Luke Brown (wrestler)

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Carl Dennis Campbell Sr., (July 28, 1935-November 12, 1997) was a professional wrestler better known as Luke "Big Boy" Brown. He is most noted for being one-half of a tag team in the 1950's and 60's known as the Kentuckians along with Aurelian Smith.

In 1957 Carl Campbell left the Marine Corp to play football at Xavier University. He played for a year until a good friend of his that he had played football in the Marines with contacted him about a potential job. Turns out the job was professional wrestling.

Lured by the prospect of making a lot of money he left college and went to Columbus Ohio where he trained at Al Haft's training facility under Fred Atkins. This was a very difficult time where he literally had to "learn the ropes".

After successfully completing the training he went to Toronto Canada where he joined his friend from the Marines, Frank Townsend, and worked for the legendary "Whipper" Billy Watson. He was given the name of Don "Man Mountain" Campbell to wrestle under. His 'gimmick' was to portray a crazy lumberjack, which he did quite well. He held his first title in Toronto, the International Single Championship.

In late 1959 Frank and Carl went to Minneapolis to work for wrestling legend, Verne Gagne. They did quite well there as 'singles' wrestlers. On April 29, 1960 Carl had his first main event against Hans Schmidt which ended in a "no-contest".

In August of 1960 Carl decided to move to the Texas/Oklahoma territory. Here he met Ed "Mr. Kleen" Miller as well as Aurelian "Grizzly or Jake" Smith. Jake Smith would play a big part in his life later.

In Texas Carl formed a tag team with Ed and they became known as the "Kleen Kids". (Carl held his first tag team title with Ed, the N.W.A. World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco Version), in December 1960.)

On November 13, 1960 he wrestled in the famed Madison Square Garden for the first time. He teamed with "Haystacks" Calhoun and they wrestled the "Kangaroos" in front of over 20,000 fans.

In early 1961 Carl went back to Canada and wrestled there for most of the year. After June of 1961 something happened and he was almost out of the business. He had a few sporadic matches but nothing to really speak of.

In early 1962 he received a phone call from Aurelian Smith, the man he had met 2 years earlier while in Texas. They had struck up a friendship and Aurelian had heard Carl was looking for work. He wanted the two of them to form a new tag team and had an appointment with a promoter in Texas/Oklahoma. Carl went to Texas and they met with the promoter who loved the tag team.

One reason was because there were very few people in the sport of professional wrestling that were as big, physically, as these two men. Carl was 6'8" and 325 pounds while Aurelian was 6'10" 340 pounds. He offered them a job and they accepted.

The only problem was what to call the new team. Aurelian wanted to be called the "Texans" and Carl wanted to be called the "Kentuckians". They flipped a coin and Carl won. Thus, the Kentuckians were officially formed. Their first match was in Tulsa Oklahoma where they stayed for 3 weeks, learning each others abilities. From there they went to the Carolinas with Jim Crocket and set records all over the south.

They wrestled together off and on from 1962 to the mid 1970's. Some of their notable fueds were with the Bolo's, (aka Assassins), Rip Hawk & Swede Hansen, the Von Brauners as well as many others.

Carl died in 1997 from a heart attack caused due to a blood clot. He is survived by 3 sons (Carl, James and Stephen) and a daughter (Angela) from his first marriage.

[edit] Profile

• Hometown: Kentucky (Actually born in Daisy, West Virginia)
• Trained by: Fred Atkins
• Debut: 1958
• Previous Gimmicks: Big Boy, Big Luke, The Kentuckian, Man Mountain Campbell

[edit] Titles Held

• 1-time International Single Championship Title, Toronto Canada (First title held. Wrestled as Man Mountain Campbell)
• 1-time N.W.A (San Francisco ) Tag Team Champion (Second title held. Man Mountain Campbell and Mr. Kleen, "The Kleen Kids")
• 1-time International Tag Team Title, Toronto Canada (Third title held. Man Mountain Campbell & Stan Stasiak def. Ivan & Karol Kalmikoff 6 June, 1961)
• 3-time N.W.A. (Central States) North American Tag Team Champion (1x with Tor Kamata, 1x with Danny Little Bear, 1x with The Ox)
• 1-time N.W.A. (Georgia) Southern Tag Team Champion (with Jake Smith)
• 5-time N.W.A. (Tri-State) United States Tag Team Champion (2x with Grizzly Smith, 1x with Dutch Savage, 1x with Klondike Bill, 1x with Danny Hodge)
• 2-time S.C.W. Western States Tag Team Champion (1x with Ray Steele, 1x with Eddie Sullivan)
• 1-time World Wrestling Association World Tag Team Champion (with Grizzly Smith)
• 1-time W.F.I.A. Wrestling Award (Luke Brown, Mankato, MN 1968)
• 1-time United States Heavyweight Champion (Luke Brown def. Dick Murdock 1970)