Early in the days of World War II, a young man named Glenn DuBose, along with his wife and young Glenn Jr., moved to Napa.

Glenn was raised in San Francisco where he gained great notoriety as a lineman for the Mission High School football team. He went on to graduate from San Jose State University where, prior to World War II, he excelled for the Spartans. Because he was older than his teammates and married with child, Glenn was given the name Pop by his teammates. The name stuck for the rest of his life.

Besides football, Pop, at some time in his early life, had done some wrestling. Because he had grown up, attended college and was married during the Great Depression, I’m sure that Pop did a lot of things to sustain himself and his family — including wrestling.

It was, as I remember, August of 1942 and the fair was in session at the Napa fairgrounds. Then, as now, one of the components of the fair was a carnival. Besides the normal carnival rides and concessions, the carnival also featured a wrestling ring and along with the ring, there was a very large and very muscular man that was touted as a champion wrestler.

Advance publicity said that this giant would take on all comers and any man that stayed with him for a certain period of time would win money. If he didn’t stay the full time, he got nothing.

I happened to be at the fair that day and saw a crowd gathered around the elevated wrestling ring. I wandered over and watched the big, muscular man taunt the crowd, looking for comers.

Standing near me was a stocky, dark-haired young man carrying a workout bag. After one of the taunts, the young man raised his hand and said he would wrestle the big man. After accepting the giant’s challenge, the young man went somewhere to change from street clothes into wrestling shorts and gym shoes. When he returned, he climbed up into the ring.

I remembered thinking that maybe the young man was a shill — someone who traveled with the carnival, would accept the big man’s challenge and, after a few minutes, would get pinned and the match would be over. But that was not the case.

As I remember it, when the two men were in the center of the ring, an announcer explained the rules and the two men squared off. They circled each other a couple of times and then started grappling. It was quite a match and, in the end, the young man won the money. The crowd was elated. Years later, I learned that the young man was Pop DuBose.

Shortly after that August day at the fairgrounds, Pop was called into military service. He served for the duration of the war. Then, in August 1945, World War II ended and there was peace. A few weeks later, I reported to the tenth grade and Napa Union High School.

Coincidental with the start of the school year was the start of football season. I decided to go out for the bee football team, and one of the coaches I met was a returning service man by the name of Pop DuBose. Pop assisted both the bee and varsity football teams, working exclusively with the linemen.

Since I was a lineman, during practice I had frequent opportunities to line up across the line from Pop and try to keep him from getting by me and into the backfield. I was seldom successful. I weighed about 135 pounds and Pop was probably about 220. Plus, he was very quick and could submarine or shove you aside before you had a chance to react. He was a great tutor and an excellent role model. I learned a lot about football from him that year and for a couple of years thereafter.

But forget football and the days in high school. The purpose of this essay was to tell of a wrestling match that I had seen at the Napa fairgrounds, where a young man had beaten a man that was supposed to be a champion at wrestling. It was a long time after that August day before I was able to put that young man together with the great coach, teacher, gentleman and friend that was Pop DuBose.

Through the years, when thinking about that event, I began to wonder if it really did take place and if I was actually there. Then, last year, I was at a luncheon gathering of former Napa High School athletes and Gene Tonascia, a three-sport star in the early 1940s (and member of the Napa High School Sports Hall of Fame) recounted the wrestling match in detail to the group.

After hearing Gene’s version, I knew that it really did happen and that I was there.

Napa As It Was appears in this space every other Monday, alternating with Betty Rhodes’ Senior Corner.