TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | JUNE 2020 9
Behind the Tape…
By Sgt. Richard Dascall
Hey Everybody! I know there’s a large section this month about the
officers, but I wanted to tell you about one of the employees who recently
left the department.
I’m sure most of you know our Animal Control Officer, Jerry Oates. After
eight years with the Tybee Island Police Department, Jerry is moving on
to bigger and better opportunities. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of
meeting Jerry, then you know he has a personality bigger than life and
has never met a stranger. What you may not have known is before coming
to work with us, Jerry spent his adult life as a professional wrestler and
gym owner. Before he left I wanted to sit down with him and talk to him
about all of the things he’s done. I’m going to pass along what I learned
to all of you now.
Jerry started wrestling when he was 22 years old. He got into wrestling
because his brother-in- law, Dick Steinborn,
was a wrestler. He had his first match in
March of 1970. The last match he wrestled
was in March of 2010. Jerry said he did
that match so he could say he wrestled in
five decades and anyone out there could
fact check it. His last match was a six man
tag team where he wrestled with his son,
Bo Oates, his brother, Ted Oates, Ted Allen,
Vordell Walker, and Greg Brown. The match
was announced by Dan Masters. If you run
into Jerry and ask him about Dan Masters he’ll tell you stories for hours
about how Dan got arrested selling fake Rolex’s and used a fake press
pass to get onto the sidelines of a Georgia-Florida game.
His wrestling career took him all across the country and overseas to
Japan, South Korea, The United Arab Emirates, Puerto Rico, and more
locally, Canada. During his wrestling time he racked up a list of titles
including NWA Tag Team Titles and an NWA Heavyweight Title. He wrestled
with some of the biggest names in the business, including Abdullah the
Butcher, Eric Watts, and Chris Stevens.
He told me about how he was wrestling in Texas when he had the
opportunity to move to Oregon and wrestle there. He said once he had
a start date, he picked up and moved within three weeks. I thought this
was a quick move, but Jerry told me that was the name of the game.
He told me his secret to being able to move around so much and at
a moment’s notice was that his wife, Kathy, was the most supportive
person in his life. He said she never once batted an eye when it was
time to go somewhere and she understood life on the road. He credits
this to her professional ice skating career before marrying him. As a
professional ice skater, Kathy would travel the country for nine months
out of the year.
In 1978, Jerry and his wife Kathy opened Oates Gym in Columbus, Ga.
He ran the gym for 24 years where he trained bodybuilders, wrestlers,
and promoted wrestling events. Professional athletes from across the
world would come to train at the world famous Oates Gym.
In 2010, Jerry and Kathy moved to Savannah where Kathy was from.
Jerry came to work for the Tybee Island Police Department in 2011.
He quickly became well known in the community and made friends
everywhere. Most mornings you would find Jerry and his crew at Sunrise
having breakfast before the sun came up. He always went out his way
to give fitness tips and advice to any of the men and women at the
department.
I asked Jerry how he enjoyed his time working at the police department.
He said he had a blast and looked forward to showing up to work every
day. His favorite event to work was Orange Crush, when he would be
driving a transport van moving prisoners from the streets to the jail. He
said he loved the excitement and looked forward to it every year. After
this, we got sidetracked for about an hour laughing and telling old war
stories. His face lit up when he talked about driving the mule on the
beach, with four of them joking around and going call to call. When he
talked about the time during Beach Bum, he had to pick up a snake while
he was driving the transport van. Jerry is scared to death of snakes. He
said they put the snake in a bucket and when he got somewhere he could
drop it off, he left the snake and the bucket and got out of there as quick
as he could. Rumor is that snake is still somewhere off Chatham Ave.
When I asked Jerry what his best memory of the police department
was, he told me it was the kindness that everyone showed him when
his wife Kathy passed away after 46 years of marriage. Jerry said it
was the hardest thing he ever had to deal with, but it meant a lot that
everyone checked on him. He told me how one of his best friends at the
department, Angie Anderson, has texted every day for the past 19 months
checking on him. He said the comradery of the police department is what
he will miss the most.
Now that his time at the police department is over, Jerry will be
returning to his hometown of Columbus, Ga. Once he gets back there, we
can all look forward to the Grand Reopening of the World Famous Oates
Gym. It’s been a pleasure for myself and all of us at the police department
having been able to work with Jerry. I’ll always remember the time spent
joking around in the squad room, listening to stories from his wrestling
days, or a group of us thirteen hours into a 4th of July shift, packed onto
a side by side working the beach and singing 90s hip hop songs. We all
appreciate our time working together and wish him the best of luck in the
next chapter in his life.