SHIRLEY CRABTREEKnown as ‘Big Daddy’ in the ring, Shirley Crabtree was a professional English wrestler who became a firm TV favourite during the 1970s. His death on 2 December, 1997, was a huge loss to the game.
With his trademark top-hat, Union Flag jacket and signature ‘splash’ move, he could count among his legion of fans Queen Elizabeth II and even former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
His chest measured a record-breaking 62 inches, earning him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Among his many opponents, he fought legendary wrestlers Giant Haystacks and Kendo Nagasaki.
He proved instrumental in kick-starting the professional career of former judo great Christopher Adams and, besides wrestling, raised a great deal of money for children’s charities.
Shirley Crabtree Junior was born in Halifax, England, on 14 November, 1930. He began his career as a rugby player in the league club Bradford Northern, but, never made an appearance in the first team.
After brief stints as a coal miner and with the British Army’s Coldstream Guards, he eventually decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and, in 1952, became a professional wrestler under the guidance of trainer Georg Hackenschmidt.
Billed as ‘The Blonde Adonis’, ‘Mr Universe’ and the ‘Battling Guardsman’, a successful career in the ring began for Mr Crabtree and, during the 1950s and 60s, he won two titles in the British Wrestling Federation. However, he later quit and retired from the sport for 15 years.
His brother, Max Crabtree, was one of the most powerful wrestling promoters in British history. He was quick to recognise the rising popularity of wrestling on television and, in 1976, brought Mr Crabtree back into the ring under the persona ‘Big Daddy’.
Some of his most famous attacks involved the so-called ‘Big Daddy splash’ move which saw him utilising his considerable bulk by jumping vertically down onto the body of a fallen opponent.
One of his career highlights was his showdown with Canadian wrestlerMighty John Quinn at Wembley Arena, where he knocked out Mr Quinn infront of an enthralled audience of more than 10,000 people.
He retired from wrestling in the late 1980s and spent much of his later life in his hometown of Halifax, where he died of a stroke in the local hospital at the age of 67.
With this, the golden era of wrestling came to an end but Mr Crabtree has never been forgotten.
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