Our Arklahoma Heritage: Joltin' Joe Blanchard left his stamp on professional wrestling from 1953-78

Joseph Edgar Blanchard

Joseph Edgar Blanchard was born on December 7, 1928, in the small town of Haskell, Oklahoma, during the tail end of the oil boom era.

His parents were Arthur Blanchard Sr., who worked as a postmaster, and Susan Norma Fanning Blanchard, a schoolteacher. The couple had married in Muskogee, on October 30, 1925.

Joe was one of at least four children in the family, which included brothers Arthur Jr. and Harry, and a sister named Nancy. When Joe was still young, the Blanchard family moved to Parsons, Kansas, where he spent most of his childhood and teenage years.

In Parsons, Joe attended Parsons High School and quickly stood out as an athlete. He excelled in football and also competed in wrestling, laying the groundwork for his future in both sports. After graduating, he enrolled at Kansas State University (then known as Kansas State College).

There he continued to play football, earning varsity letters from 1947 to 1949 and serving as team captain during his senior season. On the wrestling mat, he reached his collegiate peak in 1950 by winning the Big 7 Conference heavyweight championship. Seeded fourth at the NCAA tournament that year, he defeated defending champion Mike DiBiase by referee's decision but lost his opening match to Richard Simmons of Wheaton.

He completed his degree at Kansas State, equipped with the physical skills and discipline that would carry him into professional athletics.

Before entering professional wrestling full-time, Blanchard pursued a career in Canadian football. He joined the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League in 1950 and remained with the team through the 1953 season. During that time he appeared in the 1952 Grey Cup game, where Edmonton lost to the Toronto Argonauts 21-11 at Varsity Stadium.

Among his teammates were future wrestlers Gene Kiniski and Wilbur Snyder. In 1954 he played his final professional football season with the Calgary Stampeders. While living in Edmonton, he met Jackie, the woman he would marry shortly afterward.

The couple went on to have two sons.

Blanchard made his professional wrestling debut in 1953 with Stampede Wrestling in Calgary while still finishing his football career.

Billed at 6 feet tall and 225 pounds, he wrestled under names such as Joltin' Joe and relied on signature holds like the abdominal stretch and airplane spin. He achieved his most consistent success in Hawaii with 50th State Big Time Wrestling, where he captured the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship twice, in 1958 and 1959, both times teaming with Lord James Blears.

In Texas, working for NWA Big Time Wrestling (later known as World Class Championship Wrestling), he won the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship on two occasions, in 1963 and 1964, and also held the World Class Texas title in 1966. Over the course of his roughly 25-year in-ring career, he helped train several notable wrestlers, including Dusty Rhodes, King Curtis Iaukea, and his own son Tully Blanchard.

He retired from regular competition in 1978 but returned for one final match in December 1984, losing to Jonathan Boyd.

After stepping away from active wrestling, Blanchard remained involved in the business by founding Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio, Texas, in 1978. He operated the promotion successfully for several years before selling it to Fred Behrend in 1985.

Behrend renamed the company Texas All-Star Wrestling.

In his later years, Blanchard lived quietly in Texas, staying connected to the wrestling community through his family legacy--particularly through his son Tully, who became one of the most prominent stars of the 1980s with the Four Horsemen stable.

Joe Blanchard passed away on March 10, 2012, at the age of 83. He was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, with military honors reflecting his service record from his earlier years.