Earl McCready

He was born on the 5th or 15th of June 1905 in Lansdowne, Ontario, and Earl died of a heart attack on the 9th of December 1983 in Seattle, Washington, United States at the age of 78 years old, 6 months and 4 days. Earl McCready grew up on a farm in open rural area of Saskatchewan in the north regions with Regina as its capital city, Western Canada. He was nicknamed 'The Moose' for his wrestling career and his billed height was 5 foot 11 inches or 1.8 metres

In 1928 he finished sixth in the Olympic Freestyle Heavyweight Tournament. McCready still owns the record fastest fall in an NCAA final, pinning Ralph Freese of the University of Kansas in just nineteen seconds at the very first NCAA wrestling championship in 1928.

Earl McCready also competed in the U.S. for Oklahoma State University in folkstyle, and as a freestyle sport wrestler who competed for Canada in the 1928 Summer Olympics

At the 1930 Empire Games he won the gold medal in the heavyweight class.

McCready attracted the attention of Oklahoma State wrestling coaches when he defeated their heavyweight at a 1926 tournament in Canada. McCready came to the Stillwater, Oklahoma college, where he played football and wrestled. In three years of wrestling varsity, the 5'11", 238-pound McCready was 25-0, with all but three of his victories by pin.

As an Oklahoma State Cowboy, McCready won three NCAA heavyweight titles (1928-1930), becoming the first three-time NCAA champion at any weight. He was also the first foreign-born NCAA wrestling champ. He is one of only two collegiate wrestlers with three NCAA titles to win all three of his finals matches by pin (the other being Dan Hodge of the University of Oklahoma, 177-pound champ, 1955-1957). McCready still owns the record fastest fall in an NCAA final, pinning Ralph Freese of the University of Kansas in just nineteen seconds at the very first NCAA wrestling championship in 1928.

Following McCready's graduation from Oklahoma A&M with a degree in physical education, Earl turned into a pro wrestler in late 1930 to pursuing a professional wrestling career. McCready finished sixth in the Olympic Freestyle Heavyweight Tournament and he won a Gold Medal in Freestyle as a heavyweight at the first British Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1933, also in the same year as well, roughly two years after the start of his career, McCready had defeated the ten year reigning British Empire champion Jack Taylor in a wrestling match McCready worked for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling during the 50s.[1]

In the early 1950's Earl became a big star in Stu Hart's fledgling Stampede Wrestling promotion then in 1958 McCready fought his last wrestling match at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and he had retired from wrestling after maintaining a 28-year career in the sport

• Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame
  • Class of 2000[2]
• Dominion Wrestling Union
  • NWA British Empire/Commonwealth Championship (New Zealand version) (2 times)[3]
• George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
  • Class of 2005
• National Wrestling Alliance
  • NWA British Empire Heavyweight Championship (Toronto version) (3 times, first)[4]
  • NWA Pacific Coast Heavyweight Championship (San Francisco version) (1 time)[5]
• Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
  • Class of 2016, "Pioneer" category[6]
• Stampede Wrestling
  • Alberta Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ski Hi Lee[7]
  • Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame (Class of 1995)[8][9]
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
• Other titles:
  • Canadian Heavyweight Championship (2 times)[10]

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Earl McCready". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2012-10-24.