Shining a Spotlight 4.19.12: Farewell to the Chief

Chief Jay Strongbow.

He was honored by WWE with a nice video montage but the man’s impact has been lost to modern-day fans. And that’s a damn shame as he was a huge star in his prime, a man who could draw big crowds with fans cheering him on and even before the arrival of Hulk Hogan, he was giving wrestling a nice showmanship. That’s ironic given he really had no obvious love for the business, more of a job than anything else yet garnered respect from almost everyone around him. It’s a career that shouldn’t be overlooked by fans today and worth looking back on.

Early Life

It’s no surprise that Strongbow was not, in fact, a Native American. He was born Jo Scarpa, an Italian-American in Philadelphia on October 4th, 1928. Like many, he wasn’t sure about wresting at first but gave it a try, telling interviewers later that “I had an opinion about wrestling until I wrestled and they taught me that my opinion was wrong. He wrestled under his real name for his first eight years, working around Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. He won the Florida Heavyweight title, the NWA Southern Tag titles with Jose Lothario and the Florida version of the NWA World tag titles with Don Curtis, the two gelling together as a great team and keeping up training together, getting the portly Scarpa in shape. In 1964, he teamed with veteran Tex Riley in a tag match notable for Riley dying of a heart attack later that night.

It was in 1970 that Scarpa joined what was then known as the World Wide Wresting Federation. It was Gorilla Monsoon who suggested the move as Vince McMahon Sr. was looking for someone to play a tough Indian character and thought Scarpa would be a good fit. Scarpa claimed his mother was Cherokee and the name of Strongbow popped out as perfect for him. Strongbow was of course not the first Indian wrestler but he certainly made himself the most notable even over Wahoo McDaniel, who really was born Native American. What helped was that Scarpa threw himself completely into the role, living as an Indian with their customs, driving a beat-up truck and more. Indeed, a famous story is how he and Curtis had a falling-out when Strongbow refused to go by his old name at a fan convention, Curtis feeling he was turning his back on his true heritage.

Prime Time

From the mid-1970’s on, Strongbow was one of WWF’s biggest names. While Bruno Samartino and Pedro Morales had the belt, Strongbow was the box office name that fans came out for. He was terrific in the ring with power moves and chops along with one of the best sleepers in the business. Long before Hogan was “hulking up,” Strongbow was driving fans wild by coming back from punishment to dance around the ring before “going on the warpath” with vicious blows and chops. He had memorable feuds such as when he fought Iron Mike McCord with McCord’s manager, Lou Albano, smashing Strongbow with a cast. This led to weeks of matches before the payoff in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd where Strongbow beat Albano to a pulp. In 1975, he began another feud with Spiros Arion, a popular babyface who shocked everyone by turning heel, attacking Strongbow and destroying his headdress, rubbing the remains in Strongbow’s face.

In 1972, Strongbow tasted gold in the company as he and Sonny King won the tag team titles in May, holding them for a month before losing to Mr. Fuji and Professor Tanaka. In December of 1976, Strongbow regained the belts with fellow Native American star Billy White Wolf, winning a special three-team tournament for the titles. They never technically lost the belts as White Wolf suffered a bad neck injury in August of 1977 (blamed in kayfabe on an attack by Ken Patera) that forced them to vacate the titles. Strongbow left the company in 1977 for a run in Detroit’s Big Time Wrestling promotion where he and “Bulldog” Don Kent engaged in a bloody feud culminating in Strongbow winning a “shark cage” match. Back in WWF, he faced off with champion Superstar Billy Graham, the matches good but behind the scenes, the two men never got along. Graham would claim in interviews that Strongbow kept trying to rush their matches and also took issue with the man’s infamous cheapskate nature. He had another feud with Greg Valentine who broke his leg in a match, their rematches lighting up the WWF circuit, with a great Indian strap match at the Garden.

In 1982, Jay teamed up with his supposed brother, Jules Strongbow (in reality, Frank Hill). The two men gelled well enough to convince fans they were truly related and a great team to boot. On June 28th, they defeated Mr. Fuji and Mr. Saito at the Garden to win the tag team titles after weeks of the heel champs using dirty tricks to retain. Iva Putski had been the special ref, making the three count but failing to see Fuji’s foot on the rope. Demanding a rematch, Fugi and Saito regained the belts in a two-out-of-three falls match on television just three weeks later. After months of rematches that did good business, the Strongbows got the belts back in October. They held the titles until March of 1983 where they lost them to the Wild Samoans.

Retirement and Legacy

Strongbow hung it up in 1985, just as the expansion of WWF was kicking off. He would make occasional appearances in legends battle royales and became a prime player in the office as road agent. In 1994, he was shown as the “mentor” of Tatanka but later complained the man never listened to him, thinking he would be a bigger star than he was. He could be fair but tough such as his infamous bit of leaving Scott Hall behind when he was late for a bus during a tour of Germany or fining the ultra-popular Junkyard Dog for smoking a joint in the arena and banning guys from having beers before bus trips didn’t go over well either. However, he was seen as a mentor to many, Tito Santana grateful for how Strongbow helped push him in the company and Jack Briscoe always credited Strongbow for being one of his biggest influences when he was rising in the business.

Strongbow was part of the first WWF Hall of Fame class in 1994 and inducted to the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009. His appearances later in life were rare but he still carried himself with pride. His death came after suffering a fall in late 2011, a sad end to such an amazing worker. His legacy is still terrific, however, as you can still imagine how thousands of people at the Garden would pound on their armrests like tribal drums to help fire up their hero when he was in trouble. Strongbow would answer by doing his war dance before unleashing on his opponents with a savage air that got fans on their feet. He never competed as a heel once he took on the Strongbow role, his popularity so high that he didn’t need a singles title, he was already massively over and huge for business. He was a consummate babyface who should still be studied by guys today with his terrific ability to sell for opponents before coming back. More importantly, for all his talk on not seeing wrestling as more than a job, Strongbow still gave it his all, making sure the fans who paid to see him got their money’s worth. On behalf of all those fans, as well as those he inspired, farewell to the Chief and thank you for the great memories you created.