Bio file: Tito Santana

Wrestling Digest, August, 2003 by Scoop Malinowski

Born: May 10, 1953, in Mission, Texas

Height: 6'2" Weight: 235

Family: Wife, Leah; sons, Matthew, Michael, and Mark

Education: "West Texas State University, double major in physical education and Spanish. That's what I do now, teach Spanish at Eisenhower Middle School in Roxbury, N.J."

Childhood heroes: "My uncles--Frank, Jose Angel, and George Cavazos--on my mothers side were all into sports. They're how I got into sports."

First car: 1968 Chevy Impala

First Job: "I grew up as a migrant I started working in the fields when I was seven. I remember working in fields in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana."

Hobbies: "I just like sports. I like to spend time with my family and watching my kids play sports. My son is a sophomore in high school and he plays football."

Favorite movies: "I like Clint Eastwood and all his Dirty Harry movies. Plus, action movies with modern guys like Arnold and even Sylvester Stallone."

Favorite TV shows: "Now I'm mellow, I like 'Friends' and 'Everybody Loves Raymond.'"

Favorite meal: "A good, authentic Mexican meal, when I can get it. Probably my mom's home cooking, which I only see about once a year."

Favorite breakfast cereal: Raisin Bran

Favorite ice cream flavor: Vanilla

Music tastes: "I like oldies. In my 20s, I listened to Bachman Turner Overdrive, Pink Floyd, Ted Nugent, Boston--the hard, fast music of the '70s and '80s. My wife likes country, so I started to listen to country. Now I listen to the stock market on the radio."

Favorite vacation spot: "South Padre Island. Now we're into taking cruises in the summer."

Early wrestling memory: "I remember when I first started in Florida. They were billing me as a young, good-looking guy. They taught me how to jump over the top rope. I tried it the first time in Augusta, Ga., and I caught my leg on the top rope. Instead of landing on my feet, I landed on my butt. I never did that move again. I remember wrestling Andre the Giant in Rome, Italy, in 1988. I was scared to death of doing something wrong to piss him off. We just ended up having a real good match--thank God he liked me."

Funny wrestling memory: "Before a match against Greg Valentine at the Meadowlands in 1989, I had my three sons with me in the dressing room. My youngest son, Mark, was four. He was sitting in one of those padded, folding chairs eating a hot dog. Then, suddenly, the chair folded up on him and he fell in between the chair. He took it in stride. We were all laughing forever when that happened. We still laugh at it today."

Greatest wrestling moment: "The first time I won the WWE intercontinental title in Boston Garden in 1984. I defeated Don 'the Magnificent' Muraco. I knew that I completed a feat. I had already been the WWE tag-team champion, with Ivan Putski in 1979-80, but the intercontinental title was more of an achievement, as far as my career was concerned."

Worst wrestling injury: "My knee cartilage was torn in the ring, in Erie, Pa., in 1987, against Mr. Wonderful. He was a very strong guy. He put me in a hold and crossed my legs. He bent my legs too far, and my cartilage just popped."

Closest friends from wrestling: "Mr. Wonderful was, ironically, a very good friend of mine. King Haku, Jumpin' Jim Brunzell, too. Wrestling is like a fraternity--everybody is your friend."

Funniest wrestlers: "God, there are a lot of funny guys. Handsome Johnny Valiant, he'd always be saying jokes in the dressing room. Handsome Jimmy, his partner, was funny too."