Tex McKenzie

I need to begin this week's column by saying how saddened I am with the passing of Tex McKenzie, one of the great ring giants. He was a friend to many and an enemy of none. He was a tower of strength that paved the roads of life with his own special trademark.

His epic battles in the ring with superstars like Pampero Firpo, The Sheik, Bull Curry, Ernie Ladd, and others left many arenas across the nation wishing they had more space to get fans in.

His great smile and ringside manners were never duplicated by any wrestler. His interviews were very convincing, as fans were taken to his side of the battle and supported him with a vengeance that filled buildings.

He teamed with many partners against some of the best the profession had to offer, among them the late Bobo Brazil. Bo once told me of a story about he and Tex sharing a night at the trailer Tex used as a home while on the road. It was parked near Toledo and was not large at all. Tex was 6 feet 9 inches tall, and Bobo was all of 6 feet 6 inches himself.

During the seven or so hours that they were confined to the cramped quarters, they continued to bump into each other as they passed in the hallway. When it came time to leave on the all day trek to Buffalo, Bobo finally stepped outside of the trailer and told Tex to get done what ever he had to do and then let him back into the small spaces the home away from home had. Bobo joked with Tex and said that the trailer had been his worst opponent in quite a while.

I had the pleasure of getting reacquainted with Tex after some 30 years at the Cauliflower Alley Club in February of 2000. I went up to him at the buffet table and stuck out my hand, and we began speaking to each other as if it were last week when we had seen each other. It is a wonderful feeling, getting reunited with someone that you knew so long ago.

It was later that evening that Tex bumped into Pampero Firpo. They looked at each other, and I thought that their feud of many years ago would be re-ignited with their meeting. Time has a way of healing many wounds and many bad feelings among people. It wasn't long before the two were shaking hands and speaking very well of each other.

It was during this year's Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion that the two met again, and I have those memories of Tex and Pampero talking on tape. Tex jokingly said to Pampero that he would have made a lot more money wrestling if he had cut his hair and shaved his beard off. Pampero laughed, and they shook hands and parted.

After his retirement from the ring, Tex was a builder of private homes in Washington State. He also loved the open sea and spent many days aboard his sailboat in the sounds and waters off Seattle. He was onboard his boat when he was stricken with an aortic abdominal aneurysm that eventually took his life in a hospital in Victoria, B.C.

The Cauliflower Alley Club has brought back together many faces and legends involved with the world of wrestling, and I am very grateful for that pleasure. If it had not been for the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas in 2000 and 2001, I would have not had the pleasure of seeing Tex and my old friends together in a building again. If you get the chance to see any of the old timers that paved the roads for the men and women of today's wrestling world, please give them a special thank you for their efforts. If they are not close, drop them a card or e-mail; I am sure that they will appreciate it very much.

As the ring lights dim once more by the passing of a wonderful gentleman, please pause and say a prayer for his soul. He was a great guy that will be very much missed.

Condolences may be sent to

Mrs. Betty McKenzie, 19723 Hwy 99, PMB E-126, Lynnwood, WA 98036

Rest in Peace, Hugh "Tex" McKenzie.

Below is something I would love to share with you from a post on www.caulifloweralleyclub.org

Please visit and support their site.

Hugh (Tex) McKenzie, one of the most popular professional wrestlers of all time, died Thursday (May 31) in a Victoria, B.C.-area hospital.

(Photo courtesy of www.wrestlingclassics.com)

Believed to be about 72 years of age, and having recently returned home to the Pacific Northwest from a late winter and spring trek to visit wife Betty's family in Georgia, McKenzie is said to have been stricken with an abdominal aortic aneurysm while on his boat in the waters off Vancouver Island.

An informal "remembrance" of Tex for close friends is scheduled for early Sunday afternoon (June 3) in the Friday Harbor, Wash., home of his son-in-law and daughter, Bob and Deborah Freeauf. CAC president Red Bastien and his fiancée, Carol McCutchin, longtime friends of the McKenzies, will fly in from their Dallas home to pay respects to the family.

From the early 1950s, when Jack Pfefer launched young McKenzie's career as "Goliath" in Texas, to the late '70s, when he retired from a career that took him all over North America and various Pacific Rim countries, Tex McKenzie was always beloved by the fans. Towering above most all wrestlers at six-foot-nine, the amiable McKenzie made significant impressions on ringsiders from Australia to Canada, from Los Angeles to Buffalo and from Amarillo to Detroit.

McKenzie held a variety of regional belts and was inducted into the Stampede (Calgary) Wrestling Hall of Fame and Northwest Wrestling Hall of Fame in later years. Upon receiving the latter award, at Dean and Ruth Silverstone's 1997 Northwest reunion, the typically self-effacing McKenzie allowed, with a wink, as how he was "never much of a worker, but I sure got over."

Silverstone, a good friend and former promoter, remembered "Tex as one of the good guys" -- a sentiment shared by fellow members of the Cauliflower Alley Club. In recent years, McKenzie has been a regular attendee at the CAC reunion weekends.

McKenzie will be remembered as a man with a seemingly perpetual smile and a kind word for nearly everyone he encountered.

Frank Dusek, at www.wrestlingclassics.com, relays the hilarious story of George Scott, about the night George and brother Sandy were in a six-man tag with McKenzie:

"As the referee was going through the instructions, Tex - never, by all accounts, the most graceful man who ever entered the ring -- was asking questions in his usual animated fashion.

"At one point he waved an arm in explanation and accidentally stuck his finger into his partner Sandy Scott's eye.

"That pretty much broke up the meeting in the center of the ring so the Scott brothers and Tex returned to the corner. Still holding his eye, Sandy went to the apron.

"Apparently, there was some confusion as to who would start the match so Tex and George Scott tried to go through the ropes at the same time. There wasn't enough room and Tex accidentally kicked George Scott in the face.

"The bell had not rung; no one had their ring jackets off, yet both of McKenzie's partners were hurt."

After his ring days, Tex designed and built a number of private homes in the northwestern area of the state of Washington. He and Betty maintained a residence in Edmonds, Wash.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers