Professor Dan Glenday lays the smack-down at Brock Brawl
Tim Stacey
Issue date: 11/17/09 Section: News
|
Black spandex. Back-flip-body-slams. A 63 year old professor of sociology. What does the above have in common? Brock Brawl.
This past Sunday, Isaac's Bar and Grill hosted Brock Brawl, a professional wrestling event featuring local talent, including a Brock staff member, Professor Dan Glenday. The event was presented by Rough Wrestling International (RWI), and also featured much of its own talent.
Glenday, a 63 year old professor in the sociology department, teaches a "sociology of professional wrestling" class, and participated as a way to study the famous past time.
In a Q&A after the match, Glenday enthusiastically shed light on his reasons for participating in his area of study.
"I woke up one morning at 3 a.m. and realized that I didn't want to do trade union studies anymore […] so I thought about studying professional wrestling."
Glenday then began asking his colleagues what they thought of his idea, and after gaining some encouragement, began research on the popular past time.
"I was so shocked on how little literature there was on [professional wrestling] in the lens of sociology," said Glenday.
By 2006, Glenday had gained enough information through research and interviews to start a class. Brock then became the only university in North America to offer an undergraduate course about professional wrestling.
The course hopes to address the common ignorance of professional wrestling. Since it is such an easy target for skeptics, pro wrestling has been criticized for a number of stereotypes, such as excessive violence, sexism, racism and more. Glenday hopes his class will help make people more aware of the sport's merits.
"I went in thinking it would be a bird course," said Spencer Bruch, third year sociology major about the wrestling course. "[However] I've learned plenty. I've gained an insight into pro wrestling, and definitely become more aware of the trial and tribulations [the wrestlers] go through."
After a few years of teaching the popular course, Glenday decided that he should try the sport if he should truly understand it. And so, a year and half ago, he began training with retired pro wrestler, Chuck "The Butcher" Simpson.
Introduced as the "People's Professor", Glenday had the crowd's support from the beginning, as they were mainly his students.
Be the first to comment on this story