Claude Patterson

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Thunderbolt Patterson
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Sweet Daddy Brown Thunderbolt Patterson T-Bolt
Born	1941 Waterloo, Iowa
Resides	Atlanta
Billed from	Atlanta, Georgia
Trained by	Pat O'Connor Steve Kovacs
Debut	1965
Retired	1994

Claude Patterson, (born 1941) better known professionally as Thunderbolt Patterson, was an American professional wrestler best known for his efforts at starting a union for wrestlers. He started his career in 1965 and wrestled primarily in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Patterson was extremely popular at his peak in the Georgia promotion, the precursor to the WCW.

1 Early life and career
2 Racism
3 Blacklisted
4 Retirement
5 Championships and accomplishments
6 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Claude Patterson had grown up in Iowa and worked for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa when he broke into pro wrestling in the Kansas City area. Fellow wrestler Ox Baker was from the same area and they wrestled in Kansas City at around the same time. Since John Deere would not grant Patterson a leave of absence, he quit Deere and started wrestling full time. It was difficult for him until Dory Funk Sr., the promoter in Amarillo and father of Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk took a chance on him. He did well enough there to get work in Houston for Paul Boesch but didn't hit the big time until he wrestled in Los Angeles and was WWA Tag Team Champion with Alberto Torres. During his early years, he worked under his real name in the AWA territory as a "jobber" for promoter Verne Gagne.

[edit] Racism

One of the more difficult things Patterson had to deal with was of course racism. This was prominent among the fans, his fellow wrestlers and many promoters. In an interview, Patterson would recall how he had often been cheated out of a fair payout, even when he had drawn well, because the promoter felt he could get by with it. [1] He would also recall how when Florida promoter Clarence "Cowboy" Lutrall was dying, and Patterson made an offer for a share of the promotion, Lutrall's response was to laugh in his face.

[edit] Blacklisted

Patterson was blacklisted from wrestling in 1972 when he agreed to work for an outlaw promotion (that is, one outside of the NWA) run by Ann Gunkel, the widow of his old friend and Georgia promoter Ray Gunkel. He had been dealing with racism from promoters for many years (he would later recall that only Dory Funk Sr. had backed him) and with starting a wrestlers' union, a dream of Jim Wilson a former NFL player and wrestler, himself blacklisted. It would be years, with Patterson working at the Los Angeles Times in the interim, before he would get another shot, when Dusty Rhodes took ill in Florida.

[edit] Retirement

Claude Patterson retired from the sport in 1994 (his last match was at Slamboree '93, where he teamed with Brad Armstrong, who subbed for his father, Bob, to defeat Ivan Koloff and Baron Von Raschke) and now runs a program called Athletes Supporting Kids in Atlanta.