As a boy living in the small northwest Missouri town of Quitman, Harley Race got the professional wrestling bug.
“I was 13 and I saw wrestling on TV,” Race said. “I thought it was pretty cool.”
When he was 16, Race got his chance. He was training with the Zybysco Brothers in St. Joseph when he met Central States Wrestling promoter Gus Karras.
“He asked me if I wanted to wrestle at some fairs,” he said. “At that point in time, I was willing to wrestle anywhere.”
Race’s career blossomed as he drove the 750-pound man mountain, Happy Humphrey, from town to town for appearances and formed a successful American Wrestling Association (AWA) tag-team with Larry “The Ax” Hennig.
In 1973, Harley upset National Wrestling Association (NWA) World Heavyweight Champion Dory Funk, Jr. and in 1986 joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) by teaming up with longtime-friend, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.
That year he also won the first-ever “King of the Ring” tournament, earning himself the nickname of “King” Harley Race. While with the WWF, “The King” performed in Wrestlemania III, taking on the Junkyard Dog in front of 93,000 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome.
Race’s career eventually included eight titles and thousands of memorable matches.
“I’ve lost track of how many matches I was in,” Race said. “But I’ve wrestled in all across the United States, in Europe, in China and in about every free country on the planet. I made more than 70 trips to wrestle in Japan, and supposedly, I was seen in Russia several times, too.”
Race, 72, is still involved in pro wrestling. He founded World League Wrestling and the Harley Race Wrestling Academy in 1999, and the organization now operates year round in Troy (after moving from Eldon in 2014).
The school features a 7,000 square foot building with two training rings and several amenities, along with the Race Wrestling Arena, where up-and-coming academy wrestlers perform in front of a crowd monthly.
WLW performers also hit the road on a regular basis, and nine of them did battle in five matches last Friday at the Texas County Fair inside the arena at the Houston Area Chamber of Commerce Fairgrounds.
Harley’s 31-year-old son, Leland Race, is an accomplished pro wrestler and was the marquee performer on the card in Houston. Leland was a high school state champion wrestler in North Carolina in 2001 and began his career in pro wrestling not long after that in and around Charlotte, N.C.
As he progressed, he trained with a wrestling organization in Tokyo, Japan, for three months in 2010. He said following in his famous father’s footsteps can be challenging.
“His shoes are extremely large,” Leland said. “I wrestled under a different name – Jason Jones – for several years because my dad didn’t want any favoritism coming from the wrestlers or the fans. But I went out there and earned my keep and there came a point when he said, ‘It’s time to let everybody know there’s another Race coming through.’
“That’s what I’m doing now.” Wrestling legend Harley Race, right, and his son, Leland. 
Leland Race now does most of the work for WLW.
“I do pretty much everything,” Leland said. “One thing somebody once told me – that I totally believe – is that if you want to be successful in professional wrestling, you have to know every single thing, from the actual wrestling to how to sell tickets, how to print programs, how to set up a ring. Everything.
“I’m not saying I’m the best at it – at least on the business side. In the ring I know what I’m doing.”
He knows what he’s doing enough that Leland Race has garnered the attention of Vince McMahon, owner of the popular World Wrestling Entertainment –– currently the biggest wrestling organization.
“I’ve had them look at him twice,” Harley said. “Both times they were willing to take him, but that would virtually put me out of business. I told them if they took him, I would need somebody here as a replacement.”
“There aren’t a lot of people who would want to do what I’m doing for my dad and World League Wrestling – not so much the wrestling part, but the behind the scenes stuff,” Leland said. “Do I want to go to WWE? Yeah. Is the time right? No.
“Don’t get me wrong – the money would be a thousand percent better. But I’m doing what I love to do, and there aren’t very many people these days who can call professional wrestling their career. Hobby, sure, but not their career.”
Leland said if the money is there if and when the time is right, then so be it.
“Professional wrestling has been my dad’s life for a long time. He eats, sleeps and breathes it,” he said. “I want to keep that going and I’ll die keeping that alive for him. You’ll have to kill me, because I’m not letting it go.
“Then when my time comes to do something, I’ll take it and go. But until then, he and this company are my number one concern.”
WLW announcer Brian Thompson has been in the wrestling business as an announcer, promoter and manager for about 15 years. He said the company does about 40 to 50 events per year (mostly in Missouri, but also in other nearby states).
“It’s going well for us right now,” Thompson said. “It’s a great form of entertainment, and we have a lot of quality athletes. It’s a good outlet for a family to come out and enjoy themselves. The idea is that for a couple of hours, you can take your mind off of whatever problems or stress might be in your life and come out and scream and have a good time and see some super-heroes come to life.
“WLW is very family-oriented. I like to say we’re ‘hard hitting but family friendly.’”
Harley Race said that while much of pro wrestling is just show, jumping off the ropes, landing on hard surfaces and “pretending” to make lots of physical contact is taxing on a body. He said people should think twice before concluding wrestlers aren’t athletes.
“Tell them to jump in there,” Harley said. “It’s not easy. It’s impossible not to get hurt when you’re in the ring. You’re going to get a shock here and there.
“When you’re flying six feet in the air and landing on a solid surface, you get whacked pretty good.”
Leland Race isn’t bashful about acknowledging his ability in the ring and said he thrives in his unique situation as the son of a great wrestler.
“Besides the fact I’m good at it, it’s knowing I have large footsteps to follow,” he said. “My entire life has been nothing but challenges, so I welcome that. This is what I’ve wanted to do since I was 10 years old, and I’m happy, I have a roof over my head because of professional wrestling and I get to wrestle every weekend, whether it’s here at the Texas County Fair or anywhere else. I can’t imagine myself doing anything different.”
Haley Race said he enjoyed – for the most part – the fame and recognition wrestling gave him.
“It depends on what you’re doing,” he said, “but 90-plus percent of the time it’s great to still be recognized.”
World League Wrestling will on Aug 29 will host “WLW Night of Champions” featuring Harley Race, Rick Flair, Leland Race, NWA Jr. Heavyweight champion Steve Anthony and others. The event will follow the Harley Race Wrestling Academy’s 16th annual training camp Aug. 24-28 that will feature participants from many countries, including Japan. Flair is slated to be a guest stars at the camp (which costs $500 pre person and is expected to sell out). For more information, to register for the camp, or to purchase tickets for the Night of Champions, log onto www.harleyrace.com or call 573-392-4100.