Ski Hi Lee

Ski Hi Lee
Ring name(s)	Ski-Hi Lee Sky Hi Lee Sky-Hi Lee Sky High Lee
Billed height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Billed weight	300 lb (140 kg)
Born	1921 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	Template:1973-1974 United Kingdom
Billed from	Texas

Robert E. Leedy (born 1921) was a heavyweight professional wrestler who began his career around the end of the Second World War as a boxer, billed as the great white hope and fought Joe Lewis (the brown bomber), getting knocked out in the third round, after which he played for the Chicago Bears for a season quiting saying it was too rough, he did try hollywood for some western movies, but with little success he settled on wrestling. He was active for some twenty years and he is best known as Ski Hi Lee. His name is sometimes written as Ski-Hi Lee, Sky Hi Lee, Sky-Hi Lee or Sky High Lee and there may be other variations in use. The pronunciation is 'Sky High' rather than 'Skee High'. Much about his life is obscure; although he was well known in his time, there is little written information about him readily to hand in the public domain today.

Certain sources refer to Lee as a citizen of the USA and from Texas to be specific but that was only the Storyline persona he used in wrestling, however he did have a native American heritage. In actuality he was from Toronto in Canada but wrestled using a cowboy "gimmick" and was therefore billed as being from the Lone Star State. His massive 54 inch chest, with his 87 inch arm reach, combined with his 6ft 8inch height, made for a very impressive image.

Professional wrestling career

Leedy began wrestling in the mid 1940s, always working as a bad guy, or Heel, because his towering presence made him easy to fear. He has been described as a "country bumpkin version of Jaws from James Bond". The name Ski Hi Lee is a play on the name of wrestler Sky Low Low, a midget wrestler who used a Native American gimmick. Owing to his great size Lee was not a very technical wrestler, resorting more to brawling and cheating than to finesse. But in those days matches were regularly fixed to increase attendance, seldom were they serious, mostly just acting to increase the crowd's excitement. In one match it is alleged Wipper Billy Watson grabbed him in the groin, whereupon Sky quickly responded that ended with Watson going to a hospital. Lee was almost always promoted as a "special attraction" in the territories he worked, drawing people to see him not because he wrestled for Championships but because they hoped that the local hero, or Face, would beat the giant cowboy (see for instance the reference in the song "Ag Pleez Deddy", vide infra). Ski was always the Big Bad Guy, that's what paid his bills, as with others of that time playing similar roles.

Although he was usually billed as "a special attraction", Lee did hold a couple of championship titles. In 1951 he defeated Al Mills for the NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship, a feat he'd repeat in 1952 to become a two time holder of the Canadian Heavyweight title. Some of Lee's most memorable matches were against other big men such as Killer Kowalski, whom he wrestled in many promotions all over the United States and Canada. In the 1960s Lee went to the UK because of income tax issues, where he wrestled part-time, the physical strain on his body having become too much for him to maintain a full career in the sport, eventually forced him to retire and become hospitalized ending in his death.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

While still working as a wrestler Leedy also owned and operated a Dude Ranch (Rocking H in Acton Ontario) and a restaurant just outside of his native Toronto. After retiring from the ring, Leedy had a role in theatre in Paris, apparently as a caveman. He was married to a country singer named Billie Allen Skuce and sometimes appeared on stage with her as a comic foil. They had three children Robert, Richard and Sandra (who later changed her name to Sandy). Both boys joined the US Military, Robert the Marines, Richard the Army. He divorced Billy who later married John M Carrol who adopted all the children along with his three boys from a previous marriage. Whereupon they moved to Bucks County Penn, where John taught at Leigh High University.

Later, They all moved to a location near London Ontario where John taught as a professor at London Western University. Because of a very ugly divorce,Sky was described as "a heavy-drinking rabble-rouser", who demonstrated his toughness by allowing his back to be used on stage as a dartboard, who cared little for the well being of his wife or children.

He would also on occasion order a shot at the bar and then proceed to eat the glass in front of the patrons. This was all razzamatazz and showmanship; those of his contemporaries who have written about him describe him as a gentle giant who in reality never harmed a flea.

A family rumour is once while he was touring in the US, a bouncer at a bar got obnoxious with a friends wife whereupon Sky promptly neutralized him, which ended up in a couple of more bouncers and some twenty police officers to finally subdue and take him away. In person he was very intimadating because of his size, looks and if he applied emotional indicators almost terrifying.

Leedy is well remembered amongst older South Africans, because he is mentioned in a locally-famous satirical song from the sixties entitled "Ag Pleez Deddy" ("Oh Please Daddy", also known as "The Ballad of the Southern Suburbs", by Jeremy Taylor, 1961), in which reference is made to a scheduled bout between Lee and a well-known South African wrestler, Willie Liebenberg. Whether this bout really took place and if so, who won, is moot. Lee certainly appeared in the ring in South Africa on many occasions and he also fought in Australia.

The specific date of his death is not known, nor is the specific cause. It has been suggested that he suffered from a form of gigantism known as acromegaly and that this shortened his life, . In the late 1960s and early 1970s he worked in a pub in Pimlico. Students at the nearby Westmister Hospital were regularly told to go to the pub when he was working as he was a textbook case of acromegaly in terms of height and characteristic facial appearance. Among other manifestations of acromegaly is a cardiomyopathy. It has also been proposed that his sheer size induced a strain on his heart, while others have opined that he drank himself to death.

Championships and accomplishments

• Stampede Wrestling

• NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship (Calgary version) (2 times)
• Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame

Further reading

• Ag Pleez Deddy at 3rd Ear Music

References

General

• Oliver, Greg (2003). "Sky Hi Lee". the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame - The Canadians. ECW Press. pp. 161. ISBN 1-55022-531-6. 
• "Online World of Wrestling Profile: Sky Hi Lee". Online World of Wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/s/sky-hi-lee.html. Retrieved 2009-04-10. 

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