Wahoo McDaniel

Edward "Wahoo" McDaniel
Data
Ring name	"Chief" Wahoo McDaniel
height	180 cm
Fighting weight	114 kg
birth	June 19, 1938 Bernice , Oklahoma
death	April 18, 2002 Houston , Texas
Trained by	Dory Funk Sr.
debut	1961
retirement	1995

Edward "Wahoo" McDaniel (born June 19, 1938 in Bernice , Oklahoma , † April 18, 2002 in Houston ) was an American American football player and wrestler of Indian descent. McDaniel has been successful in both careers.

origin

Edward McDaniel comes from the Chickasaw people . He was born in 1938 in Bernice, Oklahoma, his father was a migrant workers in the oil fields of the Midwest, which after several years in Midland ( Texas settled). The young "Wahoo", named after his father who was known as "Big Wahoo", attended school there and received his first American football training. One of his coaches as a child was later President George HW Bush . Despite being a problematic youth, McDaniel was accepted into the University of Oklahoma because of his football skills . Despite an injury last year and the fact that he skipped classes and was occasionally caught drinking after games, he became one of the top players on the university team.

Career

American football

In 1960 Wahoo McDaniel joined the American Football League team Houston Oilers as a free agent . With this team he won the AFL championship as a linebacker with the shirt number 54 in the same year. From 1961 to 1963 he played for the Denver Broncos before moving to the New York Jets for the 1964 season. During that time, he managed 23 tackles in a single game in a game against the Denver Broncos . In 1966, the newly formed Miami Dolphins chose him for their team. During the 1968 season, the Dolphins gave him to the San Diego Chargers after McDaniel attacked two police officers in an exchange. McDaniel didn't play a game for the Chargers, but switched entirely to the wrestling business.

Wrestling

With American football salaries being low in the 1960s, many professional footballers appeared as professional wrestlers out of season. Wahoo McDaniel began working for Dory Funk when he was with the Houston Oilers, and while with the Jets he was under contract with Vincent J. McMahon's WWWF . In 1966, while he was playing for the Miami Dolphins, he won his first wrestling title with Jose Lothario , the "NWA World Tag Team Championship (Florida version)", but had to resign because the Dolphins forbade him to wrestle.

After the end of his career as a footballer, he was active as a wrestler in various wrestling promotions until 1996. McDaniel initially competed for National Wrestling Alliance promotions and was one of Dory Funk sr's main competitors . for the World Heavyweight title of this promotion. He then moved to the American Wrestling Association , where he had a very high profile feud with "Superstar" Billy Graham . His next stop was again in the NWA at Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, where he took over the most important individual title of the promotion from Johnny Valentine .

After Valentine's career was ended by a plane crash, McDaniel's promotion set an up-and-coming talent named Ric Flair as an adversary. The feud between Flair and McDaniel, during which the title changed several times, drew large audiences and was the decisive boost for Flair's career. After this feud ran out in 1977, McDaniel was again the feud opponent of an aspiring young wrestler, this time the son of Johnny Valentine, Greg Valentine . The feud began with a mock assault by Valentine's allegedly breaking McDaniel's leg. A little later, Valentine von McDaniels was allowed to win his title. Again the title changed after a few months before McDaniels took it over on April 2, 1978 for the last time. Quickly for the time, he lost the title just a week later to Ken Patera , a former Olympic weightlifting athlete. While McDaniel was under contract at Mid-Atlantic, he was a frequent guest on other promotions. He had title matches against the NWA World Champion Harley Race as well as against the AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel and competed in Japan against the local stars like Giant Baba or Antonio Inoki . In 1976, the independent wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated named him “Most Popular Wrestler of the Year”.

In the 1980s, McDaniel's career continued similarly. He fought against all known wrestlers who were under contract in the NWA at that time, usually in his feuds always for the titles of the NWA promotions. Among the feuds were those against "rowdy" Roddy Piper , Abdullah the Butcher , Sgt. Slaughter and again Ric Flair. With the onset of the television age in wrestling, McDaniel was a regular fighter at pay-per-view and other major events. A battle for the NWA National Heavyweight Champion belt between McDaniel and Tully Blanchard drew 11,000 spectators to the sold out The Forum , the home of a National Hockey League team.

After 1986, McDaniel mainly competed for the AWA and the Puerto Rican World Wrestling Council . In the AWA, he was always a challenger for their title belt. In 1989 he temporarily ended his career because of an alleged eye injury, but returned the following year and continued to perform for a few years in independent doctorates, often against Ivan Koloff , with whom he had already been in the ring in the 1970s.

In 1993 he appeared with other wrestlers of the past at the Pay-Per-View Slamboree of the World Championship Wrestling , the following year he had a guest appearance at their competitor World Wrestling Federation . McDaniel honored together with Chief Jay Strongbow , another wrestling legend, who, unlike McDaniel, was only Indian according to the storyline , the rising talent Tatanka , a Lumbee Indian, as the common legitimate successor. McDaniel, who was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1995 , retired from his own career in 1996 and settled in Houston. He died in 2002 of complications from his diabetes .

title

American football

• AFL Champion with the Houston Oilers in 1960

Wrestling (selection)

• • NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship
  • NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship (2 ×)
  • NWA Florida Television Championship
  • NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship with Billy Jack Haynes
  • NWA Florida World Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (2 ×) - with Jose Lothario
  • NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship (2 ×)
  • NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship - with Tommy Rich
  • NWA National Heavyweight Championship
  • NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (5 ×)
  • NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (5 ×)
  • NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid Atlantic version) (4 ×) - with Mark Youngblood (2 ×), Rufus R. Jones (1 ×), and Paul Jones (1)

• WCW Hall of Fame - introduced in 1995

Web links

• Football career data
• Collection of materials on the wrestling career