Harley Race

Harley Race was an American professional wrestler, promoter and trainer, born in Quitman, Missouri, in 1943, who died in 2019. He overcame polio as a child and trained as a teenager under the former world champions Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko, then worked for the promoter Gust Karras and drove the 800 pound wrestler Happy Humphrey. After a car accident that nearly cost him a leg, he returned in 1964 and formed an American Wrestling Association tag team with Larry Hennig. He wrestled in the National Wrestling Alliance, the American Wrestling Association, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling, was the first NWA United States Heavyweight Champion and won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship eight times. He is one of six men inducted into the WWE, NWA, WCW, Professional Wrestling and Wrestling Observer Newsletter halls of fame.