Ernie Ladd

Ernest L. Ladd (November 28, 1938 – March 10, 2007), nicknamed "the Big Cat", was an American professional football defensive tackle and professional wrestler. A standout athlete in high school, Ladd attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship before being drafted in 1961 by the San Diego Chargers of the American Football League (AFL). Ladd found success in the AFL as one of the largest players in professional football history at 6′9″ and 290 pounds. He helped the Chargers to four AFL championship games in five years, winning the championship with the team in 1963. He also had stints with the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Oilers. Ladd took up professional wrestling during the AFL offseason, and after a knee injury ended his football career turned to it full-time in 1969.

As a professional wrestler, Ladd became one of the top heels in the business. For the majority of his career, he played a villainous character who would arrogantly taunt both opponents and crowds. Ladd feuded with many popular wrestlers of the time, including Wahoo McDaniel, André the Giant, Bobo Brazil, Dusty Rhodes, and Mr. Wrestling, and even had a heel to heel feud with Professor Toru Tanaka, before retiring from the ring in 1986.

For his American football career, Ladd was inducted into the Chargers Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Grambling State University Hall of Fame in 1989. For his professional wrestling career he was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1994, the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996, and the NWA Hall of Fame in 2013.

Ladd was diagnosed with colon cancer in the winter of 2003–2004, and died from the disease on March 10, 2007, at the age of 68.

Ladd was born in Rayville, Louisiana, and raised in Orange, Texas by his mother Louada and stepfather James Ford. He was a high school football and basketball star at Wallace High School. His football coach at Wallace was the legendary William Ray Smith Sr., father of NFL star Bubba Smith. As a sophomore he was on Wallace's 1954 state championship football team. As a senior, he was football team co-captain. Ladd was also an All-State basketball player that helped lead Wallace to a state championship in basketball.

Ladd subsequently attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship. He also played defensive tackle on the football team at Grambling under another legend, future College Football Hall of Fame coach Eddie Robinson. Robinson won his first Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship with Ladd on the team.

Ladd was the nephew of Grambling and Houston Oilers teammate Garland Boyette. Another teammate at Grambling and later with the Kansas City Chiefs was fellow tackle Buck Buchanan, who would go on to be considered one of the greatest professional players of all time.

In 1969, celebrating college football's centennial, the Louisiana Sportswriters Association selected Ladd to the Louisiana Collegiate All-Time Football Team, along with Boyette and Buchanan, among others.