10 Things To Know About Happy Humphrey
While these days die-hard fans talk about who’s the best athlete or who can most convincingly pretend to fight, pro wrestling’s all about the “special attraction,” dating all the way back to the sport’s origins in the carnival. From WWE legend Andre the Giant to The Great Khali, there’s no shortage of performers whose main draw is that they’re ridiculously huge. And, in the history of wrestling, there’s no bigger wrestler than Happy Humphrey.
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Touted as “the world’s largest wrestler,” Humphrey’s heyday was in the 1950s and 1960s, so modern fans likely have no idea who he is. However, he’s one of those forgotten stars worth knowing, so let’s go over what fans should know about Happy Humphrey, including his surprising relationship with a young Harley Race.
10 Debuted Against A Bear
Born William Joseph Cobb in Gerogia in 1926, Happy Humprey worked on a farm and was known to be surprisingly strong by the time he made his wrestling debut. Curiously, his first foray into wrestling was against a bear in a tussle that lasted 28 minutes in 1953. Fighting animals wasn’t uncommon — Stu Hart wrestled the most famous pro wrestling bear, Terrible Ted — but it seems uncommon that one makes their debut against a potentially killer beast. Before long, however, Humphrey would be fighting humans.
9 Clashed With Haystacks Calhoun
By the time Happy Humphrey became a part of the pro wrestling world, men of his stature were a popular attraction in the squared circle. Along with Humphrey, one of the big super heavyweight stars of the day was 601-pound Haystacks Calhoun, who’d go on to influence the UK wrestling legend Giant Haystacks and capture the WWE Tag Team Championship in the early 1970s. Remembering his opponent, Calhoun remarked that Humphrey was surprisingly easy to maneuver in the ring, and that slamming him was actually easier than a wrestler of average size.
8 Driven Around By Harley Race
By 1960, Happy Humphrey was about seven years into his in-ring career, and gained an assistant of sorts in a 17-year-old Harley Race. The future legend not only drove the star around, but was also tasked with bathing Humphrey with a mop and a garden hose, as he could not fit in the average shower.
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In addition to his driving and cleaning duties, Harley Race also functioned as Humphrey’s opponent in matches, with the future eight-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion crediting Happy Humphrey for teaching him how to best bump for opponents.
7 Wrestled For WWE
As two “special attraction” wrestlers, Happy Humphrey and Haystacks Calhoun clashed on multiple occasions, the biggest of which being a main event bout in a sold-out Madison Square Garden. This match was held for Vince McMahon Sr.’s Capitol Wrestling Corporation, which would later become World Wrestling Entertainment, and the ring was reportedly reinforced to ensure the safety of the giant men. Humphrey actually wrestled several matches for the future WWE in 1959, including several handicap matches.
6 Weighed-In At Meat Factories
As one might imagine from the above, Happy Humphrey’s exceptional weight was part of his draw as a wrestler. Over the course of his in-ring career, Humphrey’s weight fluctuated, reportedly ranging from 700 pounds to over 900 pounds at one point. Weigh-ins were crucial to the gimmick, so Humphrey would often stop at meat factories on the road, which were equipped with scales that were able to accommodate both his size and his weight.
5 Experienced Physical Difficulties
As one might imagine, such a huge man experienced myriad problems just existing in the day-to-day. On a physical level, Humphrey — like Andre the Giant years later — was too large for many of the accommodations of the mid-20th century, and there are stories of the star getting stuck in telephone booths and movie theater seats, requiring professionals to come in to extract him. Socially, his size elicited a lot of stares from strangers, while he would find himself denied service when trying to enter restaurants.
4 Spent Two Years In An Obesity Study
Ultimately, heart problems would cause Happy Humphrey to retire in 1962, after which his weight would increase to further detriment, with the former star getting fatigued after walking about 10 steps. Eventually, Humphrey agreed to take part in an obesity study to deal with his weight, spending nearly two years inside a clinic in Georgia. During this period, doctors had him on a strict diet with no exercise so they could study what kind of weight loss Humphrey experienced during three different diets: one heavy in protein, one heavy in fat, and one heavy in carbohydrates.
3 Record Weight Loss
When the study came to an end, Happy Humphrey departed the clinic a much, much lighter man at 232 pounds, having lost 570 pounds in the process. Humphrey’s weight loss was reported in TIME magazine, with the former wrestler quoted as saying that will power was just as much of a factor as the diet himself.
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But TIME wasn’t the only institution that made note of Humphrey’s impressive weight loss — the Guiness Book of World Records also spotlighted Happy Humphrey for losing so much weight in such a short time.
2 Gained The Weight Back
However, the obesity study wasn’t the first time that Happy Humphrey attempted to deal with his weight problems. During his in-ring career, Humphrey actually underwent an operation to surgically remove 100 pounds of fat, but he ended up gaining it back. The same ended up happening in the years following his record weight loss, with Humphrey reportedly weighing about 600 pounds by the time he died of a heart attack in 1989 at the age of 62.
1 Was In The Movie That Inspired The Dukes of Hazzard
To conclude on a positive note, Happy Humphrey has a contribution to pop culture that isn’t necessarily about his weight. The year 1975 brought Humprey’s only known acting role in the film Moonrunners. Starring James Mitchum — the son of Robert Mitchum — Moonrunners follows a pair of cousins who run moonshine, with Humphrey playing a mobster named Tiny. Four years later, writer/director Gy Waldron would bring his concept to television as The Dukes of Hazzard, with country music singer Waylon Jennings narrating both projects.
