It's not often an athlete is in the College Football Hall of Fame, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame and the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame, but Ron Simmons can make that claim.
Simmons will be in Sparks March 6 to help raise money for the Cook High Hornet Band program. For $20, football and wrestling fans will be able to meet, talk with and get autographs from Simmons, as well get a front row seat to a great night of professional wrestling.
Barfield will face Evan Stone, while the "Desperado" Walker will be take on Effy Gibbes.
Other matches are scheduled to feature Blain Rage against Sir Ian Shire, Logan Stevens taking on Dante Steele, "Mr. Saturday Night" Jarrod Michaels will face off against Jake Knight, "Mayhem" Julian Marcs will face Eric Moore, a tag team match will pit K9 Karnage (Maddog Miller and Baddog Brody) against Bad Guys Inc. (Preston Paradise and Johnny Valentine, and finally in a street fight, a grudge street fight with JT Taylor taking on "Playboy" Rob Justice.
A Georgia native, Simmons was born in Perry. He began his athletic career as a three-year starter for the Warner Robins High Demons. In 1976, Simmons was named the Class AAA Player of the Year as he led the Demons to the state and national high school football championships.
From Warner Robins, Simmons went on to star at Florida State University. There he became an All-American, as he finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1979.
After a brief pro football career with the Cleveland Browns and with the United States Football League's Tampa Bay Bandits, Simmons began the phase of professional wrestling in his athletic career.
The early high point of his pro wrestling career was defeating Big Van Vader in Baltimore, Maryland in 1992 to become the World Championship Wrestling alliance's world champion. Simmons is considered the first African-American to ever hold a professional wrestling world championship.
After winning tag team titles and other awards in WCW, Simmons moved on to the WWE, where he became a mainstay on Monday Night Raw as the leader of the Nation of Domination, which featured Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, as well a successful tag team, the Acolyte Protection Agency, with current Raw broadcaster John "Bradshaw" Layfield.
After slowing his wrestling career down, Simmons was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008, and the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012.
Besides the preshow meet and greet with Simmons, those purchasing tickets for $20 are also guaranteed front row seats for the show, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Cook Middle School gym in Sparks. Other ringside tickets are $10. You can buy general admission tickets for $6 in advance and for $8 at the door. Children under six will be admitted free.
The Cook High band program will get 100 percent of the profits from the show, as this is a fundraiser for the program.
For more information, call 229-507-9532.
