Born:  December 10, 1910, Garvin, OK
Weight:  190
Real Name:  Leroy Michael McGuirk
Family:  Father of Mike McGuirk
Hometown:  Claremore, Oklahoma
College:  Oklahoma A&M
Coached by:  Edward C. Gallagher
College Ach.:  NCAA Wrestling Title (1931) (155 lbs.)
Trained by:  Edward Gallagher, Matt Berg
Pro Debut:  July 1932
Finisher:  Rolling double wrist lock
Retired:  1950 (he was still the World Junior Champion at the time)
Trained:  He had a strong influence in the careers of Dick Hutton, Danny Hodge, Jack Brisco,
Bob Clay, Bill Watts, and dozens of others.
Owned:  A percentage of Sam Avey’s Tulsa Promotions (until Avey’s retirement in 1958), Leroy
McGuirk Championship Wrestling, Inc.
Promoted:  Tri-States Wrestling (1958-’82), Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Little Rock and other cities in
both Oklahoma and Arkansas, Midwest Championship Wrestling (1982)
Hall of Fame:  Oklahoma Athletic Hall of Fame – Inducted in 1977
Died:  September 9, 1988, Claremore, Oklahoma, 78 years old




The Tulsa Daily World reported on March 1, 1942 that McGuirk was getting $1,000 for his match
tonight, and has received “as much as $2,500 for a single bout.” He was 30 years old and a
member of the police department.  He initially wanted to be a “fish hatcher expert, but gave this
up when the government curtailed funds because of the war.” A few days prior to March 1,
McGuirk bought a new home.  The paper stated that McGuirk “is no longer free to hop from town
to town, to accept the offers he had received from Detroit, Chicago, Columbus, Toledo and many
of the spots on the Pacific Coast where he used to be a No. 1 attraction and could still be.”
Because of his “job and a wife and a baby to keep him in Tulsa, the champ has not been doing
so much wrestling in recent weeks – but he has not cut down on his training.  He is ‘teacher’ to a
lot of the fellows with whom he works out regularly, and even his most advanced ‘pupils’ have
found that he can given them a new lesson at any time.” He reportedly was an amateur for 8
years and has “been coached by some of the smartest men in the game,” and “has read
everything available on wrestling.  He has even obtained pictures of art work doen by the
ancients in which wrestlers were depicted to see what leverages they used.  And he has tried out
everything he has read or seen, with variations.” McGuirk said “Men have been wrestling for over
2,000 years, so there is no such thing as a ‘new leverage."





NWA Secretary-Treasurer Sam Muchnick announced in a bulletin to the membership on January
16, 1950 that McGuirk had yet to put up his appearance forfeit as World Junior Heavyweight
champion.

Pinkie George, National Wrestling Alliance President, told members to "please send encouraging
wire" to McGuirk at the Arkansas Baptist Hospital in Little Rock in his February 10, 1950 bulletin.



The Atchison Daily Globe (KS) reported on May 25, 1950 that former boxer and sports
enthusiast Walter Thorpe of Galena offered to give McGuirk one of his eyes.  Thorpe tried to
keep his offer secret, according to the paper, and that he wanted to see Leroy back in the
wrestling ring.





*Leroy McGuirk had scheduled a wrestling show for Friday, August 21, 1981.  Mike George,
Jerry Brown, Ron McFarlane, Ed Wiscoski, Ricky Morton, Eddie Gilbert, and Steve Lollar decided
not to show up, claiming that McGuirk had not paid them the week earlier.  McGuirk subsquenly
fired the grapplers.  A show was scheduled for the Pavilion on Expo Square on Monday, August
31, 1981.

*That might be the point in which McGuirk started bringing in talent from Amarillo.
















Research by Tim Hornbaker
Leroy McGuirk Wrestling History