Brian Pillman

Brian William Pillman (May 22, 1962 – October 5, 1997) was an American football player and professional wrestler best known for his appearances in World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation in the 1990s.

Pillman had a legacy as "The Loose Cannon", a wrestling gimmick that would see him do a series of worked shoots that would gain him a degree of infamy for his unpredictable character. He was also known for being extremely agile in the ring, although a car accident in April 1996 from which he received extensive ankle injuries limited his in-ring ability.

Early life

Pillman's mother was named Mary and he had two sisters named Angie and Linda. His father died of a heart attack when Pillman was three months old.

As a child, Pillman developed multiple throat polyps and underwent 36 operations to tend to them before the age of three.

Football career

Brian graduated from Norwood High School in Norwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. While attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Pillman played football for the then-Redskins (now RedHawks) as a Defensive Tackle where he set records in the "tackles for loss" category. A two-time Second Team All-American, he went undrafted by the National Football League, joining the hometown Cincinnati Bengals as a free agent in 1984 (where he won the Ed Block Courage Award for his team) and later the Canadian Football League for the Calgary Stampeders in 1986. He also played for the Buffalo Bills in preseason action in 1985 but was the last player cut before the start of that season. His attempts to make the roster of the Bengals were covered in a series of articles in The Cincinnati Enquirer. Pillman and John Harbaugh, current head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, were roommates and defensive teammates while at Miami.