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Legendary Villain Rip Hawk Passes Away

Posted: Dec 23rd 2012 By: CMBurnham

Rip "The Profile" Hawk (Harvey Evers), one of the major pro wrestling names of the 60s, passed away this morning at the age of 82.

Hawk was probably best known for his run in the 1960s as part of a tag team with Swede Hanson in the Carolinas, known at times as the Blond Bombers. Hawk & Hanson worked almost exclusively as main eventers, holding the Atlantic Coast tag team tiltes, the area's top belts, on four occasions.

Hawk was also among the building blocks of the TV show Wrestling at the Chase in St. Louis in the late 50s. Joe Garagiola, the show's first announcer, who later became one of the country's best known television personalities, credited Hawk, Gene Kiniski and Cowboy Bob Ellis as the first names that really broke through on the show.

Hawk was also a key part of the development of Ric Flair as a star in the Carolinas. Flair came to the territory in 1974 as a largely known prelim wrestler from Minneapolis. He was brought in as the young nephew of Hawk, and the two defeated Paul Jones & Bob Bruggers on the July 4th show that year at the Greensbro Coliseum to win the Mid Atlantic tag team titles, Flair's first championship.