestler Red McKim.  Even then, she believed in promoting pro wrestling and a wrestler's career. Believe it or not, Diane still maintains correspondence with five people who joined her fan club for Red.

Soon after, she also started a fan club for Irish Mike Clancy and became involved with clubs for Jack and Verne Donovan and John Tolos. She exchanged memberships with many other fan clubs and, eventually, was among the founders of the Wrestling Fans International Association (WFIA) and later became the convention coordinator.

At the request of Lord Littlebrook and Ed Wiskoski (Colonel DeBeers), Diane started a promotion when she moved to Denver in 1989 which was called Rocky Mountain Wrestling Association, Inc. Diane cherishes this time in her life a a great experience.  Today, she gives full attention and support to the number one indy promotion in Colorado, the Denver based FUSION PRO WRESTLING.  Of them, Diane says, "They are a great group with old school training."

Diane has been writing pro wrestling articles since 1959 and also served as a foreign correspondent for Tokyo Sports Press for nearly 30 years. When asked about her writing experience, she sasy, "I truly have to write from my heart!"

Diane credits her influences in the wrestling game as being Gust Karras, Sam Muchnick, Ronnie Etchison and Lord Littlebrook. She is proud to have earned their trust, respect and friendship.

In addition to being a great fan of pro wrestling and friend of pro wrestlers, Diane's other interests include cats, baseball (the Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers are among her favorite teams), indoor lacrosse and country music. If you're ever in Denver, Diane recommends that you have Greek food at Yanni's and, who knows, just maybe you'll run into her there!

In closing, Diane said, "As my late friend Bill Wilson in Kansas City always said, 'Support Your Local Wrestling!'"

The Cauliflower Alley Club is proud to honor Diane Devine as a true "FRIEND" of the business.