Career
Born in Eugene, Oregon to boxing/wrestling promoter Herb Owen, Don and his brother Elton began working in the family business in the mid-1920s, selling popcorn and drinks to the audience. Early on, Don and Elton even stepped into the ring on occasion to box or wrestle. In time, Don moved more and more into the promoting side, eventually taking over completely after his father died in 1951. His career as a promoter spanned over 60 years throughout the heyday of territorial pro wrestling. Owen was a founding member of the National Wrestling Alliance.
Under management of Don Owen Sports, Pacific Northwest Wrestling became one of the leaders of the National Wrestling Alliance, the chief reason being Don Owen's reputation as the best payoff promoter in the wrestling business. Owen was known for dealing fairly with all his wrestlers, paying them exactly what he promised and never trying to stiff them, a mentality not shared with the vast majority of his fellow promoters. Because of this, every major star in the 1960s and 1970s wished to wrestle in the Northwest. Among those who wrestled and/or got their start under Don Owen's management are Stan Stasiak, Dizzy Hogan, Curt Hennig, Mad Dog Vachon, Nick Bockwinkel, Jesse Ventura, Roddy Piper, Billy Jack Haynes, Omar Atlas, Shag Thomas, Dutch Savage, Lonnie "Moondog" Mayne, Jimmy Snuka, and George Wagner (in the years before he attained international fame as Gorgeous George).
Read more about this topic: Don Owen (wrestling Promoter)
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“I restore myself when I’m alone. A career is born in public—talent in privacy.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)