...WALTER KOMOSINSKI TRIBUTE by OZZIE STEVENS...

The following was written by Ozzie about his friend and long time dogman Walter Komosinski......Enjoy!

Walter was born in Poland. He left home at the age of 13 to join the circus in Germany.
He came to the U.S. when he was around 20, and was introduced to the dog game when he met George Armitage, who lived near him.
Walter worked in the coal mines near Pittsburg. Lacking a formal education, he went to night school to advance himself. He passed an I.C.S course to become a safety foreman.
At this time, George Armitage had a dog called BING, that he couldn't get matched advertised in his book. Armitage boasted that Bing was the best in the country.
Walter had a young dog called JUMBO. These were catchweight dogs.
Walter didn't feel his dog was ready for BING. but, with a little persuasion and a few drinks, a match among friends was set up.
But, when Walter arrived at the pit, he felt like he was in big trouble. In the other corner stood Harry Clark, and Jack Ward along with Armitage.
It so happened that they got the surprise of their life when JUMBO won in one hour, thirty five minutes when they picked BING up.
Walter had a friend, John Roofner, who had a dog called BROWNIE. (pit weight 43lbs.)
They set up a match with George Saddler, a great-great dog man from Mississippi.
Roofner was an amateur, but BROWNIE won.
Saddler bounced back, only to be beaten again, and yet again a third time. This third match went over three hours.
Roofner then gave BROWNIE to Walter, who built his whole yard around him.
All Walter's dogs were line bred on BROWNIE, and by 1970 all Walter's dogs were white.
Some say he mixed the White Bull Terrier in, but regardless, they were some of the best dogs around. Komosinski's MUTT was sold to Ozzie, who bred him to a granddaughter of Cotton's BULLET. Out of the litter of four, one was given to Walter. The others (Ozzie's Radar, Bryan's Joker, and Bryan's Lulu) were absolutely outstanding bulldogs. they could all hold their own with the best dogs of today.
Walter had an 85 acre farm, with three treadmills in the barn. Any Sunday that I dropped in on him, the dogs would be running all three mills full blast.
Walter bred and always had plenty of dogs. But you could never get one from him unless he knew you were a good dog keeper.
Walter was one tough cookie. When he was 80 years old, he stopped a dog belonging to a man named Livingston in 14 minutes.
Livingston took offense to Walter's stopping his dog in such a short time, so he started roughing up Walter's other dogs as he left the barn. Walter warned him twice. Then Walter let him have it with an uppercut, knocking Livingston back about eight feet.
As Livingston was getting up, Walter quickly took off his glasses, folded them in his pocket, and came in fast, hitting Livingston with a right and dropping him again. This time I stepped between the men, I grabbed Livingston to hold him back, but I didn't need to because he didn't want anymore.
I was afraid for Walter because of the age diffeence. Walter was 80, Livingston was 38.
Walter probably had the best dog houses in the country. They were made out of oak 2x4's and 4x4's, completely sealed with roof coating, and covered with galvanized roofs.
Walter continued to match dogs until he was approaching 87 years of age.
He won the last three matches he had before he died.
He won over Texas Ron and Big Brad at 54lbs. males. Ron handled a hell of a dog from Texas, a stifle dog with a good mouth. But Walt's dog, HERO was one step better. HERO was a grandson of the MUTT dog. Match time was about 43 minutes.
Walter also beat a son of ZEBO out of Rocco's CHERRY BOMB.
When Walter took sick with circulatory and heart problems, he knew he wasn't going to make it. He instructed his neighbor Stanley to do away with all his dogs.
Walter died January 30, 1983 at age 88.
I was fortunate to have been a close friend of Walter's for many years. I learned plenty from him.

thanks to Ozzie,good memory great story.

 

Thanx Elias,good read

 

Hearing the love Ozzie had for Walter out of his own mouth was very touching.. a real appreciation for each other!
Ozzie was still using the houses he got from Walter up into the day he passed which made the housed well over 20yrs old.

 

I don't understand, if Walter valued Ozzie has a good friend then why not give him his dogs if he knew he was on his way out, all those years of hard work gone down the shitter.....

 

Some had his blood including Ozzies Mutt and Mr.Rocca' via the breeding to Cherry Bomb,,,
I agree with you DogMan85 but also understand some dont believe anybody deserve their life's hard work to be passed on in such volume,,,
Mr.Wallace did the same thing the last of his hounds...

 

I thinks it's also a case of if i'm gone then the rest is not important, I eon't be there to see the results so everything can go. Like the burning of the possessions and animals along with the king like the Egyptians and Vikings.

 

Last I heard there was some komosinski line about around the early 2000s. Don't know about now or how truthful that was..…

 

From time to time there are articles in the dog papers by dif-
ferent dog breeders against pitting the Pit Bull Terrier. It seems
ridiculous that some of the so-called Pit dog breeders are trying
to make meek curs out of such a great dog as the Pit Bull Ter-
rier. Why try to make more curs? Don’t we have enough mutts
on the dog field without adding the Pit Bull Terrier? Some try-
ing to make the readers believe that fighting Pit Bull Terriers is
cruel and illegal which might be so, but don’t we practice lots
of illegal things and it seems to be all right with us. There are a
hundred and one things that we are doing in illegal ways and
some much worse than pitting a dog. We are making and sell-
ing liquors which is illegal. We are betting on horse races which
is illegal. We are operating gambling joints which is illegal. We
are promoting prize fights which are inhuman and cruel as far
as cruelty is concerned. We are employing and exploiting miners
for the benefit of the rich which is worse than cruel. We are do-
ing wholesale killings in time of war which is not only cruel to
those who are cutting each other’s throats, but it is also cruel and
inhuman to those whose lives are depending on those who fight.
Humans always did and always will amuse themselves whether
another group of humans like it or not. We are making laws to
help one group of people to amuse themselves and restrict the
other groupe of people of doing so. For instance, the dry act. Rich
men can go to France and drink champagne and the poor man
is not allowed to drink moonshine. Rich men can spend 40 or
50 dollars to see Dempsey-Sharkey fight and poor men are not
allowed to see chicken or dog fights free. But making a long story
short, I wish to say this: We all admire courage, which is noth-
ing else but gameness. We all admire great men as they were:
Ceaser, Alexander the Great, Pericles, Mark Anthony, Peter the
Great, Napoleon, Washington and others for their great courage
and fighting ability. Why not give some credit to our pit dog?
We all love and admire our present day heroes and explorers as
Lindbergh and Byrd, which is nothing else but, gameness that
make them the way they are. Any way we take this world and ev-
erything that we have got we get it by courage and gameness. So
why try to make a meek out of our great dog -the Pit Bull Terrier.
Those who advocate meekness they are cowards and a disgrace to
our race and those who advocate converting the Pit Bull Terrier
into a rank cur are doing so because they cannot produce a dog
good enough that they could be proud of, like we are proud of our
Washington, Grant, Pershing, Lindburgh, Byrd, and others too
numerous to mention. Let us have as great dogs as we have great
men and the great dog is the Pit Bull.
Walter Komosinski