Wahoo McDaniel
Edward " Wahoo " McDaniel ( born June 19, 1938 in Bernice, Oklahoma, † 18 April 2002 in Houston ) was an American American football player and wrestler of Indian descent. McDaniel was successful in both careers.
- 3.1 American Football
- 3.2 Wrestling ( selection)
Origin
Edward McDaniel comes from the people of the Chickasaw. He was born 1939 in Bernice, Oklahoma, his father was a migrant workers settled in the oil fields of the Middle West, which after a few years in Midland ( Texas). The young " Wahoo ", who received this name after his father, who was known as " Big Wahoo ", there attended school and received his first American football practice. One of his coach as a child was the future President George HW Bush. Although McDaniel was a problematic teenager, he was admitted because of his foot balle skills at the University of Oklahoma. Despite an injury last year and the fact that he skipped classes and was occasionally caught after games while drinking, he became one of the best players of the University of team.
Career
American Football
In 1960, Wahoo McDaniel as a free agent for the American Football League team Houston Oilers. With this team he won as a linebacker with the shirt number 54 in the same year the championship of the AFL. From 1961 to 1963 he played for the Denver Broncos before he moved to the New York Jets for season 1964. In a game against the Denver Broncos during this time he managed 23 tackles in a single game. 1966 voted him the newly formed Miami Dolphins for their team. During the 1968 season the Dolphins to the San Diego Chargers gave him away after McDaniel had attacked in an altercation two police officers. McDaniel played no match for the Chargers, but changed completely in the wrestling business.
Wrestling
Since the salaries of American Football were low in the 60s, were many football professionals outside of the seasons as a professional wrestler. Wahoo McDaniel began already in his time with the Houston Oilers, for Dory Funk to get in the ring during his time with the Jets he stood by Vincent J. McMahon's WWWF under contract. 1966, while he played with the Miami Dolphins, he won with Jose Lothario his first wrestling title, the " NWA World Tag Team Championship (Florida version ) ", had to resign the title but because the Dolphins prevented him from wrestling.
After the end of his career as a football player he was until 1996 as a wrestler in various wrestling promotions active. McDaniel joined initially for National Wrestling Alliance promotions, and was one of the main competitors of Dory Funk sr. to the World Heavyweight Title this promotion. He then moved to American Wrestling Association, where he had a very public appeal feud with " Superstar" Billy Graham. His next stop was back in the NWA in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, where he was the single most important title of the promotion of Johnny Valentine.
After Valentine's career was cut short by a plane crash, put the promotion McDaniel an emerging talent called Ric Flair, as a feud against opponents. The feud between Flair and McDaniel, during which the title changed several times, drew large audiences masses and was the decisive boost for Flair's career. After the expiration of this feud in 1977 McDaniel was again to feud opponents of an aspiring young wrestler, this time of the son of Johnny Valentine, Greg Valentine. The feud began with an attack played Valentine, was broken in the ostensibly McDaniels leg. A little later allowed Valentine by McDaniels win the title. Again, the title changed every few months before McDaniels took him on April 2, 1978 for the last time. For that time, he quickly lost the title a week later to Ken Patera, a former Olympian in weightlifting. During the time that stood in the McDaniel at Mid-Atlantic under contract, he often joined with other promotions as a guest. He had title matches against NWA World Champion Harley Race as well as against the AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel and entered into Japan against the local stars such as Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki. In 1976 he was named the independent wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated the "Most Popular Wrestler of the Year".
In the 1980s, McDaniels career continued similar. He fought against all known wrestlers who were in the NWA at that time under contract, usually it was in his feuds always about the title of the NWA promotions. Among the feuds which were against " Rowdy " Roddy Piper, Abdullah the Butcher, Slaughter and Ric Flair again. With the onset of the television age in wrestling McDaniel was a regular fighter in pay- per-view events and other major events. A battle for the NWA National Heavyweight Champion belt between McDaniel and Tully Blanchard drew 11,000 spectators in the sold-out so that The Forum, the venue of a National Hockey League team.
From 1986 McDaniel joined mainly for the AWA and the Puerto Rican World Wrestling Council. In the AWA, he was always challenger to the title belt. In 1989, he finished his career temporarily for an alleged eye injury, but returned the following year and still took a few years in independent promotions on, often against Ivan Koloff, with whom he had already confessed in the 1970s in the ring.
In 1993 he joined up with other wrestlers of the past for the Pay -Per-View Slamboree of World Championship Wrestling, the following year he made a guest appearance at the World Wrestling Federation competitors. McDaniel honored along with Chief Jay Strongbow, another wrestling legend, in contrast to McDaniel only loud storyline, however, was Indian, the emerging talent Tatanka, a Lumbee Indians, as the common legitimate successor. McDaniel, who had been introduced into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1995, ended his own career in 1996 and settled in Houston. He died in 2002 from complications of his diabetes.
Title
American Football
- AFL Champion Houston Oilers in 1960 with the
Wrestling ( selection)
- NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship
- NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship ( 2x)
- NWA Florida Television Championship
- NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship Billy Jack Haynes
- NWA Florida Tag Team Championship World (Florida version) ( 2x) - with Jose Lothario
- NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship ( 2x)
- NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship - with Tommy Rich
- NWA National Heavyweight Championship
- NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship ( 5 times )
- NWA United States Heavyweight Championship ( 5 times )
- NWA World Tag Team Championship ( Mid Atlantic version) (4 times ) - with Mark Youngblood (2x), Rufus R. Jones ( 1x), and Paul Jones ( 1)
- WCW Hall of Fame - introduced in 1995