‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan: 30 years with Old Glory

You think of “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, and three letters immediately come to mind.

“U-S-A!”

“People will ask me, Hacksaw, do you ever get tired of it?” said Duggan, who will face Daivari at New Year’s Chaos, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013 at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington.

Duggan has been wrestling for 33 years. He’s been “Hacksaw” for just short of 30 years, carrying an American flag and a 2×4 to the ring with him that long.

At this stage in his career, Duggan admits to sometimes “getting a little tired lacing up the boots.”

“But I tell you, brother, you hear those fans coming in, you hear them start chanting, USA, USA, you get to that curtain, you walk out in front of those folks, and they’re all standing up, screaming at the top of their lungs, USA, an old, grizzly veteran like myself, I still get goosebumps. I can’t help it. It’s a shot of adrenaline,” Duggan said.

That’s part of the secret, Duggan said, as to how he’s able to still compete with wrestlers like Daivari who are barely half his age.

“Physically, my limitations are quite a bit at this stage in my career. But I think I still have got the heart that I had at 28 years old, and I think I still have the support, and that carries me through,” Duggan said.

He was named to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011. The honor was something that he had been both “looking forward to and hoping” would come to pass.

“To be remembered, and also acknowledged by your peers, is something that I think you can’t help but be proud of,” Duggan said.

One thing Duggan doesn’t allow to be said is that he’s any kind of hero for the character that he plays in the ring.

“I’ve done it all over the world – 23 different countries, every state in the Union, every province in Canada. And a lot of times, you know, a young guy will come up and say, Hacksaw, you’re an American hero. I say, No, sir, I’m not an American hero. The American heroes are the brave men and women that are out there keeping my family safe, keeping all of us safe here in our country.

“The least that we can do is honor and respect and try to help out the Wounded Warriors any way anybody can. These are the guys making the ultimate sacrifice – being away from their families, putting their lives on the line, and a lot of them getting hurt very badly,” Duggan said.

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