Earl McCready

Wrestler Earl McCready was born on June 15, 1908 in Lansdowne, Ontario, Canada. McCready grew up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan. Earl reportedly learned all about wrestling by purchasing a book called "How to Handle Big Men with Ease" and launched his career as an amateur wrestler in 1926 by participating in a Canadian national freestyle tournament in New Westminster, British Columbia. McCready's impressive showing at this event led to him being offered an athletic scholarship to attend Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical University. While at Oklahoma A&M Earl became the first-ever winner of three straight NCAA wrestling championships from 1928 to 1930. Moreover, McCready was the Canadian flag bearer at the Olympic games in Amsterdam in 1928 -- he finished sixth in the Olympic Freestyle Heavyweight Tournament -- and won a Gold Medal in Freestyle as a heavyweight at the first British Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1930. Following graduation from Oklahoma A&M with a degree in physical education, Earl turned pro wrestler in late 1930. In 1933 McCready defeated ten year reigning British Empire champion Jack Taylor in a wrestling match. In the wake of becoming the new British Empire heavyweight champion, Earl went on to engage in wrestling matches in England, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. McCready fought and beat Rube Wright in the first televised wrestling match in Britain in 1938. In the early 1950's Earl became a big star in Stu Hart's fledgling Stampede Wrestling promotion. In 1958 McCready fought his last wrestling match at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Earl retired from wrestling after maintaining a 28-year career in the sport and moved to Edmonds, Washington, where he ran a massage parlor. Alas, McCready was plagued with various health problems as he got older: He not only suffered with diabetes for the last forty years of his life, but lost his left leg to osteomyelitis in 1964 and had to have his right leg amputated after he broke it while getting off a bus. He was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame on September 4, 1966 and the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on March 31, 1973. Earl died of a heart attack on December 9, 1983 in Seattle, Washington.