As a young man, Windham played football at Texas Western College, now known as the University of Texas at El Paso. He then went on to play for the New York Jets during the 1966 pre-season and received tryouts with the New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos. After football, at the urging of Wahoo McDaniel, Windham trained with Joe Blanchard in Corpus Christi, Texas and later with Verne Gagne and became a professional wrestler in the American Wrestling Association. He then moved to the World Wide Wrestling Federation and became the villain Blackjack Mulligan. At first Mulligan, donning black trunks, black hat, black glove, and using the iron claw submission hold, seemed to be an imitation of AWA wrestler Blackjack Lanza, managed by The Grand Wizard. Mulligan went on to greater success in the