Bryce Marshall

From The Great Outdoor Fight

Bryce Marshall (July 23rd 1957 - present) was the Champion of the 1987 Great Outdoor Fight, and is known as the tallest Fight champion. At a looming 6 foot 10 inches tall, he cast a long shadow over the field and stood well above the other competitors. DeShawn Philips was the second tallest man at the fight that year, and was still 5 inches shorter than Marshall.

[edit] Early Life

Marshall was born Franciszek Wojciechowski in an industrial section of Warsaw, Poland. His father was a machinist and his mother was a school teacher in the Soviet bloc. His parents were a rare breed- both of them were Polish Jews who had managed to escape the Nazi war machine years earlier by fleeing to Russia to hide. Living under Communist rule never jived with the Wojciechowskis, but his father, Lubomir, always reminded them it was better than living under fascism. Wanting to avoid any more troubles, the family was active in the Communist Party of Poland and as such were treated well. They did not agree with everything that was done, but they saw it as a way to protect themselves and their child, the rapidly-growing Franciszek.

By age 5 he was almost twice as tall as his classmates, and growing at an enourmous rate. He towered over classmates and was often mistaken for being much older than he was. His enormous size and charismatic nature early on caught the eye of the Communists. He was a good-looking boy who managed to keep his body tempered by building muscle and keeping his weight up, never becoming thin or stick like.

By age 18 he reached his full height at 6 foot 10, and weighed 270 pounds.

[edit] Athletic and Academic Training

This size and weight caught the attention of the Party who wished to use him for athletic purposes. They found in him a loyal communist from a good, hard working family, who was strong, tall, and handsome. Because of him and their work, his parents rose in prominence in the local Communist party, and as such he was treated well and was allowed to train at top-rate facilities in the country. He wanted to box, but his height made professional fighting difficult, and so he competed largely in basketball and track events. This did not stop him from training himself how to fight, and in addition to boxing he learned whatever he could about Asian and Western martial arts from behind the Iron Curtain.

In addition to his athletic prowess, he was also noted for his intelligence. He scored well above most youths of his age, and was prolific in languages. His parents taught him to speak both Polish and Russian at a young age, and through his own studies he learned to speak fluent German. The Communist Party also saw value in him as an ambassador to the world, and encouraged him to learn more languages, especially English. He was tutored heavily in languages, and learned to speak English, French, and Hebrew within only a few years.

He became a formidable athlete and scholar, and was approaching the status of a folk hero in Poland. The massively tall and strong Polish boy who was smarter than most and also an avid Communist was seen as great PR for the Party, and as such he was pushed along strongly.

Wojciechowski also knew from his parents and what he could get a hold of of Western news that the Communist Party was manipulating him. He was smart enough to play the game to keep his training going and his parents in good stature, but realized that he needed to escape the crushing hammer of Communist rule.

[edit] To the United States

His parents agreed with him and knew that they needed to get him out from behind the Iron Curtain. Knowing that the Soviets would only use the gifts their son had for ill gains, they made a decision to flee the country with him whenever the opportunity presented itself. Such an opportunity did come when in 1982, they traveled to East Berlin for a goodwill tour. His parents contacted friends they had in the city, and they managed to find an escape route. Tunnels under the Wall had been happening for years, and they found that one had just been dug and would likely be operational when they were there.

Sneaking a nearly 7 foot tall celebrity out of a Communist country was no easy feat, but they managed to do it somehow. They snuck across the border into West Berlin on May 18th, 1982. They appealed to the United States embassy for political amnesty, and upon hearing the news, President Ronald Reagan let out a cheer and said "nothin' I love more than stickin' it to those damn rooskies." The Wojciechowskis were admitted as citizens, and decided to change their names to better fit in with the population at large. Lubomir chose the name Marshall after the amplifier company that made the music he loved so much. Franciszek chose the name of Bryce, as it was the name of the man on the political ad he saw when he first stepped off the plane into an American airport. His mother chose the name Nancy, choosing to name herself after the first lady.

[edit] Road to the Fight

Bryce was now free to pursue his own goals and dreams, and that had been for years to box and fight. He enrolled in martial arts schools that he found plentiful in his new home of Baltimore. He continued to build the muscle he needed, and his parents were able to find successful and well-paying work with help from the government, as well as a CIA stipend they had recieved for some documents they had smuggled out of East Berlin with them. Bryce lived comfortably, training athletically and devouring books whenever he could.

However, he soon became bored with martial arts sparring and boxing matches, and decided he really wanted to see some action. He roamed the country for some time, looking for fights in bars and alleys just for kicks, but he could never find someone to challenege his immense reach and strength.

He first heard about the fight from a local tough in a Reno, Nevada bar. The man, a perenially low-ranking goon named Greg Fulber said he had secured an entry for the fight, but wasn't sure if he wanted to go, and drunkenly agreed to a match with Marshall for his spot. Needless to say, Bryce broke the man's right arm in seconds, and the spot was his.

[edit] The Fight

Bryce showed up to the fight largely ignorant of how things worked, but soon found friends who flocked to such a large and imposing figure. Marshall formed a posse that he solicited information from, learning quickly about the methods and politics that happened inside the fences. He formed up an army simply on his charisma and size, and moved into the fight.

Marshall had been training in Judo, Kickboxing, and Jiu Jitsu since coming to the USA in 1982, as well as training as a boxer and wrestler in Poland before that. Truly, his skills with the martial arts shone through here. He expertly took foes apart, causing great pain and injury, but only killing one competitor, Eddie Pepper, by snapping his neck. Marshall maintains that the one fatality was "a mistake," but that he was "completely not sorry about it" because "it was his fault anyways." Bryce personally dismantled 234 opponents, relishing an opportunity to be involved in a real fight, a challenge he felt was finally up to his skills.

His army fought well too under his auspices, despite his inexperience with the Fight itself. While he was the anchor of the group, his reign as a destroying machine nearly ended when he was nearly blindsided by a board with a large nail through it wielded by second tallest DeShawn Philips. Strangely enough, he was taken out at the last minute by Rhys Plano, the shortest fighter on the field that year, standing only 5 foot 1 inch tall. Plano crushed Philips' knee cap with an aluminum baseball bat as he charged towards Marshall midway through the third day.

The end of the fight saw Marshall against Hidero Masayaki, a Japanese black belt, and Damion Newberg, a former Israeli IDF special forces soldier, and future 1991 Champion. Marshall formed a quick alliance with Newberg because of his ability to speak Hebrew and therefore communicate without Masayaki understanding. With their combined efforts, Marshall kicked a jumping Masayaki into a waiting Newberg's arms, who in a flash broke both of his arms. Newberg hesitated for a moment on Masayaki's writhing body, giving Marshall the opportunity to dispatch him with a solid kick to the temple, sending him flying into the nearby western fence.

Bryce, having conquered the fight in his first go, never saw a reason to return to it. He is still travelling around the country and world, learning new techniques of fighting and applying them to his large and tall frame, harnessing the natural power he has that very few others possess.