DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997              TAG: 9703280062

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Maddry 

                                            LENGTH:   74 lines

GIVE A HAND TO THE GUY WHO REVOLUTIONIZED THUMB WRESTLING

IF YOUR basketball team didn't make it to the Final Four, there's no reason why you have to sit home twiddling your thumbs.

No, you can put your thumbs to work for you, possibly earning fame and valuable prizes.

Yes, as fantastic as it may sound, you could find a career in professional thumb wrestling.

Until a little while back, you could count the number of professional thumb wrestlers on the fingers of one hand.

But, thanks to a revolution in thumb wrestling technology, at last there is a proper venue for the sport.

Say hello to Rick Hartman, a former schoolteacher who is the creator of the Officially Sanctioned Professional Thumb Wrestling Ring.

Thanks to Rick, you can now get a grip on professional sports by grasping the orange handle beneath the plastic ring with rubber ropes, inserting your thumb and showing off.

How often have you envied the skill and dexterity of professional wrestlers on television and said to yourself, ``Gee, I wish I could be famous like that?''

Well, your thumb can be, thanks to the only Thumb Wrestling Ring officially sanctioned by the IFPTW (International Federation of Professional Thumb Wrestling). It's a product of Hog Wild Inc. in Portland, Ore.

Yep, at last, someone has taken the ho-hum and hum-drum out of thumb wrestling. And made it a grass-roots movement that is rapidly sweeping the country.

And, by the way, let's hear it for Kitty Hawk Kites in Nags Head, N.C., which has been fingered as the kick-off site for the World Thumb Wrestling Tour today. (Kitty Hawk Kites is on Route 258 across from Jockey's Ridge State Park.)

About 100 pro thumbs will gather for the Nags Head event. Bouts will be from noon to 2 p.m. The wrestlers will be surrounded by a 6-by-6-foot boxing ring.

If you'd like to attend, or participate, you can buy your own official thumb ring, a book of official rules, and an activity booklet for about six bucks. For information, phone Stessie Cattrell (hand maiden of Nags Head thumb wrestling) at (800) 334-4777 before noon today.

Now let's pick up on the phone with Rick Hartman out in Issaquah, Wash.

``Kinda intimidating isn't it, knowing you are speaking with the founder of professional thumb wrestling?'' Rick asked. You betcha.

He was kind enough to help me nail down some of the sport's history. A former elementary school teacher, Rick said his classes were so boring that kids thumb wrestled to keep from going to sleep. All through the day he would hear the ritual challenge: ``One . . . two . . . three . . . four. I declare a thumb war.''

``About 99 percent of school kids engage in amateur thumb wrestling,'' he said. ``I was watching television one night, and when professional wrestling came on, I saw an opportunity to raise the sport to the professional level.''

Hence, the officially sanctioned ring, which devotees of the sport say was a momentous event in its development: comparable in tennis to the introduction of the outdoor court, which removed tennis from the French theaters of the titled rich and gave it to the masses.

There is still, Rick said, a prejudice against the sport in some quarters. ``Some people will say: `I'd like to wrestle you but I don't know where your thumb has been all day,' '' he conceded.

Professional thumb wrestling is turning in the direction of professional wrestling, as costumed heroes add a touch of theatricality. ``Wrestlers draw smiling faces on their nails, some dress up as Superman with a cape, or even paint their thumbs to resemble animals,'' Rick said.

I know all about that. My thumb has been wrestling anonymously as a demure lady for several months now. The thumb has a soft smile painted on the nail and is draped in a flowing black cape. I call her Thumb Enchanted Evening. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Ian Martin/The Virginian-Pilot

Professional thumb wrestlers can face off in this officially

sanctioned ring.

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