Jumping Jim Hussey. That's a name that crops up fairly regularly, and never a bad word is said against him.
Bernard strayed on to memories of Jumping Jim in the Sixties Nagasaki thread and suggested starting a topic on him. We did have a thread dedicated to him years ago on the old forum, but I'm sure we have much to add.
Jumping Jim has his own Personality Parade tribute
Previous forum comments include:
Graham Bawden
After many a long conversation with my father, he recalled that when in the ring prior to a fight, Jumping Jimmy Hussey was so agile, that he could somersault and land perfectly on a hankerchief. All done with incredible skill. Can any WH members confirm this? Jimmy Hussey had some epic battles over the years, with top stars like Les Kellet. One of the all time greats.
Ron Historyo
Pretty sure Jim Hussey was born in the 1920's. Some of us can remember him in the sixties. For sure then , he was a small compact heavyweight who could take a good throwing about.
I would think though that there would be a fair chance of Jim Having those skills back in the 1940's and perhaps 1950's .
Jim was always good value.
powerlock
I know that according to my late dad Jim Hussey delivered a great dropkick
Graham Bawden
Jimmy Hussey left behind a fine legacy in the form of Rollerball Mark Rocco. Another great.
Bernard Hughes
I can confirm that when I first saw Jim Hussey he was capable of delivering a dropkick. Not too many years later he had put on so much weight that i don't recall him doing much (if any) dropkicking.
There was a story that Jim used to put a handkerchief down in the ring and was able to stand on the said item deliver a dropkick and land back on the handkerchief.
I never saw him do this, but I thi nk that probably in his younger days, this would be possible.
powerlock
Cheers Bernard it was at St James that my dad had seen Jim do it
Hack
Thanks to the combined efforts of Heritage members we can now confirm Jim was truly Jumping Jim.
SaxonWolf
My late father in law told me the same story as Bernard mentions above, that he had seen Jim Hussey do the handkerchirf trick on a couple of occasions, this would have been after World War 2 had ended.
Anglo Italian
I can actually remember that he was billed as "The Pocket Handkerchief Man".
Bernard Hughes
Hi All, yes Anglo, I think that I can remember seeing Jim Hussey billed as the pocket handkerchief man.
grahambrook
Unfortunately Jimmy Hussey was at the tail end of his career when I first started seeing him live at The Kings Hall, Belle Vue. I recall seeing him against Peter Stewart and I also recall TV appearances against Les Kellett, Sean Regan and Ray Glendenning. I think his loss to Glendenning was at The De Montfort Hall in Leicester and was his last TV appearance but older contributors who actually kept records rather than doing it all from memory may well correct that. So I missed the legendary dropkick but, rather similarly to Alan Garfield and Lee Sharron, Hussey had a tremendous presence and a huge personality. I recall being in the audience one night in the early seventies at The Wryton Stadium, Bolton, and one of the seconds giving out rather smart glossy cardboard cards featuring a photograph of Jimmy and inviting us to visit his pub, "The Old Man and the Scythe" in Kearsley.
Dave Sutherland
Thanks to Ray Plunkett's monumental list of results I can see that Jim Hussey was appearing at Newcastle before I was even born! I first saw him back in 1962 on television against Albert Wall and he was referred to as Jumping Jim then howver on that occasion and soon afterwards when I was to see him live there was very little evidence of the dropkick except on one occasion when he tried to dropkick Massambula too near to the ropes and collided with the middle one with very painful results. I saw Jim several times at St James; always great value and always the villain except on one occasion when he fought Jan Kovaks and he was the great hero (he had been castigated as a total pariah against Jamie Olivera a fortnight previously).
Ron Historyo
Probably worth recording on this thread that the earliest I can find Jim Hussey in my bill collection is 1943.
Then the question , when did he become "Jumping Jim".......... Best I can do is August 1945 and the bill is in the Cheltenham collection.
Bernard Hughes
Certainly from 1948 onwards he was known as Jumping Jim Hussey.
The jumping stopped when the weight went on but the nametag survived.
Graham Bawden
I remember seeing an old black and white televised bout featuring Jumping Jimmy Hussey v Les Kellet. A real fight to the finish.Let's have your memories of Jumping Jim
Cats and pigeons. Anyone could be a champion, and here's yet another another Northern Heavyweight Champ.
Jim Hussey was the one I would think most of us always thought of as Northern champion.
Hi Ruslan, That seems a bit early for either of the two wrestlers that you mentioned to be heavyweight champions of anything.
I am sure that Johnny Allan was not a full heavyweight in 1951, but some promoters will do anything to try to boost the appeal of a bill.
Thanks for the info about titles he held, I have Jim Armstrong and Johnny Allen as Northern Counties Hwt Champions. And promotion was known as North Western Promotions. Another important detail, sometimes both those wrestlers were called - British and British Empire/Commonwealth Champions.
I have seen him billed as Northern Area Heavyweight champion from 1947 through to late 1951. It seems he defeated The Farmer (George Broadfield) in a match for this 'title'. By late 1952 Strangler Ed Bright is being billed as Northern champion. Not sure if they had a match or the promoters simply decided to bill someone else as champion.
Jim Hussey is another candidate of being holder of the Wryton Trophy at some point of his career. I will work on that and sure will share all my finds.
His match against Les Kellet is available on the Snakepit Website. It was part of the 1967 documentary "The Wrestlers"
Lovely snippet, Bernard, thanks.
So JJH gets suitable respect in the Nagasaki book.
Personally I do see a resemblance in the Hussy and Rocco styles: they both carried their right shoulder distinctively low.
One other thing that I have just remembered. Sometime between 1952 and 1956 I saw Jim at Newcastle and he had adopted a slight twist to his style. He would march round the ring and then turn 90 degrees to face his opponent head on.
I asked Norman Walsh about this and he said that Jim had adopted the style from a wrestler called Baron Gardenia.
Does that name mean anything to our readers?
I too was a fan and it's good to see Jim remembered fondly. You knew what you were going to get with Jim. Or at least what you weren't going to get. You wouldn't get any clever scientific stuff. He was a real bruiser. I remember a match with Marino with Marino bleeding by the end of the first round. Jim still lost of course.
Jumping Jim Hussey was a first-class wrestler, who usually adopted the "heel" role. I can remember seeing him on black and white tv back in the 1950's, and he never failed to entertain. He could be termed a pocket dynamo, as he perfected a brilliant drop kick, which was quite remarkable for a man of his stature and weight.
I only saw him once live when he was really up against it, as his opponent was the magnificent Geoff Portz, at the peak of his ability. Not surprisingly Jim lost but boy did he put up a good show. A typical "heel" of his era, with the Clark Gable moustache he never failed to entertain.