About the author:

Mike CrisolagoMike Crisolago
I am a 29-year old Toronto-based journalist and writer who has a passion for theatre, literature, history and baseball...

Tags:

Billy Red Lyons, Maple Leaf Wrestling, ,

Share this article:

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Newsvine] [StumbleUpon] [Twitter] [Email]

There was a time in the mid-1980s, as a young Toronto wrestling fan, when I feared that Billy Red Lyons was very disappointed in me.

I never met the white-haired pro wrestling announcer who interviewed my favourite superstars every week on Maple Leaf Wrestling. But when, with his trademark nasal voice, he’d run down an upcoming Maple Leaf Gardens card and close by imploring, “Don’tcha dare miss it”, I worried that he’d find out that I did indeed miss it. And that he wouldn’t be happy about it.

Billy Red Lyons, a Toronto wrestling institution for close to 30 years, passed away on Monday from cancer. He was 77.

Born William Snip in Dundas, Ontario, Lyons (his pro name) became synonymous with the Toronto wrestling scene through a career as both a wrestler and a broadcaster.

“The sensational success of Billy (Red) Lyons of Toronto is still on the tongues of the fans,” read an article from The Ring magazine in 1960, four years after his pro debut in Maple Leaf Gardens.

Lyons originally dreamed of playing hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but turned to pro wrestling because, at the time, it paid better. Regardless of his career choice, Lyons seemed destined to stick out.

“His red hair symbolizes a quick temper and quick action,” Wrestling magazine wrote in 1971. “His handsome face makes him the heartthrob of female fans everywhere.”

Looking back, Lyons acted as a bridge between generations of pro wrestling fans both in Toronto and beyond. Older fans remember the days of Lyons’ flaming red hair and battles with local wrestling icon “Whipper” Billy Watson, the original Sheik, or NWA world champion Jack Brisco. But the red hair and quick temper were gone by the time a younger generation got to know him.

In 1984, Lyons traded his boots for a microphone and went to work as an announcer for Frank and Jack Tunney’s Toronto-based Maple Leaf Wrestling. After the sale of the territory to World Wrestling Federation owner Vince McMahon, he spent the rest of his career interviewing the likes of Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and the rest of the WWF roster.

“What set Billy apart from the other interviewers was his tendency to openly disagree and argue with the wrestlers,” Torontonian Brian Hyndman wrote on a comment board commemorating Lyons’ Maple Leaf Wrestling days. “It was the best free entertainment you could get on a Saturday afternoon.”

“In the late 1970s and 1980s, there were a few traditions: homework, essays, beer and watching Billy Red Lyons on a Saturday afternoon,” Robert B. added.

Online tributes and obituaries recall Lyons as not only a beloved television wrestling personality, but a gentleman off-screen.

“I had a chance to meet him once at some event in Toronto and he was very nice, friendly to everyone,” Jim from Toronto noted on the Pro Wrestling Torch message board.

Reporter Colin Hunter, in a recent column, called Lyons, “A gentle and funny homebody who loved nothing more than spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren.”

During his time on Maple Leaf Wrestling Lyons had an almost grandfatherly manner about him, which fostered my guilt about daring to miss a Gardens card. But, by all accounts, Billy Red Lyons was a kind man who probably would have forgiven me and a beloved figure who made an indelible mark in Toronto’s wrestling history.

“Maple Leaf wrestling was his,” Brian, from Vancouver, posted online. “He made that show sing.”

Decades later, it remains a song that generations of fans have never forgotten.