Also known as John Brown, Frank Sparks
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Some people said that the popular Manchester welterweight Al Brown often had a puzzled look on his face. We don’t know why he should because when he was inside the wrestling ring he certainly knew what he was doing.
Universal agreement in the early sixties was that eleven stone Brown was one of the most under-rated of wrestlers, with The Wrestler magazine even declaring him the equal of champion Jack Dempsey. His geographical restrictions to the rings of the midlands, north and Scotland may well have limited his national acclaim, but Southern fans did get to share his considerable talent in around a dozen televised contests.
Most notable of all was his televised odd fall victory over John Foley, hastily followed in the memory stakes when he was KO’d by Cliff Belshaw whilst leading by a fall. Other television opponents included the skilful Spaniard Vincente Castella, Abe Ginsberg and Ken Cadman.
Away from television he is remembered for narrowly losing to Jim Breaks in a title clash and a series of tough contests against the Wigan champion Jack Dempsey. Al turned to wrestling following a successful amateur boxing career. He joined the army aged eighteen, largely to have the chance to pursue his love of boxing, but whilst serving met up with the wrestler Johnny Eagles.
When he left the army Al joined Manchester YMCA where he learned to wrestle in the evenings whilst working as a railway engineer. He turned professional two years later, losing to Martin Conroy at Hanley. Over the next ten years he met all the top welterweights and showed himself to be the equal of anyone.
Al and the family moved to South Africa in 1970 where he continued to wrestle for another year before taking up refereeing and finally retiring from the ring in 1974.
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