Rhodes came upon an advertisement for Tony Santos’ Boston-based professional wrestling organization Big Time Wrestling in the newspaper in 1967.
Rhodes drove to Boston and, despite having no prior wrestling experience, used his genuine friendships with Bobby Duncum and the Funk brothers to deceive the company into hiring him.
Rhodes attended West Texas State after graduating from Austin’s Albert Sidney Johnston High School and played football and baseball there (now known as West Texas A&M University).
After going pro, Rhodes went out for the Boston Patriots of the American Football League but was rejected. The Hartford Charter Oaks of the Continental Football League were the team he later played for until it was disbanded.
Dusty Rhodes’s cause of death: What happened to Dusty Rhodes?
Rhodes experienced kidney illness in his senior years.
Paramedics were called to Rhodes’ Orlando, Florida, home on June 10, 2015, after receiving a report that he had fallen.
He was taken to a neighboring hospital, where he underwent kidney failure and passed away the following day at the age of 69.
Rhodes was cremated, and his son Dustin scattered his ashes on a ranch that he cherished in November 2015.
