System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Stu Hart, Wrestler/Promoter
May 03, 1915 - October 16, 2003
Stu Hart, patriarch of Canada's famous wrestling family and the founder of Stampede Wrestling, died Thursday, October 16, 2003 at age 88. Hart had been admitted to Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary, on Oct. 3 for an elbow infection and then developed pneumonia. He also suffered from ailments associated with diabetes and arthritis.
A talented athlete who played football for the Edmonton Eskimos and a champion wrestler in his own right, Hart became famous for his moves outside the ring. Born on May 3, 1915, in Calgary, Alberta, Hart was raised in a foster home and was taken into a band of shooters, a group of pros who experimented their moves on him. After breaking into the business under the tutelage of the great Toots Mondt, Hart began his career in early 1940's, working the Canadian independent circuits. As a young man wrestling at New York's Yankee Stadium, Hart rubbed shoulders with legends like Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. In later years, he was able to take advantage of his acquaintances. He cajoled Muhammad Ali, Jack Demspey, Joe Lewis and Max Baer to be guest referees for Stampede Wrestling cards. It didn't take the competitive young Hart long to figure out that to make real money in wrestling, you had to be a promoter. In 1948, when he started Big Time Wrestling, which became Wildcat Wrestling, and eventually, Stampede Wrestling,
Hart employed the same work ethic to promoting as he did to his wrestling. The NWA Stampede promotion reflected the rugged terrain it covered (other Stampede cities included Vancouver and Edmonton) and NWA Stampede Wrestling quickly gained a reputation for tough crowds, an even tougher traveling/working schedule, and a high level of competition. It also garnered a well-deserved reputation among wrestlers as a place hone your skills, and for Junior Heavyweights, to catch a break and be used in the top storylines and feuds. The crowds may not have been as big, and the paydays not as large as in they were in many U.S. promotions...but if you were looking to break into the sport, or were a veteran looking to advance your career Stampede Wrestling was one of the best places to do it.
Hart sold his Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling promotion to Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation in 1984 after a 5-year business partnership, and Stampede was absorbed by the WWF. By 1989, the promotion had closed its doors for good. It marked the end of Calgary's longtime regional promotion, as the WWF took over the territory once they purchased Stampede.
Seven of Hart's eight sons became pro wrestlers (most notably, Bret and Owen) and his four daughters married wrestlers. Along the way, Stu became respected around the world as a trainer of young wrestling talent. In addition to training his sons for a career in the ring, Stu Hart helped launch the careers, as well as help hone the skills, of dozens of other wrestling superstars. Top performers like Gene Kiniski, Andre the Giant, Rick Martel, The British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith), The Junk Yard Dog, Jim Neidhart, Dick "The Bulldog" Brower, The Wild Samoans, Bad News Brown, "Lethal" Larry Cameron, Brian Pillman, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho and dozens more have all advanced (and in many cases, started) their careers by enhancing their skills in Hart's fabled "Dungeon", a wrestling ring in the dark basement of the family's twin-gabled, red brick Calgary home.
Hart's later years were filled with pain and tragedy. Son Dean died of kidney failure in 1990. Hart's 13-year-old grandson Matthew Annis died of flesh-eating disease in 1996, and youngest son Owen (Blue Blazer) Hart plunged to his death on pay-per-view TV when a stunt went horribly wrong in 1999. A former son-in-law, Davey Boy (British Bulldog) Smith, died in May 2002 of heart failure. Family members have said the grappling legend struggled without his lifemate, Helen, who died in 2001 after 53 years of marriage.
He was a member of Canada's Wrestling Hall of Fame and became a member of the Order of Canada in 2001.
