Blackjack Mulligan Dead At 73
WWE Hall of Famer passes away after months of poor health.
Blackjack Mulligan, a WWE Hall of Famer and the patriarch of a wrestling family that includes three generations of superstars, passed away Thursday at the age of 73.
No cause of death is known at the moment, but Mulligan had been ill for many months after suffering a heart attack.
Mulligan, born Robert Windham, formed the WWE World Tag Team Championship tandem The Blackjacks with current road agent Jack Lanza. He was also a singles star, challenging for the WWE Championship during the early 1970s and holding the NWA United States Championship four times later in the decade. Mulligan's career came to an end in 1989, when he was arrested and jailed for counterfeiting.
In 2006, Mulligan and Lanza were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, but Mulligan's relationship with the company had been contentious in recent months. WWE preemptively sued Mulligan in July of 2015 after the former Tag Team Champion expressed his intent to sue the company due to concussion-related health problems he traced to his tenure on the roster.
Mulligan is also well-known as the father of former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Barry Windham and former Florida Heavyweight Champion Kendall Windham. Mulligan's daughter, Stephanie, is married to Barry's former tag team partner Mike Rotunda, and their two sons currently wrestle for WWE - Windham Rotunda competes as Bray Wyatt, while Taylor Rotunda wrestles under the name Bo Dallas.