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

Services for 'Big Cat' are set for Saturday

Posted: Mar 14th 2007 By: mikeiles

Ladd, a former Grambling, AFL and wrestling star, died Sunday after bout with cancer

Services have been set for hall of fame football player and wrestler Ernie Ladd.

Ladd, 68, died Saturday after a long bout with cancer. His funeral will be held at 11 Saturday morning at the West St. Mary Civic Center in Baldwin, near the small Louisiana town of Franklin where Ladd spent his retirement. Born Nov. 28, 1938, in Rayville, and raised in Orange, Texas, Ladd helped former Coach Eddie Robinson to his first-ever Southwestern Athletic Conference championship at Grambling then keyed San Diego's run to the 1963 American Football League title.

Later, Ladd moved into professional wrestling, where he became known as "The Big Cat," and emerged as one of the sport's first signature African-American stars.

Ladd remains the only person in both the American Football League and former World Wrestling Federation halls of fame. He was also a 1994 inductee into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and joined the San Diego Hall of Champions in 2004.

Ladd, married to wife Roslyn for more than 45 years, was a father of four and grandfather to over a dozen more.