HAYSTACK CALHOUN
by Joy Gough
Haystack Calhoun
was a professional wrestler from about 1955 to 1975. He toured mostly on the
east coast. He won two championships in tag team wrestling. I spent many a
Saturday afternoon as a teenager watching him on the local television station. Wrestling fans
loved him.
Haystack Calhoun was an enormous man - 6'4" and 600 pounds. He had shaggy, wavy
black hair and a full black beard. All of his opponents looked like midgets next
to him. He did not wrestle in the traditional trunks that other wrestlers wore;
he fought wearing blue-denim, farmers coveralls. No shirt. For publicity photos
he wore a chain around his neck with a horseshoe hanging from it. I mean he wore a CHAIN
with 2-inch-long links. It hung to his waist and had a horseshoe that would fit a Clydesdale
hanging from it.
Haystack’s repertoire consisted mostly of lifting his opponent in the air,
throwing him on the canvas, and lying down on top of him. His opponent could not
get up with all that weight on top of him. The crowds would roar. This was what
they had come to see.
I had not heard of Haystack Calhoun in many years until about 5 years ago. His daughter
donated his wrestling mementoes to the Collin County Museum. I did not know
until then that Haystack Calhoun was from McKinney. He is buried in Collin
County.
Return to
People of Note
Recommended
citation:
"Haystack
Calhoun, COLLIN COUNTY HISTORY," Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy
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