at 68, Ernie Ladd has lost his battle with cancer.  
 
Ernie Ladd, NFL Hall of Fame football player and wrestler, has died
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
 
Ernie Ladd, who rose to fame as a football player but made his name nationally as a wrestler, died overnight, according to family members.
 
Ladd, 68, had battled cancer — first in his colon, then later in his stomach and bones — since 2004. Born Nov. 28, 1938, in Rayville, but raised in Orange, Texas, he worked through his final years as a pastor in the Louisiana town of Franklin.
 
Funeral arrangements were still pending today, according to Roslyn Ladd, his wife of more than 45 years.
 
Selected 15th in the American Football League draft by San Diego out of Grambling College, Ladd appeared in three of that now-defunct league's championship games, winning the 1963 title.
 
"We were like a family," Ladd told The News-Star in May 2005. "We were one of the first integrated teams, with black players and white players as roommates."
 
He had entered professional football as a heralded 1960 first-team all-league defensive college lineman under former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson. There, Ladd helped GSU to its first-ever Southwestern Athletic Conference championship.
 
At 6-9 and 315 pounds, he was arguably the biggest GSU star to ever play for Robinson, who remains the all-time winningest football coach in Division I history.
 
"The first year he was here, he taught me a lesson," Robinson once said. "He told me how good he was. Sure, I'd say. Then he hurt somebody. I'd feel sorry for the people he was tackling."
Elected to four straight AFL All-Star Games from 1962-1965, he later played with the Houston Oilers and the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs. While with the Chiefs, he reunited with future Pro Football Hall of Famer Junious "Buck" Buchanan, another Grambling product, and was on the roster for both of Kansas City's Super Bowl appearances.
 
Ladd began wrestling as a sideline during his rookie AFL season, and found the payday and fame so alluring that eventually he gave up pro football. It was there that he picked up a nickname that would remain with him for life: "Big Cat."
 
Ladd's storylines resonated during wrestling's earliest flowering as a national attraction, not to mention signature moves that included the "guillotine drop" and a boot to the face. Rivalries with Andre the Giant and Dusty Rhodes helped shape wrestling's 1970s persona.
 
Today, he's the only person in both the American Football League and World Wrestling Federation halls of fame. Ladd is also a 1994 inductee into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and joined the San Diego Hall of Champions in 2004.
 
Ladd's knees were so damaged — his first surgery came while still in college — that in his final years, he walked down long staircases backward. But Ladd's boundless spirit was unbowed by his body's failures, as he displayed a touch of humor even after that cancer diagnosis.
 
"The doctor told me I had three-to-six months to live," Ladd said in 2005, then at the mid-way point in his nearly four year battle with the disease. "I told him Dr. Jesus has the verdict on me."
 
Ladd was a father of four and grandfather to over a dozen more.

hits home to me too.
some of my earliest memories are of the "Soul Patrol" with Ladd teaming with Thunderbolt Patterson and "the King" Ernie Ladd from the IWA. great memories!!  
always a joy to watch. i am glad we got to meet him back in august at fanfest. from what i saw, i felt he enjoyed being there. if so, then maybe we helped him feel real good about being remembered so fondly.

We lost a great human being!!!Big Cat you will be missed.I remember when I was young and I watched him play football.I thought he was the greatest football player I have ever seen.I never in my life thought I would ever meet Ernie Ladd,but I did.I met Ernie in Mid-South and he treated me like he knew me forever,I was in awe of him.I am thinking back then,I used to watch him on TV playing football,now I am sitting in the dressing room talking to him.I enjoyed talking to him at the fanfest.He may be gone,but he will never be forgotten.

Sad news indeed. May the Big Cat rest in peace. I can't believe the number of wrestlers we've lost already this year, and it's only March. God bless all of them.

I must admit that I have been thinking a lot of "The Big Cat" lately...
 
Over the period of the last few years, I've had an opportunity to meet and get to know some of wrestling's greatest heroes and villains. In my childhood, one of the biggest, meanest wrestling heels was Ernie Ladd. I loved his intimidating promos, and he was just so huge, a real giant of a man.
 
I had never met or spoken with Ernie Ladd until about this time last year, as I was preparing for our Capitol Wrestling Legends Fanfest near Washington, DC. "The Big Cat" answered my first phone call with "Jesus Loves You," which was his standard telephone greeting instead of "Hello." In my phone conversations that followed, I would have never known that he was losing his battle with cancer. He was always very positive and upbeat.
 
On a weekend with mass chaos at the airports and some folks looking for any excuse possible not to travel, Mr. Ladd made it his mission to make his way to Rockville, Maryland. Travelling alone, his mobility impaired, through all the havoc at the airports, Mr. Ladd made it to fanfest and, like most of the others signed autographs for nearly five hours on Sunday afternoon. We had dinner that evening and breakfast the next morning. Me, my friend Roy, Ernie Ladd and Tony Atlas all went together to the Baltimore airport the next morning. Those are times creating memories I will treasure for a lifetime.
 
In retrospect, I knew this had been a tremendous challenge for "The Big Cat." I have no doubt that if I were in a similar physical condition, I would've likely found an excuse to stay at home. But, Ernie Ladd didn't. He came to fanfest and, I believe, enjoyed every minute of it. I did too.
 
I hadn't spoken to Mr. Ladd since last Fall, but one of the main reasons I was looking forward to next month's fan convention in New Jersey was the opportunity to see Mr. Ladd again. And buy his dinner. He liked to eat. And eat a lot. I'll miss Ernie Ladd.
 
And I'll always remember our phone conversations. Ernie Ladd, Jesus loves you!
 

Some great memories and tributes to Mr. Ladd here.
 
This really hits home the point as to how important shows like Greg's are to us fans.  You never know when it'll be the last chance to meet and be in the presence of these great men and women.  
 
Mr. Ladd is out of his suffering, though, and with the Lord.
 
-J\/\/

I remember one night after a show in wpb, fla seeing Erine Ladd, Haystacks Calhoun and Andre the Gaint get in the same suburan to leave the arena. I loved his promos. Rest in Peace.

Quote from cockaroach on Mar 12^th, 2007, 8:29am:

 
That had to be a sight. Those three in the same car. Hopefully, they are enjoying that same ride now again. May they all RIP.

I have lost another of my HEROES. RIP  Ernie "The Big Cat" Ladd.

Rest in peace, Mr. Ladd.  Gone, but never forgotten.
 

Sports Illustrated had a small writeup and photo (I believe from the Greensboro Coliseum) of "Big Cat" in this week's issue.

I was a huge Ernie Ladd mark back in the day...I'm sad I'll never get the chance to meet the "Big Cat".
 
This is one reason Fanfest is so great...once our heroes are gone, that's it. I wish I could've gone to fanfest when he was there to say thank for the memories.