Nazem Amine

Nazem Amine was born in eastern Lebanon and grew up working in his father’s butcher shop in Beirut. He began wrestling at a local gym in the early 1950s and eventually made the 1950 Lebanese Olympic team that competed at Roma.

In 1967, when the Israeli-Arab War started, Amine moved his family to Dearborn, Michigan in the United States, where he started his own butcher shop. He did that for many years but then started a second part-time job as a driver for Spirit Airlines, which eventually became his full-time job. Amine worked until he was 88-years-old, raising nine children with his wife, the former Nadia Laham.

Two of his sons, Mike and Sam, became scholarship wrestlers at the University of Michigan, with Mike achieving All-American status and finishing second at the NCAA Meet. A daughter, Hoda Amine, became a domestic violence intervention counselor in Dearborn. A grandson, Malik Amine, was a Michigan high school wrestling champion, and also earned a scholarship to wrestle at Michigan.