Dick Murdoch

**Hoyt Richard** "**Dick**" **Murdoch** (August 16, 1946 – June 15, 1996) was an American professional wrestler.

## Professional wrestling career

Murdoch was born in Waxahachie, Texas. A second-generation wrestler, the stepson of 1950s Texas wrestler Frankie Hill Murdoch, he grew up with fellow second-generation wrestlers Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk, watching their fathers wrestle all around Texas.

Frank Murdoch held the NWA Southwest Junior Heavyweight Championship three times in his career. Dick attended Caprock High School, where he took part in amateur wrestling.

Murdoch started wrestling in 1965 as "Ron Carson" in a tag team with Don Carson. He soon started wrestling under his real name. In 1968, he formed a tag team that would continue throughout the early 1970s with Dusty Rhodes called **The Texas Outlaws**.

After splitting with Rhodes, he wrestled for several territories within the National Wrestling Alliance, most famously Florida Championship Wrestling and also wrestled in Mid-South Wrestling.

Murdoch's most noted work as a wrestler came in Mid-South Wrestling in the early 1980s, where he teamed with Junkyard Dog.

The pair was the most popular champions in the region, attracting the hardcore, working class white fans with his "Captain Redneck" persona and JYD drawing the support of the black fan base. Their feud with the Fabulous Freebirds was perhaps Mid-South's most compelling storyline.

In 1984, Murdoch went to the World Wrestling Federation and formed a tag team with Adrian Adonis that captured the World Tag Team Titles.

He left the WWF in 1985 after dropping the tag-team title to The U.S. Express and wrestled in Mid-South Wrestling briefly before turning up in the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions in 1986. He feuded with Ric Flair and attempted to win Flair's NWA World Title.

In early 1987, Murdoch joined Ivan Koloff and Vladimir Petrov in their attempt to get Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes. Then a NWA United States Tag Team Champion with Ivan, he injured Nikita's neck after a brain-buster suplex on the floor that summer, resulting in his (kayfabe) suspension for 30 days and the team being stripped of the title.

He left the NWA and wrestled in the World Wrestling Council before appearing in World Championship Wrestling as one half of the "Hardliners," or "Hardline Collection Agency," with Dick Slater in 1991. They feuded with Rick and Scott Steiner but could not win their title.

Murdoch was the twenty-seventh entrant in the 1995 WWF Royal Rumble. He was eliminated by Henry O. Godwinn. That May, he wrestled Wahoo McDaniel in a black-and-white "Legends Match" at Slamboree. In March 1996, he wrestled Vampire Warrior and The Viking in Kuantan, Malaysia, then finished his career in the May 23 main event of a Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi show in Tokyo, against Yoshiaki Fujiwara.

    Over the years, several within professional wrestling who knew Murdoch have said he was racist and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. In a shoot interview, Bad News Brown accused him of being a member of the Klan.

This was also mentioned by Tito Santana in his autobiography, *Tales From The Ring*. Former WWE SmackDown head writer Alex Greenfield also related a story told to him by Dusty Rhodes about Murdoch driving him to a Klan party without telling him it was a KKK party beforehand.

Former wrestling star Rocky Johnson, father of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, claims Murdoch was a member of the Klan and that he once knocked him unconscious during a match stating during an interview, *"Because he was KKK and didn't like blacks, he kept kicking me hard and punching me. I said, 'you hit me one more time, I'm hitting you back.' He hit me, and I knocked him out."* Wrestling announcer Jim Ross, on his wrestling podcast "Grilling JR," said Murdoch once showed him his Ku Klux Klan membership card. However, these claims have been disputed by Jim Cornette on his podcast.

Murdoch appeared in four movies: *The Wrestler* (1974), *Paradise Alley* (1978), *Grunt! The Wrestling Movie* (1985), and *Manhattan Merengue!* (1995). He also appeared on an episode of *Learning The Ropes* and an episode of *The Jerry Springer Show*. Murdoch appeared in various rodeo events and at one point, ran his own bar, "Dirty" Dick's Dive.

## Death

Murdoch died of a heart attack on June 15, 1996, at the age of 49. He was found dead at 4:30 AM on a couch in his living room by his ex-wife. Murdoch suffered from high blood pressure in later years and had no prior heart problems.