Shirley Crabtree - Career

Career

Crabtree, a former Rugby League player for league club Bradford Northern who never made an appearance for the first teams due to his fiery temper often forcing him off the pitch early, would have stints as a coal miner and with the British Army's Coldstream Guards before following in his father, Shirley Crabtree, Sr.'s footsteps and becoming a professional wrestler in 1952.

Crabtree, Jr. became a big hit in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a blue-eye noted for his strength and physique and billed as "Blond Adonis" Shirley Crabtree. He won the European Heavyweight Championship in Joint Promotions and a disputed branch of the British Heavyweight title in the independent British Wrestling Federation before he quit in 1966 following a (non-kayfabe) campaign of harassment by aggrieved former champion Bert Assirati and retired for roughly six years.

In 1972, Crabtree returned to Joint Promotions as a heel with a gimmick of The Battling Guardsman based on his former service with the Coldstreams. During the intervening period, his formerly muscular physique had degenerated into fat. It was during this period that he made his first appearances on World of Sport on ITV. Not long afterwards, Shirley's brother, Max, was appointed as Northern area booker with Joint Promotions and began to transform Crabtree into the persona for which he would be best remembered.

Based originally on the character of the same name played by actor Burl Ives in the 1958 screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Big Daddy was first given life by Crabtree in late 1974, initially still as a heel. The character first gained attention in mid 1975 when he formed a heel tag team with TV newcomer Giant Haystacks and together they became notorious for crushing blue eye opponents. However, during this period, Daddy began to be cheered for the first time since his comeback when he entered into a feud with legendary masked heel Kendo Nagasaki, especially when he unmasked Nagasaki during a televised contest from Solihull in December 1975 (although the unmasked Nagasaki quickly won the bout moments later).

By the middle of 1977, Daddy had completed his transformation into a blue eye, a change cemented by the breakdown of his tag team with Haystacks and a subsequent feud between the two which would last until the early 1990s. A firm fan favorite particularly amongst children, Big Daddy came to the ring in either a sequinned cape or else a Union Flag jacket and top hat to a theme tune in the form of "We Shall Not Be Moved" by The Seekers. In 1980, Crabtree recorded his own version of the song on EMI Records backed by rock guitarist Legendary Lonnie and this would be his ring entry music for the remainder of his career.

In addition to his feud with Haystacks, Daddy also feuded with Canadian wrestler 'Mighty' John Quinn. He would headline Wembley Arena with singles matches against Quinn in 1979 and Haystacks in 1981. Later in the 1980s he would feud with Dave 'Fit' Finlay, Drew McDonald and numerous other heels. As Big Daddy, Crabtree would often team with many rising stars within the country including future international stars Sammy Lee, Dynamite Kid, Young David, Roy Regal and Chris Adams.

Though Big Daddy's size and image as an unstoppable force precluded many more novel wrestling moves; making him a frequent user of many generic wrestling throws, body slams, etc. he would be met by cheers whenever he wrestled. Big Daddy's more famous attacks would involve his large abdomen to great effect often using bodychecks (thrusting his pelvis forward to slam his belly into an oncoming opponent) before finishing off opponents with his Big Splash in which he jumped vertically down onto the body of a fallen opponent. These moves in Daddy's arsenal were often met with chants of "Easy, Easy" from the crowd.

In 1982 ITV planned to build a children's TV programme around Big Daddy as a replacement for the popular Tiswas. A pilot for "Big Daddy's Saturday Show" was shot and a series announced but Crabtree pulled out at the last moment, leaving the hastily-renamed "The Saturday Show" presented by Isla St Clair and Tommy Boyd.

In August 1987, Big Daddy's career was blighted by tragedy after a turn of events during the final moments of a tag team match pitting himself and nephew Steve Crabtree (billed as "Greg Valentine") against King Kong Kirk and King Kendo. After Big Daddy had delivered his splash and scored the winning pinfall, rather than selling the impact of the finishing move, Kirk turned an unhealthy colour and was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Despite the fact that the inquest into Kirk's death found that he had a serious heart condition and cleared Crabtree of any responsibility, Crabtree was devastated.

He continued to make regular appearances into the early 90s, still performing the splash and other moves from his repertoire and generally only appeared in tag-team matches where his sole involvement would be standing firm while opponents attempted to body-charge him and simply bounced off. Crabtree eventually retired from wrestling altogether to spend the remainder of his days in his hometown of Halifax.

Then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was said to be a fan of Big Daddy.

Crabtree died of a stroke in December 1997 in Halifax General Hospital. He was survived by his second wife of 31 years, Eunice and six children.