- — Plutor
Rufus Polson
From The Great Outdoor Fight
1944 Fight Champion. Rufus Polson (Born 1919, Died 1955) joined the fight in an effort to clear his family name from a reputation of cowardice. Known for his cunning use of his Army at the fight, a considerable feat considering how many World War Two vets in the Fight were willing to follow a non-veteran, he fought only once, and hard. He was nearly given the title of "the dentist" when an overconfident and jocular fighter laughed at Rufus' habit of knocking out teeth and keeping them, until he shattered his jaw and made it quite clear that "No Polson ain't ever gonna be no damn dentist."
Contents |
[edit] Early Life
Born in Dedham, Iowa, Rufus was the youngest of six brothers in a poor farming family. His father had a small farm where they grew corn and raised some hogs. He was born with a slightly malformed left knee, which made him hobbled slightly. In a town full of strong farm boys, this often made him an outcast, and hardened his skin against anyone who dared to poke fun at him. This also led him to build up his upper body to a stature of much strength, and even though his gait may have been slightly off, there was no question as to the power his legs contained.
He was a very silent and stoic individual, carrying a hard look on his face that very few people ever tried to break through. And while he did not get much formal schooling, he was described by most people he met as sharply intelligent and clever, including his lieuteniant Ennio Clovaccio in his army who called him "the smartest thing ever to slither its way out of Iowa's shit-hole."
Even so, as the youngest he was often given the task of slaughtering and raising the pigs while his brothers worked the corn fields. This eliminated all squeamishness for bloodshed and pain, a trait he would become well known for during the Fight.
[edit] The Polson Family
In his small and patriotic town of Dedham, Iowa, the Polson name had an awful twinge to it. It was known around town that his father, Robert S. Polson, had found something out about the Governor of Iowa, George W. Clarke, from a one-night soiree with his daughter that he did not want leaked to the public at large. To sate him, the governor granted him amnesty from the draft into World War One. While it may have saved his life, the name of the Polsons was tainted with the legacy of cowardice.
Because of this, the Polsons were pariahs of the community, thought to be cowards much like their father. Raised without a mother because she died shortly after birthing Rufus, the boys were entirely under the auspices of a man described by townsfolk as "sniveling, cowardly, disloyal, and would betray his own mother for a chance for some money or saving his own hide." This naturally led to an awful reputation that spread over the family, six boys and a father in all.
When the draft for the second world war came calling, this reputation turned out largely to be true. Staying true to their roots, the Polson boys abandoned Iowa for various climes.
Robert Polson Jr, the eldest of the clan, was arrested and jailed for attempted rape of the Governor's daughter, seeking to repeat what he considered his father's success in avoiding the draft. When he was released 15 years later, he had indeed avoided the draft, and decided to head west. He was last seen hitchhiking in the Nevada desert in 1961, and is presumed dead. His brothers Brian and Jack moved down to Mexico to avoid the draft, where they were apprehended for an attempted robbery, and later murdered in prison in 1943.
Arno, the third boy, fled to Wyoming where he lived scrounging off the land and robbing petty foodstuffs from farmland, until he was killed by a farmer in 1947. The next youngest tried as hard as he could to become a concientious objector, but failed. He was shipped to the Pacific theater where he shot a flesh wound in his own leg in order to be sent home. However, he chose a bad time to do this, as the position he was in was soon run over by the Japanese and he was killed as he attempted to hobble away from the fight.
Robert Polson Sr. died in 1942 of a heart attack, and the small farm was sold with Rufus as the sole heir. This small amount of money Rufus gave away, and went about trying to join the military.
[edit] Road to the Fight
Rufus wanted to clear the tarnish his other family members had wrought on their name, but was denied five times at five different Army recruitment centers on account of his knee. Angered and frustrated that the only recourse to clear his name had been closed to him, he took to roaming the country and fighting in bars for money, and beating up anyone who questioned his strength. In a particularly bloody bare-knuckle match against a local boxer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, his talent for fighting was noticed by 1932 Champion Cleo Stroble. Cleo introduced Rufus to the fight, and taught him what he would need to know- specifically, how the armies and allies work. Cleo found a brutal and powerful fighter in Rufus, and also a razor-sharp student of tactics and the mind of a true general at work. "The army made a grave mistake passing over this one," quipped Stroble, "this man could be kicking Hitler's ass while fucking Patton's wife, if you want my opinion."
Rufus continued to fight some for money, but also spent much of the remaining time before the fight poring over Stroble's collection of fight records, as he had been known to be quite a fan and collector of anything related to it. He studied tactics of past fighters, the most effective measures of combat that had been used, studied the terrain, the history, and even looked up some of the likely participants to see what he was up against.
Beyond studying tactics for the fight, he fraternized with many former vets who had come home from the War, whom he guessed correctly would make up a large amount of those who would be fighting. While they regarded him as a friendly, if quietly intense, friend, he was in reality putting on a facadeof being outgoing in order to study every mannerism they had. He read up on and asked vets about training and camraderie in the service, seeking to know all about how to properly lead soldiers.
When the day for the fight came, he was calm and prepared, perhaps more knowledgeable about the tactics and strategies than any previous fighter had been.
