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The Russian Nightmare. The Kita Cool. Welcome to another episode, QA with Cole Off, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back. Another episode, QA with Koloff Questions and Answers, where you get a personal phone call from the Russian Nightmare, and you get to ask me a few questions.
And, you know, if you're a fan of the Man Up Show, and I hope that you are, go over into the archives or listen live on Saturdays on Truth Radio Network. And if not, download the Truth Radio app and/or my website, koloff.net, and just message me and say, hey, I'd love to be on your show. Today, an extra, extra, extra special guest, I emphasize that with me today, Don Growth. Welcome to QA with Koloff. I'm happy to be here then, Nikita.
Well, I'm excited to have you. And people are like, why is he so excited?
Well, because I've got today with me the director, director of development of athletics at Moorhead State University. And you're like, oh, okay, why are you excited about that?
Well, because that's my alma mater. Northern Minnesota, Moorhead, Minnesota, not Moorhead, Kentucky. Don't get this confused here. Moorhead, Minnesota. Don is up there and fundraising and reached out to me.
And man, I was just so excited. We were talking before we came on air, Don. And man, you were throwing some name. Of course, I played with your brother. He was on the same team.
Uh with me, and and you're throwing some names out there, you would just bring me down memory lane, man. Ha ha ha ha. That's the best part about my job is the fact that I have a background in a history. here at the university and And I've only been here for going on 10 months here pretty soon. And I'm absolutely loving it after spending a lot of time in.
marketing and advertising in this community, Fargo Moorhead area. uh emphasize a moorhead because I am also a dragon, like you, Nikita. Come on. And 14 of my family members, also. 14.
You know, I said, you know, hey, you're going to have to go li that. To the full interview with Don on the man-up show, but uh, we delve into the more of his family history. 14 dragons in the family there and uh in Don's lineage, and of course, his brother Dick being one of them, who I wanted to, I guess, head-to-head up on the practice squad there. Probably even probably one-on-one against your brother, I'm sure, at times, but certainly in team skirmishes, he and I were going head-to-head there. Oh, there's no doubt about that.
I can remember. And you said you got your mom and dad family traveled to all the different games, right? Yes, even up to Michigan Tech And back in the days, and that's quite a hike to get up there in the uh UP. I know what what what on earth were they thinking about sending the Moorhead Dragons all the all the way up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. But hey, in those days, long bus road trips, I'm just saying.
Oh, yeah, nothing fancy and guys stacked in rooms on the road. You got it. It wasn't any different when I was there either in the early 80s.
Well, pretty amazing. Of course, our senior year, that senior class, inducted into the Moorhead State Hall of Fame because of the standout season that we had. And of course, just some incredible athletes over the years. And now, just a phenomenal coaching staff, Coach Lackwa. I said it right, didn't I?
I hope. Lockway. Lockway. Lockway. Oh, see, I didn't say it right.
Coach Lockway, Steve Lockway, a man of faith, a man of family, principles. Principled man, incredible staff, and just teaching these young people. You had told me 388 student athletes that you kind of oversee, but the student athletes, grade point average-wise, are dominating the entire university. Is that right? Oh, no doubt.
They put together this past fall all of the men and women. that are competing in sports. Um A cumulative of a 3.31 grade point.
So that is remarkable. Yes, remarkable number. Yeah, especially when you consider student athletes, meaning, because I remember how much time I had to commit to, whether it was in the film room, the weight room, the game room, on the practice field. Man, it was a lot of time that was consumed there. And then to go into the study hall and try to, you know, try to pass your classes, it was quite the effort.
And so that is a pretty outstanding. And/or remarkable accomplishment: 3.31 GPA cumulative for all the student athletes outperforming. uh all all of the just the just the regular students, yeah? Oh yeah, that's and that's and that's all by design. Uh here at the college, uh you know, and be a student first.
you're a student athlete and And that's by design.
So you know, and we're trying to build up championship teams. with all these smart kids, I I think it's a it's a great Combination. Win, win, win for everybody.
Well, kudos to Coach Steve Lackway. Forgive me, Coach, for botching your name there. But kudos to you and that entire staff of yours and to your family, 14 family members that are former dragons there. And I know your lovely bride, Michelle. You guys have been married, what, 36 years, and she's a Fargo girl.
You got it, and she's also a dragon. Oh my goodness. I love it.
So you guys you guys met in college? Yeah, well, I was pretty much done. And I happened to meet her. She was still in school. And we got married before she finished.
College. Wow. Yeah.
Sounds like a pretty smart girl herself there, I'm thinking.
Well, and you know what? I married up. Let's just put it that way. I did. I definitely married up.
Well, I hope to get it. I hope to get back to Moorhead one day. I know it's been a while since I've been up there, but I'm hoping to get back up, if nothing else, catch a game on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, not one of the in the snow. I remember, man, we had Don back in the days, man, I remember some freezing rain games and some snow games.
And then we even had to go a couple times. Our field was so bad. I know you got that new Shield field up there, right? But our feel was so bad, we actually had to shift our games over to NDSU, over to North Dakota State's artificial field. And I will say for the record, my ankles and my knees were much sore the next day after playing on that concrete.
I'm just saying. Oh, yeah. Concrete with a piece of carpet that was picked. Literally, people don't even know that. It was literally a concrete pad with some just some plastic grass on top of it.
It was brutal. It was brutal. Well, take a minute, Don, and tell our listeners what it is you're doing up there. I know fundraising is kind of your major deal. I know you're in the booth on Saturdays doing some color commentary there, but focus on the fundraising.
How can listeners perhaps maybe support what you're doing? Right, so I am, like you said, the Director of Development for the Athletic Department. Covers all the athletics, not just football. Although I played, and so did Nikita for the Dragons. I'm very proud of that, so as is my brother.
But what I do is I work with all of the coaches, all of the teams. The athletic director and the whole athletic staff, along with all the alumni groups. to help raise the bar with all of our athletic sports.
So that they can all be champions. We got to experience it. You did. Yep, Nikita, and so did I up here. uh being champions and it and it's the biggest desire of any of these student athletes.
They do great in a lot in the uh Classroom and academically, and they want to do the same on the field.
Well, we lack some things here, and part of it is. our conference We're shy. We're shy of a few, not a few. Quite a few. uh scholarships.
So we're actually winning Um and outperforming where we are when it comes to the conference in total Okay.
So that's one thing that we're trying to build up. And that's part of my charge, along with facilities. We're working on all of that also.
So yes, raising money. Looking for support in any way, shape, or form. And it doesn't matter if you're a dragginger or you're not. But if you are about student athletes, and the education of our youth. and in the right way.
And you brought up Coach Lockway and And I have to say it about all the other coaches too. and the whole athletic department, including our athletic director, Chad Marcuson, who's doing a fantastic job. Um everybody has that in mind. And as they help these student athletes through, and we just had graduation last week. And we had forty-eight Um graduates.
Happened this spring, all the athletes, men and women. And we were so glad for them, and they all. You know, finished with honors and everything like that.
So it's amazing. But that's what we're trying to do. And my charge is to help build up What we need is we need supporters. We need financial support. Build up the scholarships and that way we can compete even at a higher level than we are right now.
Well, that's pretty amazing. And just for the record, you may or may not know this, Dom, but I'm totally familiar with fundraising. I was in charge when I was going to school there. Coach Ross Forci put me in charge of the weight room. And so, not only was I in charge of the weight room, I actually put fundraising events together.
I had tickets printed, I was selling tickets, man, and all because I wanted to build what lacked in our, like, we didn't have a weight room like you guys have now. I'm like, oh my gosh. I remember when I went up there, I went, all right, now this is a weight room. We started a little corner, a little closet off the way that was still there, by the way. That little closet.
That dragon's den, remember the name above it? The dragon's den. And so, man, I was selling tickets to try, you know, buying equipment for the weight room and trying to make it into.
Something presentable, and which you know, we did the best to our ability. But all that to say to my listeners out there: listen, if you ever wanted to consider supporting a small college, not just small college football, but small college athletics, as Don said, just think about this: 388 student athletes outperforming the rest of the entire student body with a 3.31 GPA because these coaches, Coach Lackway, I say it right, Coach Lackway. Yep. And his staff and all the rest of the coaches are putting student before athlete, and so you can't go wrong. Plus, hey, hello, it's my alma mater.
Come on, man. I want you to pony up there and help Don reach his goals. Don, just real quick, and we'll get to your questions.
So, what are some ways they can either connect with you, or what's a website where they can learn more about Moorhead State University?
Well, the best place to go to, you can find it at mnstate.edu. Mm-mm-mm. You can do it any way you want there. The foundation site is mnstate.edu. Slash.
Foundation. Or If you want to connect with me, you can do it by my cell phone. I'll graciously give that out. And also my email address, my cell number. is seven zero one four nine one 0106.
and my email here at the uh college. is Don, and that is Don D O N N. Dot growth G R O T H App mnstate.edu. All right. And let me emphasize something here.
You know, Don with that little northern accent up there, I just want to. That's M as in Mary and N as in Nancy. In other words, Minnesota state.edu. And now, when you go on there, you might even see like Minnesota State University Moorhead. That's the official name, but I just personally refuse to call it that because I went to Missouri.
I went that's right. I went to MSU. I went to Moorhead State University. Come on, man. Alma modern.
Hey, let me just say this: if you folks ever traveling through Moorhead, travel through the athletic hall there, and you're going to see a lot of history. You might even see the Russian Nightmares mug up there.
Now, it won't say Nikita Koloff because if you don't know my birth name, I'm going to leave you hanging and let you do a little homework. I can't give that to you. That'd be too easy. I got to make you work for my birth name, but you'll see me up there as. an academic all-American speaking of GPAs, one of the greatest honors I had while at Moorhead in addition to the incredible football teams we had.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Nakita Cole off here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement? The big announcement.
Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway. Facebook. Go look up my new fan page, Nikita Cola Fans. And like it.
and follow today. If you are a business owner, and would like to advertise your company or product on the Man Up Show. And or Q ⁇ A with Koloff. Contact me directly, Nakita Koloff at. at coaloff.net.
The Man Up Show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gayton as one of our longest-running supportive sponsors. Dr. Gayton is regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons. He is motivated by his faith in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord.
His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice, performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world-renowned speaker, writer, and author. Go to iAssociates.com for more information. All right. So let's segue here and let you kind of fire a question or two at me, Don.
So. Go for it. What's your first question?
Well, so I know a little bit about your career. Actually, I watched a lot of your wrestling. I knew who you were before you got into that.
Okay. And. And Nikita, I watched as much of it as we could up here in the Fargamorehead area. Um, heck, the whole dragons football team did. You know, I even dressed up as you for a couple of Halloween.
Oh, come on, are you serious? Shaved my beard and had the old handlebars, you know, the floor. Fu Manchu, come on, bro. I love it.
Yeah, and I had flow just like you, so I went in.
Okay, right? Yeah.
What what other what other claims to fame And I I kinda know this a little bit, but um Uh Besides all of the accolades on the in the wrestling ring, Um what other claims to the fame Do you hold? Like maybe big screen side of things.
Well, that's a pretty good question. I think I don't certainly haven't had it asked in that way before. And there, there are, okay, so there are, so I'll throw a couple things out there. I've had the opportunity to appear in some Christian films and little, you might say, cameo type appearances. In fact, I'm not going to say what, but I've been offered a cameo in an upcoming film.
Nice. Yeah, you know, just little small budget films that I'm considering. I'll just save that announcement for a later time if I accept the invitation. And so I've had some opportunity to kind of dabble in the movie. Industry, you might say.
Probably the biggest highlight some would know, or maybe some don't know, is when I came down to being one of the finalists, along with Dolph Lundgren, as the Ivan Drago character in Rocky IV. And so Out in ding ding ding ding ding. Right? Out in Hollywood with Sylvester Stallone on set with Sylvester and screen testing for that role. Dolph Lundgren and I are sitting there on the set.
And of course, many know. Of course, you know by now he got it. I didn't, but. That was okay. It was just the opportunity was incredible.
And then, one other little side note actually came up earlier today: a reality show that centered around my daughter, my youngest daughter, Colby. Although the entire family was on it, all of her sisters, Kendra and Tawny, and Taryn and their mom, were all on the show called Preacher's Daughters. And it had a two-year run on Lifetime, and it's actually still out there.
Somebody said they just started watching it recently, the replays of Preacher's Daughters.
Now, the funny part about that is, Don, they would interview me and involve me in some of it, but I wasn't on a whole lot of it because, you know, what centers around reality TV is conflict and drama, right? Believe it or not, as hard as that is to believe, they would try to pit me against their mom or something that was said, and they just couldn't get me to. Bite, man. I just wouldn't, you know, wouldn't do it. And so they're like, man, we can't even use that because we thought we could get more drama out of it.
And they didn't.
So I'm on there sparingly. And I probably gave them too many Jesus answers for them to really want to, even though it was a preacher's show. They're like, oh, man, that's like too much Jesus. We can't even use that.
So anyway, there you go. That's a great question. But there's a couple highlights outside of the wrestling accolades. What else you got? Yeah, that Rocky IV, you know, Finalist for playing the Drago was.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's really pretty cool, too. It was. It was a great honor, and it certainly would have been a big deal had I landed it. And I believe Don would have really taken me in a whole different direction that that I went. But so not meant to be, but an honor to meet Sylvester and just have a have a shot at it.
So there you go. And we and we all know that the good Lord has the plan. We are just here. Yep. and we're in it.
Yep. He's got a mission and we just we just have to follow the mission. Follow the mission. Exactly. And you're guided you're guided just like I'm guided.
But here, my second question would be What is your And I'm going to put the in parentheses here. Besides the October 1993 surrendering yourself. To Jesus. What would be your other number one highlight or milestone? in your combination of a storied Career.
Wow. You know, yeah. I mean, you have foot faith, you have football, you have wrestling, you have your personal health, all of those. What would be another thing? And that you would put up there on a high level.
Man, I'm going to bring you back, Don. We're going to dedicate an entire show to that one. Just that one question. I mean, and I can just kind of randomly go through things.
Okay. And you're right. I mean, between my football career, whether it was high school, college, wrestling career. Tryouts for pro. I mean, everything.
Yeah, just all of it, right? different world title belts and all the accolades that travel around the world, right? 36 different countries, all 50 states. The things I've got to see and experience in life is just, you know, sometimes I feel like I need to pinch myself just to go, wow, this is remarkable, a radio show, a podcast. You know, I've written three books and on and on and on it goes.
But I'm going to highlight this one thing that kind of bubbled up in my heart. Uh, my heart of hearts, uh, as a minister now, um, and having walked away, some may or may not know this. Lex Luger and I, one of my buddies, we run a camp together called Man Camp, and we've talked about it many times. That when I walked away from wrestling, essentially, what we calculated on a very conservative level is that I walked away from 30-plus million dollars of income, right? And yet, I've traveled the world and I've ministered to an audience of one.
And one of the real highlights, Don, is the largest audience to date that Lex was actually with me on this particular event was in Jamaica, an outdoor crusade where we got to share some of our story to over 73,000 people. Wow. And on that night, on that weekend, we saw over 25,000 fill out a little decision card. And that somehow they were impacted, whether it was a first-time salvation or a rededication, but over 25,000 people filled out a decision card. And certainly that has to rank up there.
And every time, whether it's 25,000 or it's one person that the Lord gives me the privilege of perhaps helping to lead to the cross, the foot of the cross, like a number of my wrestling buddies, Uncle Ivan Koloff, Road Warrior Hawk, and several others that I've had a small role in helping lead them to the foot of the cross. You can't put a price. That's not worth $30 million. That's not worth $50 million, $100 million. You can't put a price tag on that, right, Don?
So the privilege of now opening up God's Word, the Bible, and being able to preach and minister and or share my story and my testimony. Testimony of how God transformed my life is one of, if not the greatest honor that I have now.
So Yep. There you go. kind of what I thought you were gonna say. And then of course in the back of my mind, I didn't know you were going to talk about Jamaica and that large of a crowd, but that's amazing. And you were put there.
On purpose. And you couldn't have been there. Had things not happened and you walk away from your wrestling. And But, you know, in the heart of hearts, I was hoping you might have said, you know what? I did graduate from college with honors, you said that earlier, with a Bachelor of Science degree, with a major in physical education, a minor in health and coaching.
Yes, I did. Moorhead State University. Man, we applaud you for that also. And Don has done his homework. Come on, man.
I love it.
Well, Don Growth, Director of Development of Athletics, MSU. I'm just stopping right there. Moorhead State University. Please go check it out. mnstate.edu.
Give Don a call, man. 701-491-0106. Give him a call. And man, if God puts it on your heart to help support my alma mater and/or young upcoming student athletes with scholarships or maybe more weights for the weight room, whatever these guys need up there, I really want to challenge you to prayerfully consider supporting this little small university up in northern Minnesota. Don, thanks for being a part of the show today.
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it a ton, and it was a great. Great day being able to catch up with you. Yeah, likewise. And tell your brother Dick I said hello.
And all your family for being former dragons as well. And hey, to all of you out there in listening land, you're so faithful. Go over and listen to the full interview with Don Growth on the Man Up Show. And until next time, you go out today and just have a God-filled, but live a God-blessed day in Jesus' name. Until next time.
And go dragons. Go Dragons. That's right. Love it. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God.
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Yeah.
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