Early career (1959–1965) Race was recruited by St. Joseph wrestling promoter Gust Karras who hired Race to do odd jobs for his promotion, including chauffeuring the Happy Humphrey. Eventually, Race started wrestling on some of his shows and some of Karras' veteran wrestlers helped further Race's training. At the age of 18, he moved to
Nashville and began wrestling under the
ring name of
Jack Long, forming a tag team with
storyline brother John Long (regional journeyman Billy Strong). The duo quickly captured the Southern Tag Team Championship. Race was seen as a rising star in the business until a car accident put him out of action, with his leg nearly being amputated. His pregnant wife, Vivian Louise Jones, died instantly; they had been married just over a month. Karras heard about his employee's condition, went rushing into the hospital, and blocked the planned amputation, declaring it "over my dead body". In doing so, he saved Race's leg. Although he recovered, doctors told Race that he might never walk again, and his wrestling career was over. Undaunted, Race endured grueling physical therapy for several months and made a full recovery. Race next went on to work for Jack Pfefer and Tony Santos in the Boston territory as the Great Mortimer in 1963. He returned to the ring in 1964, wrestling for
Dory Funk's
Amarillo, Texas, territory. This time, he wrestled as
Harley Race, after his father told him that he should not work to make anyone else's name famous. Race never again used a different ring name. In Amarillo, Race met fellow up-and-coming wrestler
Larry Hennig (later Larry "the Axe" Hennig and father of
"Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig). The two formed a tag team and moved to the
American Wrestling Association (AWA).
American Wrestling Association (1963–1971, 1976, 1984–1986, 1990) In the AWA, Race and Hennig branded themselves as "Handsome" Harley Race (which was actually a moniker given to him by fans in Japan Race lost the title to Flair in the bloody and memorable Starcade
steel cage match (with
Gene Kiniski as the special referee.) Flair jumped on top of Race from the top rope and pinned him to become champion. Race regained the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for a two-day reign in New Zealand in 1984; after many years, it is now a recognized title change with Harley as an eight-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion. However, his loss to Flair at Starcade was largely seen as the torch-passing from Race to Flair. Flair would go on to credit Race for igniting his career. Later, Race left the NWA because NWA president Sam Muchnick was "losing his capabilities". During a time when the WWF did not recognize the existence of other promotions and the accomplishments a wrestler made there, WWF officials came up with a solution to recognize his wrestling pedigree by having him win the
King of the Ring tournament on July 14, 1986. After this Race had a "coronation ceremony", as he then had referred to himself as "King" Harley Race, coming to the ring in a royal crown and cape, to the ceremonial accompaniment of the tenth movement (known as "Great Gate of Kiev") of
Pictures at an Exhibition by
Modest Mussorgsky. After winning a match, Race would make his defeated opponent "bow and kneel" before him. Usually Heenan would assist the defeated opponent to "bow and kneel" by grabbing their hair and forcing them to bow before Race. He participated in a notable feud with the
Junkyard Dog, culminating in a match at
WrestleMania III at the
Pontiac Silverdome, in which Race cleanly pinned JYD after a
belly-to-belly suplex. JYD was required to bow to Race as the winner, but after he bowed and Race got up, JYD attacked Race before leaving with The King's cape to a standing ovation. Race would spend 1987 feuding with
Hulk Hogan and
Jim Duggan, who during a televised confrontation took Race's crown and robe, though Race later attacked Duggan and took them back. Despite Race's anger at his manager, Bobby Heenan came to the
Royal Rumble match and cheered both Haku and the former king. Haku was victorious, and Harley Race departed from the WWF.
Post-WWF endeavors (1989–1990) After leaving the WWF, Race continued to wrestle until the spring of 1991, most notably with
World Wrestling Council (WWC) in Puerto Rico,
Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, Alberta, the NWA, All Japan and the AWA. He defeated
Miguel Perez Jr. for the
WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship on January 6, 1990, in Puerto Rico making it his last title reign until dropping it to
José González on March 4. After his appearance in AWA he briefly retired from wrestling.
World Championship Wrestling (1990–1995, 1999) Race made his return to the promotion at
The Great American Bash on July 7, 1990, when he defeated former NWA World Heavyweight Champion
Tommy Rich. He began making appearances on
house shows and immediately would fill in for Ric Flair in several tag team matches, pairing up with
Barry Windham against
Lex Luger and
Sting. Race also made an appearance at
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's
Lockdown pay-per-view in 2007 as the special guest gatekeeper for the main event. Race made a special guest appearance at the second night of
Ring of Honor's Glory by Honor VI: Night Two at the
Manhattan Center on November 3, 2007, in
New York City. On January 4, 2014, Race took part in
New Japan Pro-Wrestling's
Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome event, participating in the title presentation before a match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and punching out defending champion
Rob Conway's manager Bruce Tharpe. ==Promoting career==