Shirley Voehringer of Ballston Spa stepped into 800 pounds of mud at the Saratoga County Fair.

“They wouldn’t let me in the demolition derby,” she said. “This is the next best thing.”

That “best thing” was ladies’ mud-wrestling, which drew cheers in Ballston Spa on Thursday, July 28, 1983. In seconds, 22-year-old Shirley was slipping and sliding, grasping and grabbing opponent Elaine Lawrence. Lawrence, then an 18-year-old senior at Ballston Spa High School, was in the ring — and the mud — just for fun.

Other women took the sport more seriously. The Honeybees Mud-Wrestling team, seven athletes dressed in sequined bathing suits, were part of a national sensation. They revved up folks at the Prospect Street fairgrounds with an assortment of dirty tricks.

Fast and furious

“It was fast, filthy and furious,” observed Schenectady Gazette reporter Carl Strock, “and if the ladies weren’t going all out to win a sporting contest, they were at least as convincing as professional wrestlers of the television variety.”

Contestants included “Beth the Beast,” “Miss TNT,” “California Doll,” “Mad Murray the Mangler” and “Savage Sherry Shaw.” The women, based in Cayuga, Ind., traveled to fairs and conventions around the country. They slapped each other around the slop, and hoped for vocal encouragement during the big deal of the night — a tag team that matched Miss TNT and a Saratoga Springs Republican committeeman against Mad Murray and a local sportswriter named Tim Wilkin.

There was no time for gimmicks or angles, no room for Irish whips, gutbusters, even a stone-cold stunner. And by the time the other five Honeybees joined the battle royal, there was no law and order, either.

“It wasn’t a very good crowd,” Sherry later told Strock. “When I get mean like that, they should boo.”

Promoter Floyd Reed said the mud program was a family show. There were no off-color elements.

The wrestlers seemed to enjoy their jobs. Beth — “the Beast” — appreciated the travel and money. The 18-year-old from Danville, Ill., also liked the people she met in the ring.

“I’ve wrestled mayors, disc jockeys, policemen, firemen, judges,” she said.

Shirley Voehringer — now Shirley Wilkins and still living in Ballston Spa — remembers the night she and Elaine became sisters in sludge.

Cleaning up

“It wasn’t really like pure mud — it was like potting soil,” she said. “So there were twigs; besides getting full of dirt, there were a lot of scratches. I had dirt everywhere, in my hair, my ears, you name it.”

Wilkins, now 47, also remembers winning the match. And spending a long night with soap and water.

“I can’t tell you how many showers it took me, and hosing off with a hose,” she said. “I wrecked a good bathing suit, and you know how hard it is to find a good bathing suit. But I loved it, I had a good time.”

Wilkins will not consider a comeback.

“I’m a little older and stiffer now,” she said. “It was something fun to do. Every young person should do something crazy in their life — crazy, fun and safe.”