Wrestling Career
Humphrey, who at the time was working on a farm where he was known for his uncommon strength, began his wrestling career in 1953 by wrestling a bear for 28 minutes. For about eight years, Humphrey wrestled a number of matches, some of them televised, often against Haystacks Calhoun who regularly weighed over 600 lb (270 kg) himself. Humphrey's most notable match was a sold-out main event at Madison Square Garden, promoted by Vince McMahon Sr., against Calhoun.
Humphrey's promoters had a 1951 Pontiac heavily modified to carry the wrestler around: seats were removed and extra shocks were installed to support Humphrey's enormous weight (and also as a gimmick). In addition, he was usually weighed before matches on meat scales at rendering facilities.
In 1960, Humphrey met future multiple NWA World Champion Harley Race, who was only 17 at the time. Race, who was just beginning his own career, was hired as Humphrey's driver and he also wrestled Humphrey on multiple occasions. Race earned $5 per day, plus room and board, for driving Humphrey, and $25 for each match he wrestled with Humphrey. According to Race, Humphrey was so large that normal showers could not accommodate him. As a result, Humphrey was obliged to lie naked on the ground while Race would apply liquid soap to his body, scrub him with a mop and then rinse him off with a garden hose. Race also stated that while Humphrey was a huge man who taught Race how to take bumps properly, he was also a very kind person and one of the few wrestlers of his era who took the time to sign an autograph for everyone and to socialize with fans.
Read more about this topic: Happy Humphrey
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“We laugh at him who steps out of his room at the very moment when the sun steps out, and says: “I will the sun to rise”; and at him who cannot stop the wheel, and says: “I will it to roll”; and at him who is taken down in a wrestling match, and says: “I lie here, but I will that I lie here!” And yet, all laughter aside, do we ever do anything other than one of these three things when we use the expression, “I will”?”
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“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)