Author’s Note: Howdy all, I’m Sammy from the not so free state of Florida, but I go by Custody around these parts here at Six-Ten Percent. Along with professional wrestling, I am an avid video gamer and a lifelong sports fan, as I watch a variety of sports. In this series, I want to mix two of my loves, sport and professional wrestling, and write about wrestler’s lives before they got into the ring as athletes in their respective sports. I proudly welcome you all to my humble abode, and I hope you all enjoy this feature presentation of Athletes Before The Squared Circle.
Introduction
From the mid 1980s to the 1990s and the early 2000s, Ron Simmons was arguably one of the more underrated yet very serviceable wrestlers in North America. A wrestler who spent his time in the lower card, middle card, and upper card, Simmons has enjoyed success in the ring as he wrestled for WCW, ECW, New Japan, and WWF/WWE as he was a former multi-time tag team champion and a one time world champion.
But before his triumphs on the ring, Ron Simmons was a stand-out on the gridiron as part of one of college football’s prominent and emerging programs in the late 70s and early 1980s, led by one of the legendary coaches along with a short yet solid professional career. Before people knew of Ron Simmons as the professional wrestler, Ron Simmons was a defensive tackle that left an impressive legacy of damning offenses on the football field.
This is Tallahassee Nights: The American Football Story and DAMN Ballad of Big Bad Ron Simmons.
Early Beginnings and Ron’s Demon Days.
Ron Simmons was born on May 15, 1958, in Perry, Georgia and grew up 22 minutes northeast in Warner Robbins. Simmons had a difficult upbringing as he lost his mother at the age of eight, his father left, and grew up with his grandmother before she passed away a few years later. Nearly orphaned, some of Ron’s six siblings moved to an aunt in Detroit. Ron and others stayed with extended family in Georgia. Ron’s been a gifted athlete in his youth, as he found his passion in his early teens and played his high school football for the Warner Robbins Demons.
Ron Simmons played for Warner Robbins on both sides of the field as he played tight end on offense and linebacker on defense. But it wasn’t an ordinary high school career for Simmons, as he became a standout at Warner Robbins.
In his senior year, 1976, Simmons was part of a very talented Demons team that included James Brooks, a running back and return specialist who became a first-team All-SEC player for the Auburn Tigers and a four time pro-bowler in his twelve-year NFL career; and Jimmy Womack, a fullback who blocked for future Heisman winner Herschel Walker at Georgia and started all twelve games for the Bulldogs during the 1980 season where they finished the season undefeated and as national champions.
The 1976 Warner Robbins Demons finished the season as Georgia state champions, the first in school’s history, and as national champions. Simmons finished his high school career as one of the best linebackers in the state of Georgia and in the entire United States for the graduating class of 1977.
For his and the team’s efforts at Warner Robbins, Ron Simmons would be inducted to the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame in 2022. It was the latest hall of fame accolade for Ron Simmons in a journey where he would win many accolades on the field and beyond.
Becoming a Nole
At the end of his high school career, many thought that Ron Simmons was going to play for Auburn, South Carolina, Florida, Notre Dame, or stay in state to play for the Dawgs up in Athens for the University of Georgia. But Ron eventually chose to make the three-hour ride south to the mid-sized canopy city of Tallahassee, to play for the Florida State Seminoles. This was a move that surprised many around Warner Robbins since although FSU was established as a football program, they were not as prestigious as the big boys during the middle part of the 1970s even after the Bill Peterson days of the 1960s.
What sold Ron to play for the Seminoles was their head coach, Bobby Bowden, who took the Florida State job prior to the 1976 season after a disastrous first half of the decade in Tallahassee for the Noles.
During his youth, Simmons had grown up under the tutelage of Bill Franklin, a battery shop worker who he worked with during his off time outside of school and football. As one of Ron’s only role models, Franklin requested that he visited FSU as he played for Bowden in the 1950s at South Georgia State College.
Simmons was sold on Bobby Bowden because he knew the struggles of having kids grow up without a parent and having to fill in a void as a parent himself. Bowden also was the only coach who gave Simmons a tour of the facilities at Florida State and promised him a spot if he was one of the best players during the summer workouts, something that wasn’t a guarantee at other schools. Bowden not only wanted to care for Ron as a father figure, but also wanted FSU and Tallahassee to be home and for the program to be family for Ron Simmons.
Simmons then committed to play for Florida State and was touted as Bobby Bowden’s first big recruiting victory during his legendary 34-year coaching tenure in Tallahassee, and it was an investment that would pay dividends for Simmons, Coach Bowden, and the rest of an emerging football program at Florida State.
Tallahassee Nights (1977-1980)
During his four years at Florida State, standing at six foot and one inch, weighting 220–230 pounds, and wearing number 50, Ron Simmons became an accomplished defensive player for the Seminoles. Though he was a linebacker at Warner Robbins in high school, Simmons’ coaches suggested he moved up front, a position within the defensive front seven at nose tackle.
And with the position change, Simmons would immediately make his impact as one of the most ferocious defensive linesman the country has ever seen for four years.
1977, Freshman Year
In his freshman year, Simmons played eleven games for the Seminoles, as he started ten of them and rested against Memphis State. His stats from 1977 season include ten tackles and a blocked punt against Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg and had to be doubled team since, eleven tackles at the Little Apple against Kansas State in Manhattan, KS, and fourteen tackles against rivals Miami in Tally in defeat against the Hurricanes.
From October 8th to November 5th, Ron was on an absolute tear as he recorded 33 solo tackles out of 44 total tackles against Cincinnati, Auburn where he also recorded a fumble recovery, North Texas State, and at Virginia Tech. Simmons also recorded a tackle on November 19 in a losing effort in San Diego against the San Diego State Aztecs, who eventually finished the season 11-1.
The Seminoles finished the 1977 season ranked 11th in the land with a record of ten wins and two loses, including a victory against rivals Florida and a 40-17 bowl victory against Texas Tech in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, where Simmons blocked a punt against the Red Raiders.
Ron Simmons finished his freshman year with 128 total tackles, 70 of which were unassisted, 12 sacks, two blocked punts, and a fumble recovery along with 13 forced fumbles. Simmons also finished as a 1st Team Freshman All-American by The Football News as well as honorable mentions for overall All American by both the Associated Press and The Football News and as second team All-South Independent.
1978, Sophomore Year
Ron’s dominance from his freshman year would continue in his second year at Florida State, who started the 1978 season ranked 17th in the AP Poll.
During that year, Simmons would have six unassisted tackles out of seven total tackles, a blocked punt, and a fumble recovery in a victory against rivals Miami at the old Miami Orange Bowl Stadium, seventeen total tackles in the defeat against Houston, six unassisted tackles in Starkville against Mississippi State, and eleven total tackles at Pittsburgh against the Pitt Panthers.
Simmons also forced a fumble against Southern Miss, recovered a fumble against Virginia Tech, and had a stellar game against Navy where he forced a fumble, recovered a fumble, and ten total tackles as he was named one of the players of the game by ABC.
Simmons would top off his sophomore year with a victory against the Florida Gators in Tallahassee, as he had fourteen total tackles in a 38-21 victory for the Noles. Florida State would finish the season unranked without a postseason appearance, yet with a solid 8-3 record.
Ron Simmons finished the 1978 campaign with 128 tackles, 70 of which were unassisted, a forced fumble or two, three fumble recoveries, and a blocked punt. He was a 1st Team All-South Independent player on defense and was named 1st Team Sophomore All-All American and 3rd Team All-American by The Football News, and received honorable mention for All-American by the Associated Press.
1979, Junior Year
1979 is where Bobby Bowden’s Florida State football program reached new heights as the Noles made a march to the Orange Bowl. Ron Simmons was also a pivotal part of the defense despite having less tackles from his first two seasons as he became more than just a tackler.
Some of his season highlights from 1979 include a forced fumble and fumble recovery against Arizona State at a neutral site game in Tampa, seven solo tackles and a pass break up against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, a sack against LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and seven solo tackles against Florida at The Swamp.
The Seminoles went on to win all of their eleven regular season games and received an invitation to play at the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Year’s Day 1980 ranked 6th in the country. Florida State would go against a mighty Oklahoma Sooners squad ranked 5th, coached by Barry Switzer, and were led by quarterback J.C. Watts and running back Billy Sims, who won the Heisman Trophy as the best player in college football the season prior in 1978.
The Noles would go on to lose against the Sooners 24-7, but Ron Simmons was one of the stars for Florida State in a valiant effort against of one of the best programs of the seventies that night as he finished with eleven tackles, five of which were unassisted.
Ron Simmons ended the 1979 campaign with 81 total tackles, 65 of which were solo tackles, 6 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 2 recoveries, and 2 blocked punts.
Simmons finally finished the season as a consensus 1st-Team All-American by the Associated Press, the United Press, The Football News, Kodak, and the NCAA to name a few as he also received an honorable mention by The Sporting News and finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting as a defensive player behind USC’s running back Charles White.
1980, Senior Year
An ankle injury hampered Ron Simmons’ 1980 season, his last at Florida State as it was his senior year in Tallahassee as the man that Tom McEwen of the Tampa Tribune described the defensive tackle as “not born, but rather chiseled out of Georgia granite with the wings of mercury attached to his feet” became described as a mere mortal by the local press. But the local press didn’t have to worry too much as Ron Simmons continued to be successful on the defensive end for FSU and the Seminoles once again had a very successful season to begin the eighties.
Although Big Bad Ron and the guys in Garnet and Gold would lose to a Miami team led by future Buffalo Bill’s legend and NFL Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, they would go on to finish the regular season with a record of ten wins and one loss.
That resume includes an October 4th victory against third ranked Nebraska in Lincoln by the score of 18-14, a 36-22 victory against the Pitt Panthers led by future Miami Dolphins legend and Hall of Famer Dan Marino the week later on the 11th, and a 17-13 victory against Florida on December 6th. In the Pitt and Florida games, Simmons would record six overall tackles in each of the two games.
Ron and the Noles would earn another appearance at the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Year’s Day of 1981 against Oklahoma for the second year in a row. This time Florida State would enter South Florida as the second ranked team in the country as the Sooners were fourth.
It was a much closer affair as all three of Simmons’ tackles were unassisted, but alas, The Sooners would prevail by the score of 18-17. The Sooners were led by J.C. Watts, but without Billy Sims, and was a team that also featured offensive guard and amateur wrestling phenom “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, who later wrecked havoc in Japan years later as a pro wrestler. Simmons would have three solo tackles in another valiant effort for the Noles against a mighty Sooners program.
Despite regressing, Ron Simmons would finish with consensus All American Honors by The AP, Kodak, United Press, and The Sporting News to cap off his last year at Florida State. Simmons finished with 46 overall tackles to round out his last year at FSU for the Noles
Ron Simmons finished his career at Florida State with 383 tackles, 239 of which were unassisted, 25 sacks, 17 forced fumbles along with 8 fumble recoveries, four blocked kicks and a blocked punt at a bowl game, and two punt returns for an average of 18 yards and a total of 36 yards.
Big Bad Ron’s Legacy at Florida State
Ron Simmons’ legacy at Florida State would not only impact his life and Bobby Bowden’s career, but also the program in Tallahassee, as Big Bad Ron cemented himself as one of the Seminole greats.
The number 50 worn by Simmons was the first defensive number honored in 1988 by the FSU football program, as it was the third number overall after Fred Biletnikoff’s number 25 and Ron “Jingle Joints” Sellers’ number 34.
Ron Simmons’ also became a larger than life campus hero at Florida State and across North Florida, as he was immortalized into a ballad titled Big Bad Ron by local artist Rick Woodell and Hutch & Hoss as a warning to those who dare pick up the task of going against Ron.
While on campus, Ron also drove a 1974 Trans-Am painted with him dressed as a caveman with next to his girlfriend fighting off gargoyles up a mountain.
Ron was a no-nonsense defensive player, but he also had his own personality as one of the best defensive players in the land.
Simmons would be inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009, but he would owe all his credit at Florida State to coach Bobby Bowden, the assistant coaching staff, and his teammates as he laid the path and set the tone for future defensive players donning the Garnet and Gold for decades to come.
Ron Simmons left Tallahassee as a person who grew up in front of everyone’s eyes and became a college football legend and folk hero ready to take on the pros and the world.
Professional Days: Lex, Big Bad Ron & The Bandits
While not as prestigious as his college career, Ron Simmons’ professional career would take him to a few different places. Simmons’ would enter the 1981 NFL Draft, where he got drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 6th round as the 160th selection, but was cut before the season began.
The journey would take Ron north of the border to Canada, where he would play for Ottawa in the CFL for the remainder of the 1981 season. The Rough Riders would finish the season short of winning the Grey Cup in Montreal against Edmonton by the score of 26-23 as Simmons played six games and averaged two sacks as he recovered a fumble in his short stint in Canada.
Ron would return to the Sunshine State as he would play for the Tampa Bay Bandits of the original USFL, a football league that took place in the spring during the NFL’s off-season, as Simmons would spend three seasons in Tampa from 1983 to 1985.
The franchise was partnered by former Florida State running back and famous actor Burt Reynolds, who played Bo “The Bandit” Darville in 1977’s Smokey and The Bandit and featured Florida Gator legend and 1966 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Steve Spurrier in his first gig as head coach. Other players were John Reeves, who also played quarterback at Florida but in the early 1970s, future Pro-Bowl running back and Buccaneer in the early 90s Gary Anderson fresh from Arkansas, and journey man Larry Pfohl in the 1984 season.
Pfohl played offensive tackle who played in the 1978 Miami Hurricanes squad that Simmons played against in college and also played in Canada for the 1979 Montreal Alouettes that were also vanquished by Edmonton in the Grey Cup.
Simmons would play all of the Bandits’ three seasons in the USFL as he was a contributor on a formidable defensive side of the ball whereas the Spurrier lead offense displayed the magic of “Bandit Ball,” a high octane offense that evolved into the “fun & gun” offense that made the Florida Gators kings in 1996.
With an exciting brand of football consisting of local and regional talents from across Florida and the South and innovative marketing, the Bandits would have all three of their seasons end with a winning record and two playoff appearances as the Bandits made old Tampa Stadium a fortress with solid attendance and a 20-7 record at home for all three seasons.
However, despite making “The Big Sombrero” a fortress, the Bandit’s two playoffs appearances would end shortly and the road against the mighty Birmingham Stallions in 1984 and the upstart Oakland Invaders in 1985, who eventually lost against the Baltimore Stars in the last USFL Championship before the league folded.
Ron Simmons had a solid career in Tampa to end his football a career as he was responsible for five and a half sacks and a fumble recovery. It was an end to a lengthy football career that started in Warner Robbins as he became a legend in Tallahassee for the Florida State Seminoles and then became a solid journey man with a stop in Cleveland, then Canada’s capital of Ottawa, before settling back in Florida where he ended his career as a Bandit.
Big Bad Ron, despite his ankle injury, was at peace with how his career shaped up to be.
He met Bob Hope as part of his honors of being an All-American, accomplished many accolades in both high school and college, and got to work with Burt Reynolds and Steve Spurrier in the sport that he loved since youth.
Ron Simmons would stay in Tampa, working at a detention center as a youth counselor, before an old colleague gave him a new opportunity.
A New Yet Legendary Opportunity: Ron Simmon’s Wrestling Career
Larry Pfohl, Ron Simmons’ old teammate in Tampa, contacted Ron and presented him with an opportunity that would alter Simmons’ life for the rest of his life. Pfohl reached out to Simmons with an opportunity to become a professional wrestler, as Pfohl himself started wrestling in 1985.
Ron Simmons took the chance as he started in 1986 as the two were trained under Hiro Matsuda. Larry Pfohl would wrestle as Lex Luger, as both Luger and Simmons would eventually face off against each other once again, this time in the squared circle as wrestlers.
Simmons would wrestle for Jim Crockett Promotions, which owned NWA at the time, and WCW from 1986 until 1994. For his eight years working for NWA and WCW, Simmons worked as a tag team wrestler before blossoming into a singles star for a brief period in the early nineties.
Simmons would team with fellow former college football player “Dr. Death” Steve Williams in the 3rd Annual Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup that took place in April 1988 and would lose to Kevin Sullivan and former Syracuse standout Mike Rotunda in the opening round.
A year later in 1989, the team of Doom would be formed as it consisted of Simmons and Butch Reed, a former college football linebacker at Central Missouri. Managed by tag team enthusiast Teddy Long, Doom went on to beat Michigan wrestling standouts Rick & Scott Steiner for the NWA World Tag Team Championships at Capital Combat on May 19, 1990, in the D.C. Armory. Doom would hold on to the belts for nearly a year before losing to Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes of The Fabulous Freebirds at WrestleWar ’91 on February 24th in Phoenix.
Later that year, Ron Simmons would have a singles run as he challenged Lex Luger on Halloween Havoc 1991 in Chattanooga for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a two-out-of-three-falls match where he lost 2-1. On the pre-match package, Ron went to visit Tallahassee and see his old stomping grounds at FSU, where he received a pep talk from his second-father, Bobby Bowden.
However, Ron’s efforts to win the biggest prize in WCW would not go in vain, as he would go on to win the big one in August 1992 and beat Big Van Vader at a house show in Baltimore, Maryland. In a past life, Vader played for Colorado as an offensive lineman in the seventies before terrorizing Japan as one of the greatest gaijin wrestlers of the late eighties and early nineties before joining WCW. In a massive upset, the title win in Baltimore was the biggest victory in Simmons’ young wrestling career.
Ron Simmons’ monumental victory against Vader was also a landmark occasion in North American wrestling, as Simmons became the first African American to win the World Heavyweight Championship and second to win a World Championship after Bearcat Wright in the 1960s.
Simmons would feud with Cactus Jack and The Barbarian, Rick Rude before his injury, and Steve Williams before losing the belt back to Vader on December 30, 1992.
From there, he would go back to the mid-card, where he unsuccessfully challenged Dustin Rhodes for the US Heavyweight Championship and Paul Orndoff for the World Television Championship before leaving the company in the later half of 1994.
Ron Simmons would wrestle in ECW from September 1994 to May 1995 and team with 2 Cold Scorpio in a losing effort against The Public Enemy in November. Simmons would challenge ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas for his belt at November to Remember in Philadelphia, where he lost in six minutes and thirty-six seconds.
Simmons also wrestled in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the first two months of 1995. During NJPW’s “Fighting Spirit” tour, Simmons would team up with Scorpio again as well as Mike Enos, Scott Norton, Arn Anderson, and a younger Steve Austin. While paring with other American wrestlers, Simmons would go against legends like Kenusuke Sasaki, Masa Saito, and Shinya Hashimoto as well as the multi-talented Tadao Yasuda.
Ron Simmons would go into a brief semi-retirement period in 1995 as he began working at a Coca-Cola factory in the outskirts of Atlanta as a warehouse manager before joining the World Wrestling Federation, which in 2002 became World Wrestling Entertainment, in 1996.
In the early part of his WWF career, Ron Simmons, by the name of Faarooq Asad, became a founding member and original leader of The Nation of Domination. The Nation was a heelish faction that consisted of D-Lo Brown, Kana Mustafa who later became The Godfather, and former Miami Hurricanes defensive tackle Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Faarooq was in charge of the faction until leaving the faction after WrestleMania XIV in the spring of 1998.
After an failed attempt against The Rock for his Intercontinental Championship and teaming with 2 Cold Scorpio again for a brief period, Faarooq would team with Bradshaw to form The Acolytes under The Ministry of Darkness that was led by The Undertaker.
In 1999, The Acolytes would have two brief reigns with the World Tag Team Championships as they played hot potato with the belts with the Hardyz managed by Michael Hayes and the unlikely pairing of X-Pac & Kane. The Ministry would fold in 1999 due to Taker’s injury at the end of 1999.
After The Ministry closed down at the end of the nineties, the Acolytes went into the business for themselves as they were renamed as the Acolytes Protection Agency. Faarooq & Bradshaw would have a memorable run as a pair as Faarooq would pick up his “Damn!” catchphrase while the two would torment WWE’s tag division with their beer-drinking and bar fighting personas. The APA would win their third Tag Team Titles against The Dudley Boyz in June 2001 before losing the belts a month later to Chris Kanyon and Diamond Dallas Page of the WCW-ECW Alliance.
After Simmons started wrestling as his real name again due to the aftermath of September 11th, 2001, the APA were forced to close their doors after the 2002 Draft, but not before a final bar brawl where William Regal took most of the beating. Simmons and Bradshaw would link up again the following year before Simmons retired from wrestling in 2004. Bradshaw would then have a career as one of the most despicable yet feared heels of WWE’s Ruthless Aggression Era as he feuded with crowd favorites Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, and John Cena.
As for Ron Simmons, the former world champion would go on to make appearances in WWE as he would yell out “Damn!’ at any occasion while also beating up heels who dared disrespect crowd favorites and legends. Ron Simmons would finish his career as a one-time world champion, but also the first African American world champion in North American professional wrestling’s modern era, and as well as a multi-time tag-team champion in multiple promotions across North America.
Simmons would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012 in Miami, fittingly, in the same city where he had epic encounters as a college football player against the Canes and the Sooners.
It was a pretty “Damn” legendary wrestling career for number 50 of the Garnet & Gold out of Warner Robbins, Georgia. The man chiseled out of Georgia granite with the wings of Mercury attached to his feet conquered the wrestling industry with Herculean strength, as Ron Simmons’ impact in college football and pro-wrestling would be affected for generations to come.
Conclusion: Ron Simmons’ Damn Legacy
Ron Simmons would pave the way in two mediums: future Florida State defensive recruits and athletes who turned themselves int pro-wrestlers.
Many defensive players who eventually played for FSU in Florida’s Capital City were inspired by Ron Simmons’ Homeric feats for the Seminoles, as he and the rest of the program helped made Florida State into the college football blue-blood that it is today.
Had Ron Simmons went to Auburn, South Carolina, or Georgia, Florida State’s defense would not have the likes of “Prime Time” Deon Sanders, Derrick Brooks, Marvin Jones, and Peter Boulware just to name a few and this is without mentioning how different the offense would’ve looked like. Ron Simmons greatly helped set the tone for Florida State Seminole defenses for years to come as the school would go on to win three national championships in 1993, wire-to-wire in 1999, and 2013.
Ron Simmons would also greatly impact the football and wrestling pipeline, as many more football players would continue to have successful careers as wrestlers.
Ron and many other football grapplers of the nineties like Lex, The Rock, Stone Cold, and Goldberg would help pave the way for a tribal chief named Joe from Pensacola who played for Georgia Tech, and Big Ettore from Tampa who played for Iowa as both took the WWE by storm in the 2010s.
Myself as a both an FSU alum and lifelong wrestling fan owe the world to Ron Simmons and his contributions to both college football and wrestling.
But Ron Simmons’ success would not be that of Simmons himself as he would credit his family back in Warner Robbins, Bobby Bowden and his extended family in Tallahassee at Florida State, Simmons’ staff and teammates in Cleveland, Ottawa, and Tampa, and Lex Luger who reached out to Simmons with the opportunity of a lifetime.
Simmons would also give credit for his success to his co-workers in the wrestling industry. Whether it was promoters, fellow wrestlers, people backstage in any of the promotions he worked in, Ron Simmons would owe his success to the people around him who helped shaped him as an athlete, as a performer, and as a person as he returned the favor to others.
Ron Simmons was a gifted athlete of mythical proportions and became a no-nonsense wrestler that entertained the masses. Yet Ron Simmons would evolve into a strong, yet humble man who impacted every place he went and left a legendary mark wherever the road took him.
DAMN!
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