Forgive the paraphrase for this edition of Forgotten Superstars, which has been mostly stars from the world of sports, but has also included actors, horses, gardeners, and singers.
Considering that, I didn't think it was a stretch to include the elderly gentleman pictured above and that was the opening for "Championship Wrestling", which was one of the two weekly television shows for the WWF in my days as a beginning wrestling fan.
His name was Joe McHugh and he was the regular ring announcer for "Championship Wrestling", which was taped in Allentown PA (the other show was "All-Star Wrestling", which used Gary Michael Cappetta as the ring announcer and was taped in Hamburg. PA).
I've written in the past of my brother and I lugging a small black and white television over to my Aunt Edna's room just before 4:00 PM on Saturday afternoons to catch McHugh's program from Baltimore because her room was the only room in the house in the days of pre-cable in our house (that would come in 1984) that could pick up the signal and I thought of that distinctive voice and the always remembered signature recently.
McHugh also added extra flair to some names, he added a mild Italian accent when introducing Domenic DeNucci, a former star who was nearing the end of his career and he always used extra emphasis for another aging veteran that was closer to the end of his career- "FROM the ISLE of MALTAAAA" Baron Mikel Scicluna!!"
Other than that wrestling show, I never saw McHugh announce anything else, although his obituary from 1993 when he passed at the age of 88 (which made McHugh in his late 70's when we first heard him) mentions him as "the nation's oldest ring announcer" ( I likely would have been able to guess that one) and mentions his work with the WWF, but also states that he was the regular announcer for Allentown boxing matches, which likely dated back to the '50s and 60's when many cities promoted boxing "club shows" along with other events in the area, along with announcing matches "Including Jack Dempsey and Muhammad Ali", which may or not be true and would be next to impossible to disprove.
It's odd how we think of things from going on 40 years ago ( We were introduced to wrestling with the All-Star show from Washington, it was a little while before that discovery with Baltimore TV, so
it's a year or two less than that for McHugh) at times that have nothing to do with the subject at hand.
McHugh appears in a surprising amount of YouTube videos with the WWF and as a kid, I absolutely hated (although I'd never miss it) the WWF TV show because you rarely saw stars against each other and now on wrestling, it seems like the match always feature stars vs stars.
I enjoy watching the old shows filled with squash matches, McHugh and Cappetta announcing the entire Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, Vince McMahon playing Howard Cosell in the Banana Yellow blazer with the sometimes hard to understand Bruno Sammartino or Pat Patterson offering their oft-confused observations, etc more than watching the various arena matches from the same era from the WWF on the various platforms.
It's nostalgia for a simpler ( although not always better) time with memories that are readily available due to the available technology that brings back surprising thoughts
One that I always laugh at now (I was not amused at all when it happened) was that my dad would wait until between 10;50-10:55 to tell Shane and me to reload the wood for the woodstove from the storage area and we couldn't watch the show until we were finished!
I imagine it must have been quite a sight to watch us throwing wood into a wheelbarrow to move it to the house and then scooping wood to throw it on the pile in a desperate attempt to be finished by eleven!
That's the type of thing that makes me still watch professional wrestling, even if it's from 30 to 40 years ago-It's not wrestling, it is what wrestling brings back in good thoughts and good times.
Let's welcome this gentleman to the Forgotten Superstars universe and "his name is JOOOOOOEEE McHugh"!
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