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Ed "Chief Wahoo" McDaniel is remembered as one of the most influential Native American wrestlers in history. Originally a football player, McDaniel played for the Oklahoma Sooners in college, where he kicked a 91-yard punt—the sixth longest in NCAA history. He was drafted by the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans) and played with them in 1960. After one season, he joined the Denver Broncos from 1961 to 1963, the New York Jets from 1964 to 1965, and the Miami Dolphins from 1966 to 1968. McDaniel began his professional wrestling career while still playing football, wrestling during the off-season and playing football during the season. After retiring from football in 1968, he pursued wrestling full-time.
Wahoo became a major draw in every promotion he worked for, including Capitol Wrestling Corporation (which later became World Wrestling Entertainment), Georgia Championship Wrestling, Southwest Sports (Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling), the Minnesota Boxing & Wrestling Club (Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association), Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling, Paul Boesch's Houston Wrestling, and Japan’s International Wrestling Enterprises, where he won his first and only World Heavyweight Championship.
However, he spent the majority of his wrestling career with Jim Crockett Promotions out of Charlotte, North Carolina, a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). There, he won the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship five times, tying the record with Ric Flair. He also held the NWA World Tag Team Championship four times with three different partners: Rufus R. Jones, Paul Jones, and Mark Youngblood. Additionally, he was a four-time Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion and the final holder of the NWA National Heavyweight Championship, which came to Crockett Promotions from Championship Wrestling from Georgia after Crockett acquired a prime time slot on Ted Turner’s TBS.
McDaniel also wrestled for Eddie Graham's Championship Wrestling from Florida (an NWA affiliate), where he held the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship, the promotion’s top title. He won the belt in a tournament by defeating "Superstar" Billy Graham but lost it a month later to rookie sensation Lex Luger. His final national promotion was the declining AWA, which was airing on ESPN at that time. As both a wrestler and the company’s booker (head writer), McDaniel left after an injury storyline where the Destruction Crew, then AWA World Tag Team Champions and the promotion’s top team, caused him to suffer a detached retina.
Following a brief stint with Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling (WCW), McDaniel continued wrestling in the Carolinas. His last national television appearance was at the WCW Slamboree 1995 pay-per-view, where he was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame alongside "Big" John Studd (John Minton, Sr.), Angelo Poffo, Dusty Rhodes (Virgil Runnels, Jr.), and "The Dean of Wrestling" Gordon Solie.
McDaniel’s health declined in the mid-1990s, leading to the loss of both kidneys. He was awaiting a kidney transplant when he passed away at age 63 from complications related to diabetes and renal failure.
