Tri-State Spotlight on...
Danny Hodge
Each month, I'll spotlight one of the stars of the Tri-State area. This month's spotlight shines on one of professional wrestling's most popular and beloved stars ever - Danny Hodge.
The strength of Danny Hodge is legendary. He could (and likely still can) break a pair of pliers with his bare hands. He could squeeze an apple into applesauce, a feat that I was privileged to witness personally in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1970. Hodge himself has said that this supernatural strength is due to having "double tendons". It has also been said that he had to be careful not to hurt his opponents because even he didn't know his own strength. While not large by wrestling standards, standing 5'10" and weighing 220 pounds, nobody commanded more respect or instilled more awe than Danny Hodge.
Perry, Oklahoma native Dan Allen Hodge began his wrestling career during his early teens. He excelled in the sport, becoming Oklahoma State wrestling champion in 1951 while wrestling for Perry High School, and had a spot waiting for him on the University of Oklahoma wrestling team.
His collegiate record was unparalleled: Danny won all 46 bouts he competed in, 36 of them by fall. During his junior and senior years, he pinned 22 consecutive opponents. Amazingly, he was never taken to the mat from a standing position. In a 10-day span in 1956, his junior year, he won the NCAA title and National AAU Championships in both Greco-Roman and freestyle, winning every bout in both tournaments by fall.
Danny twice competed in the Olympics. He placed 5th in the 1952 games in Helsinki, and in Melbourne in 1956, Hodge won the silver medal. During the championship bout, he led his Bulgarian opponent by a wide margin when a controversial rolling fall was called against him. This marked only Hodge's 3rd defeat in over 5 years of wrestling, all 3 by Olympic champions.
Other Highlights of Danny Hodge's Amateur Career:
4 Time National AAU Champion
3 Time National NCAA Champion
1956 Outstanding Wrestler - National AAU in
both free-style & Greco-Roman divisions, pinning
all opponents.
Won 3 consecutive Big Seven (now Big 8)
Championships, pinning all opponents with
an average mat time of 1:33.
National Gold Gloves Champion, the only man ever to
hold a national championship in amateur boxing
and wrestling.
Member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame
(the only wrestler to hold this honor)
Danny turned professional in the fall of 1959, and 2 months later, according to Hodge, he was paralyzed for two and a half months by Angelo Savoldi.
A few months later, on July 22, 1960 in Oklahoma City, Hodge defeated Savoldi for the NWA World's Junior Heavyweight Title. This first title reign would last for 4 years, defending the belt up to 5 nights a week. At this time, even more so than today, Junior Heavyweights were put on the back burner in favor of the larger heavyweights. Not so with Danny Hodge. He headlined cards everywhere he went, either as the main event, or at the very least, sharing top billing.
Danny dropped the belt to Hiro Matsuda in Tampa, FL, on July 11, 1964, but regained it 6 months later in Tulsa, OK. Hodge next lost the title several months later to Lorenzo Parente. During their feud, they swapped the belt twice each in the span of a year. Parente lost the belt to Joe McCarthy, who held it for 3 months before Danny regained it in May of 1966 in Little Rock, AR.
Hodge held the belt for another 4 years, until finally losing to Sputnik Monroe on July 13, 1970, in Shreveport, LA. Danny wasn't without the belt for long, as he regained it soon thereafter. He became ex-champion once again when he lost the title to Roger Kirby on May 20, 1971 in New Orleans, LA.
It would be over a year before Danny would once again wear the gold. On March 20, 1972, in Shreveport, LA, he defeated the masked Dr. X (Jim Osborne) and reigned for nearly 2 years. Then, on December 19, 1973, in Jackson, MS, Hodge was defeated by popular Ken Mantell.
Mantell held the title for a year and a half, then lost it to Hodge's arch-nemesis Hiro Matsuda. 9 months later, Danny once again defeated Matsuda for his 7th and final title reign.
On March 15, 1976, Danny Hodge finally met an opponent he couldn't defeat. While traveling from Houma, LA, to Monroe, LA, he fell asleep at the wheel. He awoke to find his car upside down and skidding along a bridge rail. The car came to a rest underwater and upside down. Danny had to free himself from the wreckage and wade to shore, which proved almost impossible, since Hodge had sustained a broken neck in the crash.
Danny had to walk while holding his neck with both hands. He didn't have the strength to climb back over the bridge railing, but rested his head on the rail until a passing motorist found him. It was nothing short of a miracle that he survived, thanks in part to his outstanding physical conditioning.
Doctors at first told Danny he would never walk again, but a week and a half later he proved them wrong. He did not, however, ever wrestle again, since the doctors told him that one wrong bump could paralyze him for life. He relinquished his claim to the World's Junior Heavyweight Title and retired on top, just as Leroy McGuirk had done over 25 years earlier.
As the World's Junior Heavyweight Champion for the better part of 16 years, Danny Hodge laid the groundwork for the success that today's Cruiserweights enjoy. During this time, he literally carried the success of the lighter division on his back, making it possible for the division to earn the money that the heavyweights did.
Many may not realize it, but Danny also held the United States Tag Title on 3 separate occasions, first with Scandor Akbar, then with rookie Jay Clayton, and finally with Luke Brown. He also challenged for the World's Heavyweight title against Dory Funk, Jr. on at least one occasion that I'm aware of.