“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, “America’s tough guy,” is fighting cancer for the third time.
The WWE Hall of Famer, who battled prostate cancer late last year, announced last month that his cancer had returned and that eight weeks of radiotherapy had been scheduled to deal with his latest health setback.
The 68-year-old Duggan said that while “it’s still a very terrifying time for me and my family,” doctors were optimistic that they caught the cancer early and about the potential results of the treatments.
Duggan was scheduled to begin his treatments last week.
“Hang on, we’re going to go through this together,” he said in a video message on social media. “Hopefully it’ll help somebody out there, because we’re going to go through this together.”
Hacksaw Jim Duggan will undergo radiation treatment five days a week over the course of eight weeks. Provided
Duggan said he planned on making most of his scheduled weekend shows over the next couple of months, but he would have to postpone or cancel some events.
While he isn’t out of the woods, Duggan remains upbeat. “He is saying that he is not going to let it (cancer) dictate his life,” said a friend. “He is gonna keep on pushing on.”
Duggan, who lives in the Kershaw County town of Lugoff, S.C., has been documenting his recent travels around the country with his wife Debra, and said the couple will continue to do so.
“The doctors also said to go ahead and live life, which we’re gonna do,” said Duggan.
Much like his “tough guy” ring image, overcoming obstacles isn’t new to the New York native.
Duggan was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer in 1998 while working for the now defunct World Championship Wrestling. Within a week of the diagnosis, he was on the operating table. Forcing him to temporarily put his career on hold, he returned to WCW the following year with a clean bill of health.
“I had two young girls, I was devastated,” Duggan at the time told Canada’s CBC News. “I spent the time before my surgery in their room crying and praying. I just wanted to survive the ordeal. I didn’t care about wrestling.”
“I'm a cancer survivor,” Duggan told the Des Moines (Iowa) Register in a 2020 interview. “Almost 20 years ago I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, but with the grace of God and the doctors, they saved my life. Just this past year I had a heart issue, but they got that back under control. I take my heart medication and everything’s good. I joke when I say, ‘I’m the last of the old-timers with all my original body parts.’ Everybody else has had a new knee or a new hip. Hacksaw comes in the original package.”
Hacksaw Jim Duggan with wife Debra. Provided
Duggan would go on to battle prostate cancer last year, and had his prostate removed in October. Duggan said he was declared cancer-free in December.
All-American hero
Duggan, who broke into wrestling in 1979, was one of the most feared and respected men in the business working for Cowboy Bill Watts’ Mid South and UWF promotions during the early and mid-’80s.
Rising to fame in the Cold War–era 1980s, Duggan immediately put himself at odds with anti-American heels, defending the country’s honor in legendary feuds with the likes of The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff and even Andre The Giant.
That popularity followed him to WWE (then WWF) where he made history by becoming the first wrestler to win the inaugural Royal Rumble event in 1988. Entering at No. 13, Duggan outlasted 19 other stars, including Bret Hart and The Ultimate Warrior, and eliminated One Man Gang to win the match.
One of WWE’s top babyfaces during the promotion’s 1980’s boom, the flag-waving, two-by-four-carrying patriot became a fan favorite who led the crowd in “U-S-A!” chants.
Duggan’s career took an unfortunate turn, however, when he and passenger The Iron Sheik were pulled over during a routine stop while traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike. Duggan had marijuana in the car, and Sheik – allegedly unbeknownst to Duggan – had three grams of cocaine. Both were subsequently arrested and charged.
What made matters even worse was that Duggan, a beloved babyface, and Sheik, a hated heel, were involved in a high-profile program at the time. Both men were fired, but Duggan was later rehired.
Duggan would describe the incident as a “huge shot to my career.” Even though he would go on to win the 1988 Royal Rumble match, Duggan’s big push never happened and he never regained the momentum he had before the arrest.
While he indulged, says Duggan, he never became addicted to alcohol or drugs.
“We have a high drug and alcoholism rate, a high divorce rate and a high death rate. It’s a tough racket,” he said of the wrestling business.
Duggan would leave WWE in 1994 and join WCW where he defeated “Stunning” Steve Austin to win the U.S. heavyweight title at the Fall Brawl pay-per-view on his first night in the company. The future “Stone Cold,” who had previously been awarded the belt after Ricky Steamboat was forced to forfeit the title due to a career-ending injury, dropped the match to Duggan in half a minute. Austin, less than pleased with the company, would get a pink slip from WCW boss Eric Bischoff just a few months later in a move that would change the wrestling industry forever.
Duggan, meanwhile, would go on to win several titles working with the Atlanta-based promotion, a feat he was never able to achieve in WWE.
He made a brief comeback in WWE several years later, and would be signed for a final run in the latter half of the 2000s. Duggan set a record for most years between Royal Rumble appearances when he appeared in the 2009 Royal Rumble, entering at No. 29 and eliminated by Big Show.
Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s big block of wood became an iconic part of his persona. Provided/WWE Photo
Duggan, who worked in 22 countries and every state in the Union, was inducted into the company’s Hall of Fame in 2011 and signed to a Legends contract.
Standout athlete
Duggan grew up in Glens Falls, N.Y., where he became a star athlete in high school and where his father was the city’s chief of police.
Duggan was a letterman in football, track, wrestling and basketball, and won the New York State High School wrestling championship in the unlimited weight class division.
Duggan was recruited by Ohio State University, but instead choose to play football at Southern Methodist University, where he played both ways and was selected as team captain.
He was signed by the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League after college, but he was cut after being plagued by knee injuries. A brief stint in the Canadian Football League convinced Duggan that another line of work might prove more rewarding.
Football’s loss was wrestling’s gain, as Duggan broke into the mat ranks in 1979, thanks in large part to Texas legend Fritz Von Erich (Jack Adkisson). The two had met while Duggan was on a recruiting trip to SMU, and Von Erich had suggested a possible wrestling career to Duggan, who would later take Von Erich up on his offer.
It would take nearly three years and working in various territories under the aliases of “Big” Jim Duggan, “Wildman” Duggan and The Masked Convict before Duggan would find his footing. Urged by Bruiser Brody to use the “Hacksaw” nickname, along with a suggestion to carry a functional gimmick to the ring (Duggan selected a piece of lumber backstage), a future hall of famer and one of wrestling’s most recognizable figures was born.
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Did you know …
Lady Frost. Provided
Pittsburgh native Brittany Rae Steding, better known to fans as Lady Frost, has been gracing the ring for four years. She’s worked for assorted promotions (WWE, AEW and presently with Impact Wrestling), but what many may not be aware of about Lady Frost relates to her wrestling heritage. She is the granddaughter of the late star Tony Marino (Sillipani), who worked territories in the Northeast, Detroit, Buffalo, etc., under the Marino moniker, in the Steel City as Battman, and lastly in Atlanta as Devil Blue. Steding is part of the business in another way, too, as the spouse of wrestler Victor Benjamin.
— Kenneth Mihalik, a retired educator living in Charleston, can be reached on Twitter @HoldBackTheNite
Were you there?
Ricky Steamboat. Provided
Traditionally, the wrestling promotion based in Toronto, one of Canada’s busiest and most populated cities, often invited top stars from the larger organizations – NWA, WWWF and AWA – to perform on their shows. In turn, certain key Canadian names had periodic runs with those companies, particularly in the territory occupied chiefly by Jim Crockett Promotions. And that quid pro quo was evident in this week’s feature, derived from early 1979 at the Maple Leaf Gardens.
The crowd was informed that the scheduled bout between Angelo Mosca and Lord Alfred Hayes would not take place due to a separated shoulder incurred by Mosca. Hayes was accorded a forfeited win. Veteran Steve Bolus used a rolling cradle to pin Nick DeCarlo in 8:34. Another grizzled veteran (literally), John Yachetti, who wrestled for well over a decade as The Beast, went to a 15-minute draw with Joe Marcus. Popular Dewey Robertson, who later found considerable fame in the U.S. as The Missing Link, paired with Johnny Weaver to down the duo of Swede Hanson and Len Denton (working prior to his “Grappler” persona), thanks to Weaver applying his famed sleeper hold on Denton in nearly 10 minutes of action.
Canadian champion Dino Bravo toppled the “Nature Boy,” Ric Flair, on his way to extraordinary world championship prominence, by pinfall after 19 minutes. Meanwhile, the bid by another Toronto favorite, Tiger Jeet Singh, to snare the AWA world title from Nick Bockwinkel failed when Singh threw the wily Bockwinkel over the top rope, resulting in an automatic disqualification victory for the AWA kingpin in just over 20 minutes.
The final matchup pitted the NWA’s U.S. champion Ricky Steamboat versus a major contender in Greg “The Hammer” Valentine. This, too, ended in a disqualification win, with Steamboat getting the nod in 19:31 because of interference on Valentine’s behalf by his cohort Flair – Steamboat’s long-standing rival.
— Kenneth Mihalik, a retired educator living in Charleston, can be reached on Twitter @HoldBackTheNite
Photo of the Week
Johnny Valentine grabs the arm of Paul Jones during a ‘70s grudge match in Florida. Provided/plmathfoto@hotmail.com
