Athletes - Bobo Brazil

Home > Listing Index > Athletes > Bobo Brazil

	Athletes - Bobo Brazil

Houston Harris (July 10, 1924 in Little Rock, Arkansas — January 20, 1998), known professionally as Bobo Brazil, was an African-American professional wrestler who was known for breaking down barriers of racial segregation in professional wrestling. He was a favorite of not only African-American wrestling fans, but of fans of any race, creed or color. Bobo Brazil is regarded as the first successful African-American professional wrestler, he is often referred to as "the Jackie Robinson of professional wrestling."

Career

Originally, Houston was to be known as "Boo-Boo Brazil", but a local promoter misprinted his first name as "Bobo" in a print advertisement. The name "Bobo Brazil" stuck. In the early years of Brazil's career, African-American wrestling fans were forced to sit in different sections from white fans at some arenas, and Brazil was denied service at certain hotels and restaurants. To his credit, Brazil handled these issues in a dignified manner.

In those early days, some wrestling promoters would only match Brazil against fellow African-American wrestlers. Fans clamored to see Brazil face opponents of any type, and soon enough, promoters responded in kind. In his wrestling career, Brazil had many classic matches with competitors such as Killer Kowalski, Dick the Bruiser, Johnny Valentine, and most famously, The Sheik, who feuded with Bobo over the course of several decades. These and other famous rivals would all fall victim to Brazil's finishing maneuver of choice, the Coco Butt. Brazil also once wrestled André the Giant to a draw, and challenged Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF Championship in a rare battle of two top babyface competitors. On October 18th 1962 Bobo Brazil made history by becoming the first African Amercian to win the NWA world heavyweight title by defeating "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. Although Bobo Brazil refused the title (because of an "injury" that Rogers had claimed to have), however Bobo was awarded the title the next day after Doctors had found nothing wrong with Rogers. Bobo Brazil served as a mentor to legendary wrestler "Soulman Rocky Johnson." Brazil's manager was James Dudley, the first African-American to be in charge of a major arena in the United States. Dudley would run to the ring waving a towel, as Brazil followed behind.

Bobo Brazil was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1994. He passed away on January 20, 1998 at age 74.

Profile

Height: 6 ft 6 in
Weight: 270 lb
Birthday: July 10, 1924
Hometown: Benton Harbor, Michigan
Date of death: January 20, 1998
Trained by: Joe Savoldi
Professional debut: 1951
Previos identities: Boo-Boo Brazil
Finishing and signature moves: Coco Butt

Trivia

Brazil has two sons that wrestled, Bobo Brazil, Jr. and Andy Chene. He also had a brother who wrestled as "Hank James" in the Detroit area.
Brazil was the first African American United States Champion.
Brazil was the first African American NWA world heavyweight champion
Brazil was the first African American man to wrestle in the state of Florida.

Championships and accomplishments

National Wrestling Alliance
*1-Time NWA World Heavyweight Champion
*1-Time NWA America's Heavyweight Champion
*1-Time NWA "Beat the Champ" Television Champion
*9-Time NWA Detroit United States Heavyweight Champion
*7-Time NWA Detroit World Tag Team Champion (with Sailor Art Thomas
, Lord Athol Layton, The Stomper, Fred Curry and Tony Marino 3 times)
*1-Time NWA Florida Tag Team Champion (with Dusty Rhodes
)
*2-Time NWA International Heavyweight Champion
*3-Time NWA Los Angeles International Television Tag Team Champion (with Primo Carnera, Wilbur Snyder and Sandor Szabo)
*2-Time NWA San Francisco Tag Team Champion (with Enrique Torres)
*1-Time NWA San Francisco United States Champion
*1-Time NWA Toronto United States Heavyweight Champion
*1-Time NWA Mid-Atlantic/WCW United States Champion
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
*Brazil was awarded the 1998 PWI Editor's Award upon his death.
World Wide Wrestling Federation
*Member of WWE Hall of Fame (inducted in 1994)
*1-Time WWWF United States Heavyweight Champion
Other Titles
*1-Time Canadian Open Tag Team Champion (with Whipper Billy Watson)
*1-Time ESA North American Heavyweight Champion
*1-Time Ohio Heavyweight Champion
*1-Time Superstars of Wrestling United States Champion (Detroit)
*2-Time WWA World Heavyweight Champion
*1-Time WWA World Tag Team Champion (with Chris Carter)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Bobo Brazil ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Bobo Brazil; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Athletes - Bobo Brazil

Career

Profile

Trivia

Championships and accomplishments

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay