• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

"Tough" Tony Borne, Northwest Wrestling Legend, Passes Away

Posted: Aug 27th 2010 By: CMBurnham

Oklafan was saddened to learn of the death of Pacific Northwest wrestling legend "Tough" Tony Borne, who died August 27 at the age of 84.

Borne, who was born Tony Osborne and had an amateur background and competed in high school and the U. S. Navy, began training Ali Pasha and debuted in the early 1950s. While he spent part of his early career in Texas and even made a mark in Mexico (he was one of the first American competitors to do so), Borne is perhaps best remembered as a mainstay of the Pacific Northwest region. Borne formed a long time tag team with "Moondog" Lonnie Mayne and the duo held the Pacific Northwest Tag Team Titles on 11 different occasions (Borne would go on to titles a total of 20 times, with 9 different partners.) Borne also won the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title a total of 9 times. Partnerships with John Tolos led to tag team success in Canada for him as well.

Borne was never the biggest competitor in the ring, standing just 5' 9" and weighing 225 lbs. So he learned an unorthodox style which included constant chatter in the ring and the unique tactic of rubbing his beard like a brillo pad across the face of his opponent. And just as bizarre as his tactics were some of the matches he ended up in, such as the "Night of the Jackass", which saw the end of a feud between him and Danny McShain. The loser of the match had to bathe the jackass at the Houston Civic Centre and Borne's manager, Leo Newman, ended up doing the honours in that situation.

Borne retired in 1981, but returned to help his son Matt Borne begin his career. Tony would tag frequently with his son in his early career and even seconded him at ringside on occassions on WCCW.

After retiring, Borne began to sell real estate and was also a licensed superintendent for the American Kennel Club. In August he had a pacemaker installed, although at the time of this writing the cause of his death is unknown.

Borne has 6 documented appearances in Oklahoma spanning from November 4 to December 9 in 1963. He wrestled to a draw opposite Jerry Kozak on November 4, then teamed with Al Lovelock and defeated Kozak and Joe McCarthy on November 11. McCarthy won a 2-out-of-3 Falls main event on November 18. Another draw between Kozak and Borne opened the November 25 card. His final docurmented appearance in Oklahoma was a victory over Lovelock in a Texas Rules Match.

Oklafan extends its condolensces to the family and friends of Tony Borne at this time.

Tags: Tony Borne, John Tolos, Danny McShain, Matt Borne, Al Lovelock, Jerry Kozak, Joe McCarthy