Al DeRusha, AWA behind-the-scenes power player, dies

Al DeRusha, who was both an on-screen authority figure and a behind-the-scenes player in the AWA for years, has died. He was 88.

The news was broken by a carnival and fairs website, which was but one of the many facets of DeRusha’s fascinating life.

“It is with great sadness to report the passing of Al DeRusha. Al most recently served as the Jamboree Coordinator for the Outdoor Amusement Business Association (OABA) and is also the past OABA Vice President. In 2017, Al was inducted into the OABA Hall of Fame,” wrote Matt Cook at carnivalwarehouse.com.

To say that DeRusha wore many hats – in wrestling alone – would be an understatement.

In the AWA promotion’s heyday, he was the head of production for the syndicated TV show, All Star Wrestling, and was often charged with setting up spot shows around Minnesota. Then there were the times in the ring as a referee or ring announcer, and at ringside or on camera playing a role as a part of the rules committee. At times, he served as a play-by-play announcer as well.

“He is of the old-fashioned ‘carnival barker’ school, a salesman with the gift of gab through and through,” wrote announcer Mick Karch in a column on Kayfabe Memories years back.

The carnival part was very true.

Alvin Joseph DeRusha was born November 7, 1935, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to parents George and Mary DeRusha. He was the youngest of seven girls and four boys. Papa DeRusha worked in the caves alongside the Mississippi River, growing mushrooms, constantly having to turn over the horse manure that they grew in.

Young Al started helping Dad at age six.

By age nine, he’d been hired for the summer by the Magel family, who ran the local amusement park. Al was a gofer to start, but graduated to running the games on the midway.

“You know the milk bottles — hit them with a ball, knock them over and win a prize?” DeRusha told the Minnesota Star-Tribune in 2015. “I had an old carny tell me, ‘We had a tornado hit our carnival one day. Only thing still standing were the milk bottles.’?”

The gimmicked life set him up well. He met his wife, Marlene, at the carnival, as she was a member of the Magel family. They were married on July 9, 1955, and had four children, eight grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

But that’s jumping ahead.

There were countless jobs, including when DeRusha attended Humboldt High School, a part of the program where he went to school in the morning and worked in the afternoons. It’s nuts to think about all the places he worked, including Fisher Nuts.

But a job posting that he scored while a senior, in 1953, changed everything. WMIN TV, based in the Hamm Building, in St. Paul, was the third station to go on the air in the Twin Cities, and DeRusha started at Channel 11 driving material between the three stations, doing props and odd jobs. Then upon graduating from high school, he became a floor manager and then a producer.

He specialized in directing children’s programming, including Lunch With Casey and Roundhouse Rodney.

There would be real news through the years, and DeRusha directed sports programming as well, including the North Stars, Vikings, Twins, and high school and college games.

DeRusha also served eight years in the Naval reserve, and primarily made military documentaries.

Then, in 1961, Verne Gagne set up shop at Channel 11, for his new American Wrestling Association promotion.

At the start, DeRusha directed their shows as a WMIN employee, but the AWA eventually hired him away in 1973.

There were countless roles DeRusha filled for the AWA, and one son, Gary, worked as a referee, and another, Glenn, was involved behind the scenes.

Minneapolis Star columnist Jim Klobuchar summed up the Gagne-DeRusha dynamic in a July 1975 piece: “DeRusha functions as Gagne’s television producer and adviser. As such he stands in the same relationship to the great bald avenger as Robert Montgomery did to Dwight Eisenhower and Noel Coward to British monarchy.”

In 1976, the AWA had an office on the 17th floor of the Shelard Tower in Minneapolis, with Gagne sharing space with DeRusha and Wally Karbo. Later, they had a spot in the Dyckman hotel.

In his role as a local promoter, DeRusha was often called upon to talk to the local media — and defend kayfabe.

“Many people think of professional wrestling as a form of entertainment as much as a sport,” DeRusha told the Austin (Minn.) Daily Herald in 1986. “They come out to see the good guys and the bad guys go at it. They want to see the bad guys lose. It’s a way for them to vent out the frustration of the day … instead of going home and yelling at their wives or husbands, they go to the matches and yell at the wrestlers.”

When Vince McMahon and the WWF expanded in 1984, the AWA talent was scooped up, most notably Hulk Hogan, but also Mean Gene Okerlund … and Al DeRusha. Unlike the others, DeRusha didn’t last long with the WWF, citing back problems and a desire to do less traveling.

Returning to the AWA, DeRusha was there when it was at its peak, the AWA was in nearly 100 markets, including major cities San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Milwaukee, Chicago, as well as the Twin Cities, and seen on ESPN. It didn’t last, of course, as the WWF and Jim Crockett’s NWA became national players.

When the AWA folded, DeRusha had already had other irons in the fire. He rose to become vice-president of the Outdoor Amusement Business Association. In 2014, he was inducted into the Showmen’s League of America Hall of Fame, and, a year later, also inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

DeRusha attended some fan fests through the years, especially around Minnesota.

At the 2024 induction ceremony for the Tragos/Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame at the Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa, DeRusha was in attendance and a special video was shown, honoring his decades in and around the entertainment business.

Funeral arrangements are not known at this time.

TOP PHOTO: Al DeRusha, Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo