Making His Mark for Humanity

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Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolod. Now, the devil's nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. With me today, William AKA Bill Murdock. Welcome to the Man Up show. Welcome to the Man Up show. Welcome to the Man Up show. Welcome to the Man Up show. Welcome to the Man Up show. Welcome to the Man Up show. Welcome to the Man Up show. Welcome to the Man Up show.

Welcome to the Man Up show. Okay, and Wilmington I think, was he originally from Wilmington? He was. Okay, at one point it's interesting because I probably played in six or eight, he hosted about six or eight different tournaments every single year or more that I played in for a while.

And so kind of got to know Roman on a more personal level. And then of course, Brad Johnson who won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Bucks, right? He did, Super Bowl 37, yeah.

Super Bowl 37 from Black Mountain, North Carolina, correct? I went to the same high school that Brad Doherty did. He and Brad are good friends. Doherty was a few years ahead.

Brad Doherty with the Cavaliers and with NASCAR and just one Daytona with his team, so yeah. They were both from the same town? Black Mountain, went to Owen High School. Black Mountain, they sure did. Was there like 1,000 people in Black Mountain? Something like that, if that. If that, it's a wonderful small town, but it definitely a small town. 200 people in the high school? 200 students at the high school maybe? And actually years before that, there was a baseball player, Sammy Stewart, played for the Orioles, won the World Series, also went to Owen High School.

Baseball, basketball, football. What's in the water in Black Mountain, North Carolina? You know.

Minerals? Must be, because these guys were amazing athletes and world champions and champions in other aspects of their life as well. I wonder, you know, it's interesting, Brad Doherty to go from the NBA into NASCAR, seems like an interesting leap.

Well, it really wasn't that much of a leap because he was always a big fan. Every Friday and Saturday night, and spring and summer at the Asheville Motor Speedway, you know, small little local racetrack where Brad was down there all the time. He just loved racing.

Okay. Even as a kid, high school, middle school, and actually his number, you know, 43, you know, with the Cavaliers and all, you know, why he picked that. Is that the Intimidator? Richard Petty. Oh, Richard Petty. Richard Petty.

Okay, okay, okay. Number 43, he was a huge Richard Petty fan, so when he started playing basketball, that was the number that he took. I don't think Brad would fit in a race car. You know, I don't know, but you know, he owns a race team and they won Daytona. That's crazy. And not only did they win Daytona, they won with one car, which is unheard of.

Very unheard of. And I mean, again, I say that because he's like seven foot tall or something. I mean, he's tall.

Oh, he's like 7'2", 7'3", or something, yeah. Which would further my point that I don't think he'd fit in a NASCAR race car. No, but he just loved the sport and, you know, found a way to be part of that, as well as being a NASCAR announcer, you know, and doing that for ABC and for ESPN. So he's a NASCAR guy. Brad, I know, grew up being a wrestling fan, or as we say here in the deep south, a wrasslin' fan. And here's my favorite story about Brad Johnson that he shared with me when his sons, who are now college standouts, when his sons found out that the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov, was playing in his golf tournament. They wanted to know if each and every year that he was having, if I was coming. Like, they didn't care about anything, anyone else or anything else. They just wanted to know, is the Russian nightmare gonna be at your tournament? And I remember him saying to me, he's like, I'm looking at my boys going, look, I won a Super Bowl. Like, am I chopped liver or something?

Or you don't hear it, or like, hello? Like, your dad won a Super Bowl. They didn't care. They wanted to know if Nikita Kolov was gonna be there and was he gonna have a championship belt with him. Which I think Brad ended up developing his own championship belt. Brad and a bunch of his friends, they're so competitive, whether it's basketball, whether it's ping pong, whether it's bowling. They made their own belts for each one of those sports.

So they trade those around, yeah. That is hilarious to me. Well, and it's a great story. When you were visiting me and Robin one Saturday.

And Robin would be? My lovely wife of all of 30 years in a month and a half. 30 years, congratulations on 30 years. That's a milestone in today's world. That is, and I think she's being nominated for sainthood, I believe. I have to check and see, but I believe.

Well, being married to you, I gotta feel she's gonna have a lot of jewels in her crown, I'm just saying. Talk about somebody who deserves a championship belt. Yeah, but you were in town and you went with me to a local wrestling tournament, Anka High School, with Mark Harris, who's chairman of our Headlock on Hunger program. They broke a number of school records, a couple of individual records. There were teams from all over the state, I think from Tennessee and Georgia. So next Monday, I remember when, Nicky, you led them all in devotions while you were there.

So the next Monday, everybody's coming up from all the teachers, the administrators. Nothing about the records they broke, about winning the tournament. They all kept saying, was it true Nikita Kolov was here? I presented the winning team with the belt I think you had made, Anka. We did for Headlock on Hunger, yeah, sure did.

Tell us about that. Tell our listeners about Headlock on Hunger. Okay, well, Headlock on Hunger, we've been doing that for, gosh, probably 15 years or so.

Plus years, yeah. Came up with the idea, bringing wrestling together, MMA, different sports, combat sports, to help fight children's hunger. And started, of course, in Asheville before I retired from Eblen Charities, which you were there at the very beginning, you know, with- Big supporter of. Yeah, with the late Joe Eblen.

Yeah. And we wanted to do something that we could bring wrestling together, raise money, raise awareness, raise food, and collect food. And then leave it in the schools, give it to the schools so the kids would have something to take home when they weren't in school, whether it was weekends, whether it was Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, Easter, or summer. And so we just started collecting food at wrestling tournaments that developed our own wrestling tournament. We're with you, you know, a lot of times at some of your signings and appearances, you know, at Wrestlecade or wherever it is, you know- Making people aware of Headlock on Hunger. You know, we were, Pepsi is one of our sponsors, Bojangles, Ingles Markets. In the past number of years since we started, it's been more than a million meals that we've provided.

In fact, the last year we did a big food drive. Jim Ross is all, you know- JR. Comms, yep, he was our national- Wrestling fans out there. Chairman, Adam and Beth Copeland, you know, you know him as Edge and Beth Phoenix. JJ Dillon, you know, came up, Jimmy Garvin, Dan Gable. We've, you know, a lot of wonderful folks. And not to mention, you know, Mark Harris, of course, Rex Wells, you know, who's well known, you know, kind of an icon in high school, amateur wrestling in North Carolina. The last time we did a food drive, we collected, we filled a 53 foot tractor trailer full of food.

Took about 12 of us eight days to separate it to go to the schools. And so, you know, having wrestled myself amateurly, being a wrestling fan, you know, getting to know you and some of the great guys, we thought kind of the alliteration of headlock on hunger was kind of a cool thing to do. Right. And as Rex said, he liked it because it brought wrestling together. Because it, you know, even though you're on a team, it's still an individual sport. You know, it's the individual sport, you know, that's encompassed by a team. Collectively together, yeah. And it says, and it brought the pros, it brought the amateurs, it brought kids, it brought everybody together, you know, to look at one cause.

And so that's where headlock on hunger started. Well, and I think a lot of people don't realize, which even what you just said, so let's not bury the lead here. So, you know, you talked about kids going home from school on Friday and the ability to provide them meals or food to take home with them. And people don't, I think in some cases don't realize, wait a minute, there's like starving kids in America?

Like, you know, we hear about starving kids in Africa, right, but how many families, how many, especially in today's economy, in today's world, you know, with the escalating food prices and gas prices and everything that's going on right now, right, and the dollar, you know, really being stretched more and more and more and worth less and less and less that people don't realize that there are kids that go home and there's no food in the cabinet, there's no food in the refrigerator. And so the work you do, and this is what impresses me more than anything, Bill, about what you do and what you've done over the years and why I was so adamant to embrace what you've done and support what you're doing, is because you ran one of the most successful nonprofits, as far as I'm concerned, on the planet. One of the reasons I'm very A, critical of nonprofits, and B, very selective of which ones I endorse or become a part of, is because I don't necessarily know where all the monies go.

Absolutely. To me, a lot of the money goes to administrative expenses, and how much of that actually gets out there to the cause, but I think I'm pretty accurate in stating that you ran, when I say one of the most profitable nonprofits, you ran your administration on about two and a half percent of all the monies that came in. So let's just say about 97 and a half percent, if I'm doing my math right, went back to the people of Western North Carolina. Would that be fairly accurate? Yeah, when I left, we were about 7%. So still, so 93% still went back to the people of Western North Carolina. And a lot of groups, if you're in the neighborhood, of 25%.

Or more. But again, it was thanks to Joe Eblen, it was thanks to so many good folks, old high school buddy of mine, Tim Gwynup, helped me come up with the idea of the name Headlock on Hunger. Being gone, retired from Eblen now, about three years ago, George Suggs, who you know well, a friend. Brad Doherty, Brad Johnson, Heath Schuler, Dewey Andrew, who just passed away. And I know you know Dewey as well.

John Teeter with Pepsi, and a couple other folks, Todd Campbell and Josh Holmes, all local businessmen who have worked a lot in the community. When I retired from Eblen, they called and said, okay, what do we do next? And I said, we're not doing anything next, I'm retired. We're, you know.

I'm gonna sail off into the sunset with Robin. Yep, and you know, we started Eblen with $400, we got it from a yard sale, and when I left, it was about six and a half million a year. They had an outreach. Annual money coming in. So hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Catch that, they started, they launched the non-profit with a $400 garage sale, and if I'm not mistaken, that entire $400 went to one family.

The very first person who called us. Needed $400. Yeah, and then like one program that eventually led into about, we don't have to get into specifics, 70 or 80 programs, including helping people get to Duke University, providing them a cell phone if they need a communication or a place to stay. There's so many things, dental programs. I mean, there's so many things we could list that you did, but let's fast forward to Headlock on Hunger and continue with your story. And this program, this new organization is called Beyond All Borders.

Beyond All Borders, love it. And the origin of that actually came with Brad Doherty. He wanted to do something years ago when they had the earthquakes in Haiti. You know, they had the earthquakes and the.

I know all about them, my daughter Tawny. That's right, I remember. She ventured by herself. I think back on it now as a dad, I'm like, did I really let her do that? Like she, and went down, she became a missionary, nurse missionary to Haiti for 10 years. I remember that.

In fact, I went with her on one of her trips. You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

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You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. So anyway, keep going. Well, Brad had called me and he wanted to do something and Brad started this amazing Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving program where we gave out, started with 50 turkeys. And by the time we finished, it was 13,000 meals that were given out the day before Thanksgiving. And so he came and said, can we do something together? And I said, well, you know, Eblin, of course, is local.

So I can't take any money locally, but why don't we set up something, you know, under the Eblin umbrella that if people wanted to do something specific like Haiti or wherever it may be, they could donate it and we could still be true to our mission and just expand. So we came up with the idea of Beyond All Borders. And then when, you know, Bob Roberts was also a big part of this, is a big part of this with First Citizens Bank, you know, they all kept calling saying, what are we gonna do? And I said, are you talking with each other? And they said, no, we haven't. So I said, I'm done, you know, I'm gonna relax with Robin. I haven't been home for 30 years.

I owe her, definitely owe her some time, her wonderful patience and all. And they said, but if you were gonna do something, what would you do? And I said, if I was, was, I'd go back to what we, what Joe Eblin and I did back in 1990.

And the original vision. Go back to the very basics, no overhead, no employees, no offices, just everything that we would raise would go directly back. Back to the people. And so Dewey, again, God rest his soul, said, well, let's, they all said, let's go ahead and do it. And I said, well, you know, we started with $400. We have no money.

And Dewey said, well, I'll pay for the filing, you know, with the IRS and all of that. And we started, so we're into our third year. Don't even have a website. We do have, on Facebook, it's Beyond All Borders, WNC. And as we hear of people who need help, we reach out to them.

And if they hear of us, they remember us from Eblin or George with the Lions Club or whatever, then we will. So it's the basic, as you can be, very simple. And... Sometimes that's the best thing.

It is. We went back to the very beginning. And we're happily doing that. And we've helped quite a number of folks. Making a difference. And Headlock on Hunger came under that.

We took Headlock on Hunger. And so that's what we're doing. Well, that's not all that you do, though, because you're a book author, as I mentioned. You were instrumental in working with me on Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption, as told to William Murdock. You're, in my view, anyway, a wrestling historian.

Because you took, I learned some things, Bill. When I proofed the book, I'm like, I didn't know that about professional wrestling. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know that about Strangler Lewis or whatever. Liz.

William Muldoon. So you took the history of wrestling back into the 1800s. You mentioned having an amateur wrestling background, which led into your enthusiasm and becoming a fan of professional wrestling. In fact, you remember many. Just tell us real quick a couple of favorite memories from the Asheville Civic Center as a fan. Doesn't have to be a Nikita story, but just a quick story.

Oh, gosh, there's so many. Greg Gore is, again, a friend of both of ours. When I moved here, he brought me into his little circle of friends, and they were all wrestling fans.

So that's where it came from. We'd go to the old city auditorium on Wednesday night before they built the Civic Center. And 815 on Wednesday night, my favorite always was George Scott. And Tim Woods, Mr. Wrestling. And first match I saw with the Scott brothers against the Infernos. So that was memorable.

It was. I remember the night before Thanksgiving, my freshman year of high school, Dory Funk Jr. came, defended the title against Johnny Weaver, two out of three falls. And to see the world champion walk by, I mean, you're 10 feet away, and the gold belt, and he had this blue jacket with the gold fringe. And they went about 45 minutes with Dory taking two out of three falls.

But you're sitting there, oh, this is the heavyweight champion of the world. And then, of course, Harley Ray's got to see Harley in his first run, two weeks before he dropped the title to Jack Briscoe. And saw Jack a number of times.

And then just kind of moved on to Flair's era. And of course, being based in North Carolina, saw him quite a bit. Saw you in Magnum during your best of seven series. This wasn't one of the matches deemed as the best of seven, but I saw you guys a number of times. So yeah, it was great.

It was great. And that's where I think I learned negotiating skills because when we were kids, we'd always call around, we're gonna go to wrestling then. Well, who can take us and who can pick us up? So, you know, like Greg said, my dad can take us if he can find somebody to pick. And everybody wanted to take us because we'd go at seven. But at 1130 on a school night, they'd come pick us up.

So that was a little harder. So there wasn't internet, there wasn't texting. We just got on the phone and say, okay, my mom, my dad said he'll pick us up. So we would go as often as we could. Paid $3 ringside, I think was what.

$3 ringside. Now you mentioned the Briscoes. My book's not the only one you've helped with. I think you helped with one of the Briscoe brothers. With Jack, yeah, that was actually the first book I wrote. Okay, so Jack Briscoe's book is the first one. Life and Times of the NCAA and World Heavyweight Champion.

Any other wrestlers that you've helped with there? Just you two, I'll keep it to my friends. I've had some inquiries.

And whether we do something in the future. I'm writing a third book on C.S. Lewis and Tolkien right now.

Okay, which is? Which is called The Inklings at Eastertide. And I did one for Advent, I did one for Lent.

And so Eastertide, of course, is the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost. So it's devotional biographies. You're a big C.S. Lewis fan, right?

C.S. Lewis, Chesterton. And Tolkien fan. Tolkien, George McDonald, yeah. You're quite the reader, actually. I've walked into your library and I'm like, there's a quote, in fact, I may post this tomorrow. There's a quote.

You know, I put stuff up on social media all the time. And here's the quote. My father always said, never trust anyone whose TV is bigger than their bookshelf. So I make sure I read. Okay, and that's you. You're not only a book writer and author, you are an avid reader of books. And which I encourage everybody out there, if you're not, leaders are readers.

It is a true statement. And so I would encourage you, even if, I just don't like to read. Well, get over that.

I mean, get, right? Now they're on audio. Like I just, I'm converting our book, Mr. Murdoch. I'm converting it to an audio book. You're the first to hear that right now.

You're the first to know that. So keep your ears open, your eyes open for Nikita, A Tale in the Ring and Redemption on audio. And I'm excited because all the books I've done, this is the first one that's gonna be on audio.

Awesome. And I gotta think, my grandparents raised me. My mother died when I was two. And my grandparents raised me and they were big readers. They always read to me at night. And I've read comic books. I have tons of comic books.

They thought that was fine. But one summer they said, you gotta read a real book. You can read anything you want. Still buy comic books, that's fine. Went to a little bookstore.

I bought Hardy Boys, Secret of the Caves. And said you could read one chapter a day and when you read it, you're free to go play, do whatever you want. But if you don't read it, it's nine o'clock at night, you still haven't read it, you're not going anywhere. My grandmother would ask me questions. I'd read a chapter and she'd say, okay, what happens after Joe and Frank went and. Yeah, yeah.

And actually. So they had read a new, so they could ask the questions and know whether or not you're giving them a true answer. Yeah, and then I got to the point, the story was so great. I read two or three chapters because I had to see what was gonna happen. And I still actually have that book.

I still have that book. Well, I inspired my children, especially my young. My older ones got to watch videos and write reports. My younger ones I encouraged, gave them a financial incentive that for every book they read, it gave me a one page summary.

Oh, that's great. Yeah, just what the book was about. And there was, like I had a stack of books for my daughter Kendra, like 25 books stacked. And I think the price was, you read the stack of books, it's $1,000 in your pocket.

Oh my God. But you got to give me a one page summary of what every book is about, right? Just a simple summary, right? So that I know that you read it. And I still have, Kendra, if you're listening, I still have those somewhere, probably in the attic of all your little summaries and all the books that you read and then of course, the other girls as well. Kobe, Taryn and Tawny got to watch videos. Kobe and Kendra were incentivized to actually read the books but that's not to say the older ones don't read because they do but anyway, we're almost out of time, Bill.

I mean, it's incredible how fast this goes. So where can they find some of these other books you've written? Easy enough, you can go to Amazon.

Okay. And William Murdoch, yeah, just William Murdoch and it'll, I know it has your book, it has Jack's book and I did two books on Mother Teresa. Yeah, that's right, kind of not a life story but I mean, just kind of an overview of Mother Teresa, right? Right, I mean, the final analysis and Find Your Own Calcutta, Living a Life of Service. I read that one, Find Your Own Calcutta, great book. Living a Life of Service and Meaning in a Selfish World.

Yeah, so let me comment on that real quick. Find Your Own Calcutta, like you may be wondering, you know, trying to figure out your purpose, your destiny, your mission in life and certainly you read Find Your Own Calcutta, it may inspire you. His book may give you some insight into and you may get a revelation of what your Calcutta is, right? Awesome, and then Beyond All Borders, you said the Facebook page for Beyond All Borders. Right, Beyond All Borders, WNC and we talk about borders of the heart, not just geographical borders but Beyond All Borders is the borders of our heart, the borders of what we do and giving and reaching out to those in need. Wow, reaching out to those in need and so William Murdock in the studio with me today, just a genuine, as you can tell, just one of the most genuine guys I know, a heart bigger than Texas, really, if you haven't picked up on that already and the impact he has made in the Western Carolinas, there's no way to even document the impact that he has made. I wanna encourage you to go online, purchase one or all of his books and if you're so inspired to sow into and invest into Beyond All Borders, I assure you, you can take this to the bank, I assure you that you will be sowing into good soil, that those monies are not gonna be going to administrative costs, the monies that you might contribute, whether through the purchase of his books or Beyond All Borders, Headlock on Hunger is gonna go back to whether it's feeding families or just them finding a need and filling that need and what is your Calcutta?

Have you figured that out yet? What is your mission, purpose and destiny? Why are you here? I think that's a great way to end the show today. Bill, thank you for being on The Man Up Show. It's my pleasure, thanks for having me. Well, and it's been a time getting you here but I'm glad it finally worked out to get you here.

Third time's the charm. Third time's the charm and thank all of you for tuning in week in and week out to The Man Up Show and I hope these shows are blessing you and encouraging you and inspiring you. Go out today and live a God-filled, God-blessed day. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out The Man Up Show, now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying The Man Up Show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. Nikita Koloff here.

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