Historical Portrait - The Geriatric Olympics and Robosaurus

Raymond R. DeLaughter was born in 1955 in Jackson Mississippi, and is the first cousin of Robert DeLaughter, the prosecutor responsible for the conviction of perpetrators within the white supremacy movement against several noted Civil Rights leaders during the 1960’s. The only son of Eugene DeLaughter, Raymond is thought to be responsible for several modern-day inventions, most notably Robosaurus, a gas-powered hydraulic dinosaur often featured at a variety of motorsport events.

Raymond’s father Eugene was an outspoken member of the Civil Rights movement and is said to have been a ‘noted and respected member of the white community against racial inequality.’ The author of several essays and an outspoken supporter of the Freedom Riders who assembled in Washington DC amid the Boynton v. Virginia trial in 1960, Eugene pronounced a candid disapproval of the state and federal government. In 1963, Eugene refused to acknowledge his tax obligations and became a minimalist, selling his car citing his refusal to adhere to state and federal-promoted dependence on man-made infrastructure.

Despite Eugene’s strong will, the Internal Revenue Service offered a warrant for his arrest in June of 1965 for evasion of taxes, and Eugene served six months at Issaquena Correctional Facility, leaving son Raymond under the care of a foster home and the affluent Romer family who had attained wealth after Alfred Romer’s alleged discovery of the Giant Sauropod Euhelopus in 1956. While with the family, Raymond began his penchant for academia, including engineering, geology and paleontology (prehistoric reptiles and mammals).

Meanwhile Raymond’s father, now out of the penitentiary, succumbed to elongated periods of depression and eventually alcoholism. Without a car, Eugene rode his lawn mower back and forth between his Jackson Mississippi apartment and the bar. In 1974, a particularly inebriated Eugene DeLaughter crashed his lawn mower into a sign promoting the Coast Coliseum Crawfish Festival and received a sentence of eighteen months in prison. Upon his parole, the 61-year old Eugene was to enter the custody of minimum-security retirement complex, The Jackson Twilight Years Corrections Home.

Guilt-ridden over his father’s fate, Raymond vowed to dedicate himself to Eugene’s happiness while in custody. With the permission of the staff warden, Raymond sought to organize a national Geriatric Olympiad for Aging Convicts (The GOAC), a competition which would keep his father occupied. To date, Raymond had secured patents on several inventions of minimal consumer impact (the most successful was a hat with a fan on the bill, used by soup-eaters while consuming particularly hot soup) but he worked fastidiously in engineering equipment for the Geriatic Olympiad’s main event: The Wheelchair Joust. By 1980, his wheelchair/jousting lance combination was complete and he had commitments from Geriatric Correctional Facilities from 47 states to participate in the games. The competition was set to take place in June of 1981 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It didn’t take long for disaster to strike. Amid the marketing campaign, Raymond’s games immediately came under fire from the American Geriatrics Society following this sign promoting the Geriatric Wheelchair Jousting event:






Issues were further complicated when one of the female Rascal-Luge participants was found in violation of the stipulation that ‘all female participants MUST be menopausal’ after she was impregnated by an event-judge from Arizona. The youthful 58 year-old was immediately suspended but the poor publicity continued when Raymond’s own father Eugene suffered a stroke while vying for the Bronze medal in checkers. The games were officially cancelled upon Eugene DeLaughter’s death on June 19, 1981, just five days into the planned two-week long event.

With his wheelchair-lance left in the dust of the shambles of the failed games, Raymond retired to his foster family’s home for two years while he pensively considered his worth as an inventor. In 1984 after a lengthy and supportive conversation with foster family father Alfred Romer, Raymond began blueprints for his dream project that combined his most noted interests: a gas-powered fire-breathing hydraulic robotic dinosaur that fed on a variety of automobiles including cars, golf carts, planes and robotic puppies. The project was titled; Robosaurus. Unfortunately, United Mississippi Bank failed to forecast the project as a worthwhile investment opportunity and denied DeLaughter a loan.

Dejected but not defeated, DeLaughter then sought support from local investors to fund his project and found a buyer in Australian professional golfer Greg Norman. ‘The Shark,’ as Norman was called, loaned DeLaughter $275,000 to complete the project, which occurred triumphantly in 1989. Together, DeLaughter and Norman strategized the best venue to unveil the robot-dinosaur and Norman volunteered to promote the behemoth at an upcoming tour event which was guaranteed to draw a large captive audience. Ultimately, they chose the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, The Masters Tournament to bestow Robosaurus to the viewing public. The robotic reptile's premier showcase was scheduled to coincide with the tournament's end, during the trophy ceremony.

Again disaster struck. With Robosaurus waiting patiently in the parking lot, Norman teed off from the tournament’s 72nd hole needing a birdie to win the Major. Following a poor tee-shot, Robosaurus’s autopilot mechanism was accidentally triggered and the robot began feasting on Norman’s Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. DeLaughter was able to shut the machine down but not after significant damage to the vehicle’s chassis. Awestruck, confused and infuriated, Norman missed his par putt and lost the 1989 Masters.

Predictably, DeLaughter and Norman immediately had a falling out and the star-crossed relationship came to an end with Robosaurus being put up for sale. On February 12, 1990, the official auction date was set with the tagline ‘How much is that Robosaurus in the window?’ and was sold to Monster Robots Inc. The fire-breathing car-snacking fiend is now featured at Monster Truck Rallies and Motocross events nationwide and is a particular favorite of children.

Currently, Raymond DeLaughter lives in Arkansas and is an avid Republican. He and Greg Norman have since reconciled to launch a vintage wine series.