One Of The 1379

I love checking out my Site Meter to see how people find my site. Since I have the words "Mighty Quinn" in my site name, I get a ton people who find me through a Mighty Quinn Internet search. The majority of those people are trying to find something connected with the famous song or the Denzel Washington movie from 1988. (Although I would like to think many of them were actually looking for me.)

The other day I noticed a couple of people found my site through a search of "Mighty John Quinn." Again, they apparently weren't looking for my site per se, But I discovered just who they were actually looking for.

"Mighty" John Quinn is actually a professional wrestler from the 1970s who was from Canada, and did a lot of wrestling throughout the world (pictured on the right). Apparently when he wrestled in the US, he went under the name "The Kentucky Butcher." (I can't say I remember him at all.)

I found his page from the Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame, and I have to admit I enjoyed reading it, especially from his time when he wrestled in England, and he was also known as "Big" John Quinn as well:

"Big" John Quinn
Very successful wrestler in Canada in the 70s who became world heavyweight champion in England in the 80s. Wrestled as the Kentucky Butcher in the WWWF in the 70s and had some title shots against Bruno Sammartino. His nine Canadian tag championships in Vancouver include 4 reigns with Bob Brown, one with Kurt Von Hess, whith whom he also won the IWA World tag title in Japan, and one with Don Leo Jonathan in 1978.

"In the left corner, the man they love to hate -- the Mighty Quinn, a 32-year-old Canadian. He's 6ft 4in tall and weights 20 stone 10 lb. His hobby -- eating the British for breakfast. John Quinn is desperate to be the best because he really HATES the British. During his five months in Britain, Quinn says he has become disgusted with us -- especially with the wrestling audiences." (From REVEILLE, June 15, 1979)

Prominent Titles:
9-time Canadian tag champion (Vancouver), 1970-78
3-time Stampede North American champion, 1971, 74
Mid-South North American champion, as The Stomper, 1972
Mid-South Brass Knucks champion, as The Stomper, 1972
Stampede International tag champion, with Mr. Hito, 1975
2-time Pacific Coast champion (Vancouver), 1976, 78
IWF tag champion (Japan), with Kurt Von Hess, 1977
2-time World heavyweight champion (England), 1980-85

I had to emphasize that part about how much "John Quinn hates the British" because I am known to be something of an Anglophile myself. I believe Mr. Quinn is still around, attending a lot of wrestling conventions, and he's still well-known among the Canadian wrestling fans.

Speaking of John Quinns, I found a site online courtesy of my friend Michael Leggett called "How Many Of Me." There you can find out how many people in the USA have the same name as yourself, as well as just your first and last names. I recently went over to that site (www.howmanyofme.com) and discovered that as of the 2000 US Census, there are 1,379 guys named John Quinn currently living in the US (the number could be different of course due to new John Quinns being born and other John Quinns dying).

There are also 83,991 people in America named Quinn (395th most popular surname), and 4,923,984 people named John, which is the second most popular given name in the country. But I found it VERY curious that 99.63% of all people named John are male. Does that mean that there are actually WOMEN in the US with the first name John? That would mean there are approximately 18,200 women in the US named John. (That's as bad as boy named Sue.) I can't say I've ever heard of, let alone met, a woman named John.

I got the name John from my father, and my great uncle, both John Quinns as well. (I'm not a "junior" though, as my dad and I have different middle names.)

There are a few famous John Quinns running around out there. The current mayor of Bowling Green, Ohio and a congressman from Buffalo are named John Quinn. Currently there is a children's fiction author, as well as a screenwriter/director with my name. There was a famous pitcher in the early 20th century named Jack Quinn, but his real name was John Quinn Picus. The Phillies GM many years ago was John Quinn, and the man who Tom Yawkey bought the Red Sox from in 1933 was J. Robert Quinn, who's first name was John. (And he bought the Sox originally in 1923 from the infamous Harry Frazee.)

Yep, a "John Quinn" once owned the Red Sox. But it was during the 1920s, the worst stretch in their long and storied history.

If you go to Google and type in "John Quinn," 677,000 possibilities will come up. So when I write I also use my middle name, which is Brian. It can be a bit difficult to have a relatively common name at times.

I have to try to stand out from all those other run-of-the-mill John Quinns somehow.