Dick "Bulldog" Brower

**Richard Thomas Gland** (September 17, 1933 – September 15, 1997), better known by his ring name **Dick "Bulldog" Brower**, was an American professional wrestler.

## Early life

Richard T. Gland was born on September 17, 1933, in Delaware. Gland served in the U.S. Marines and frequently visited his local YMCA. He got into powerlifting after graduating from Wilmington High School in 1952.

## Professional wrestling career

Gland dropped out of chiropractic school to pursue a career as a professional wrestler.

Gland started his career in the Delaware territory in 1958 under the ring name the Delaware Destroyer, however, other sources state that his debut was in 1960. Brower, at one point, wrestled Terrible Ted and hit Haystacks Calhoun with a body slam.

In 1961, Brower traveled to Canada to wrestle for Stu Hart in his promotion Stampede Wrestling. Hart claimed that Brower wrestled Whipper Billy Watson over 500 times. This included a bout for the NWA British Empire Heavyweight Title on September 7, where Brower defeated the champion Watson via countout.

For a couple of occasions in 1962, he faced Buddy Rogers in multiple NWA World Heavyweight Title bouts. He also worked for other promotions including the American Wrestling Association, NWA St. Louis, Big Time Wrestling in Detroit, and All-Star Wrestling in Montreal.

After his run in Stampede, Brower wrestled for Frank Tunney in Toronto from 1961 to 1974. On April 4, 1962, Brower and Sweet Daddy Siki defeated Watson and Billy Red Lyons to win the NWA International Tag Team Championship for the first time. They retained the titles against Chris and John Tolos as well as Watson with his various partners like Yukon Eric and Klondike Bill. They were defeated for the titles on September 27 by Watson and Bruno Sammartino. However, on February 28, 1963, Brower won the titles back this time with Johnny Valentine. They held the titles until dropping them to Art Thomas and John Paul Henning on July 25.

He won the tag titles again on October 17, this time with Dr. Jerry Graham; they held the titles for two months. On July 10, 1966, Brower won the titles from the Masked Yankees (Dandy and Doodle), but this time he won them with former rival Whipper Billy Watson. They dropped the titles to Tiger Jeet Singh and Fred Atkins but got them back on December 17, 1967. They were defeated for the titles by Singh and Wild Bull Curry, thus ending Brower's final reign with the tag titles.

In 1966, Brower got a call from Vincent J. McMahon to be a heel in the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He enjoyed a lengthy feud with WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino, whom he main evented shows with over the next few years. This also included a November 26 Texas Death Match between the two where Sammartino prevailed. Brower often defeated jobbers during this run but would defeat some once big names like Arnold Skaaland and Carlos Colon. He later set his sights on the next WWWF Heavyweight Champion Pedro Morales but did not win the title.

Brower also wrestled for the National Wrestling Federation (NWF). On January 1, 1970, Dick "Bulldog" Brower defeated Johnny Powers in a two out of three falls match to win the NWF North American Heavyweight Championship. He dropped the title back to Powers in April. Brower won it back in July but lost the title to Ernie Ladd.

On March 28, he won the NWF's tag team championship with Hans Schmidt, and enjoyed another reign in August with Dominic DeNucci. He went on to wrestle for World Championship Wrestling in Australia, where he won the NWA Austra-Asian Heavyweight Championship from Spiros Arion (who he also dropped it to) in 1972, as well as the short-lived International Wrestling Association in the New York City area. He won their North American Heavyweight Title and never officially lost it.

Brower returned to the World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1979, managed by Lou Albano. Like his previous run, he mostly defeated jobbers including Steve King, SD Jones, and Johnny Rodz. The bigger name talents he defeated included Ivan Putski, Larry Zbysko, and WWF North American Champion Ted DiBiase, though he didn't officially win the title from him.

He also feuded with Bob Backlund, who, in his book *From All-American Boy to Professional Wrestling's World Champion*, described Brower as the least favorite man he ever had to wrestle for the WWWF championship. On April 10, 1981, he and Larry Sharpe unsuccessfully challenged Rick Martel and Tony Garea for the WWF Tag Team Championship and Brower left in 1982.

Brower also traveled to Puerto Rico, where he competed for the World Wrestling Council (WWC). On April 14, 1980, Brower was awarded a WWC North American Tag Team Championship reign with Luke Graham, after Graham's previous partner, Gorgeous George Jr., departed the company. They dropped the titles on May 23 to Pierre Martel & Mr. Fuji. Brower retired from professional wrestling in 1988.

## Death

While with his son Richie, Gland fell and broke a hip, and was later found to have an infection in his chest. After living with diabetes and going into a coma, Gland died from heart failure on September 15, 1997, at the age of 63. At the time of his death, Gland was divorced to Susan and had two daughters and a son, as well as four grandchildren.