Johnny Mae Young graduated from Sand Springs High School in Sand Springs, Oklahoma in 1941. She was a natural athlete, wrestling on the boys team, and playing softball and football. She told Mike Averill of the Tulsa World in an article dated October 20, 2004 that she got her first big break into the professional wrestling ranks in 1939 when Mildred Burke was in Tulsa to wrestle Gladys Gillem. Young explained that she challenged Burke: "The promoter said I wasn't qualified. He told me I could wrestle two other girls and I said, 'Bring 'em on. I beat both girls in no time and Mildred's manager said 'I can make a wrestler out of you.'" That manager was the infamous Billy Wolfe, the impresario behind all of the major league women's wrestling between the 1930s and late '50s. In that same article, Ed "Strangler" Lewis told her that "he didn't really like girl wrestlers because a woman's place is in the home," and then he said, "I have to say, you was born to wrestle." Young took that as a compliment. Young was being featured in a new exhibit at the Sand Springs Cultural and Historical Museum. Among the other athletes featured from Sand Springs were Marques Haynes, Bennie "The Wizard" Osborn and Jerry Adair. Research by Tim Hornbaker |
Mae Young Wrestling History |
PPV Ring Record TV Ring Record Career Record Legends of Pro Wrestling |