Hacksaw Jim Duggan

James Edward Duggan (born January 14, 1954), better known by his ring name “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment in the 1980s, when it was known as World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). His best known character is that of an American patriot, which sees him use a 2×4 length of wood as a weapon, the battle cry “Hooo!” and the U-S-A! cheer.
Duggan is a survivor of kidney cancer, an illness he was diagnosed with during his time with WCW.
In the WWF, Duggan was the winner of the first-ever Royal Rumble match in 1988 and in WCW, he was a one time United States Heavyweight Champion and a one time (and the final) World Television Champion.
Duggan grew up in Glens Falls, New York, where he became a star athlete in high school. His father was the Chief of Police for the City of Glens Falls.  Duggan was a letterman in football, track, wrestling, and basketball. In wrestling, he won the New York State High School wrestling championship, unlimited weight class division – the first wrestler from Glens Falls to do so.
Upon graduating high school, he was recruited by Ohio State University, but would instead choose to play football at Southern Methodist University, where he was eventually voted team captain.

Duggan earned his bachelors degree in applied plant biology. After college, Duggan was signed by the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, but was released after being plagued by knee injuries.

Professional wrestling career

Jim Duggan broke into the professional wrestling business thanks in large part to wrestler Fritz Von Erich. The two met while Duggan was on a recruiting trip to SMU. Duggan’s first professional match was in 1979 against Gino Hernandez. Duggan began his career as a villain. Training at the Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas as well as with Samoan wrestling promoter Peter Maivia, Duggan gained the attention of Vince McMahon, Sr. and the World Wrestling Federation.
After a brief stint with the WWF, Duggan began to work regularly for Georgia Championship Wrestling. During this time, Duggan was known by two in-ring aliases: in the United States as “Big” Jim Duggan and in Hawaii as The Convict, a masked wrestler. After wrestling for a Birmingham, Alabama-based promotion, Duggan began wrestling in a promotion based in San Antonio, Texas where he adopted his well-known “Hacksaw” nickname.

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