{{short description|American professional wrestler}} {{For|Eric of the Yukon Lumberjacks|Scott Irwin}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2014}} {{Infobox professional wrestler |name = Yukon Eric |image = Yukon Eric - Toar Morgan Fan Club - 1950's World Wide Wrestling News Cover (cropped).jpg |image_size = 200px |alt = |caption = |birth_name = Eric Holmback<ref name="OWOW"/> |names = Yukon Eric<ref name="OWOW"/> |height = {{height|ft=6|in=1}}<ref name="OWOW"/> |weight = {{convert|275|lb|kg|abbr=on}} – {{convert|300|lb|kg|abbr=on}}<ref name="OWOW"/> |birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|04|16}}<ref name="OWOW"/> |birth_place = Monroe, Washington, U.S.<ref name="OWOW"/> |death_date = {{Death date and age|1965|01|16|1916|04|16}}<ref name="OWOW"/> |death_place = Cartersville, Georgia, U.S.<ref name="WV"/> |billed = Fairbanks, Alaska<ref name="OWOW"/> |trainer = Man Mountain Dean<ref name="OWOW"/> |debut = January 22, 1942<ref name="OWOW"/><ref name="CaHOF"/> |retired = }} '''Eric Holmback''' (April 16, 1916 – January 16, 1965) was an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name '''Yukon Eric'''.
Holmback spent the majority of his career in Southern Ontario, Canada, where he won the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship on two occasions with Whipper Billy Watson in 1955 and 1961 and the Montreal Athletic Commission's International Heavyweight Championship. He also won the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship in 1948.
Holmback is best known for his 1952 match and subsequent feud with Killer Kowalski in which he lost his ear as a result of a botched knee drop. A rematch between the two the following year was the first televised wrestling match in Canada. Holmback continued to wrestle in Florida until he died by suicide in 1965.
==Professional wrestling career== After being trained by Man Mountain Dean, Holmback made his professional wrestling debut on January 22, 1942, using the ring name Yukon Eric.<ref name="OWOW">{{cite web|url=http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/y/yukon-eric.html|title=Yukon Eric|access-date=January 9, 2010|publisher=Online World of Wrestling}}</ref> Yukon Eric utilised a strongman in-ring persona, and as part of the persona, he was announced as being from Fairbanks, Alaska, and always wore plaid wool shirts, worn open to show off his {{convert|66|in|cm|abbr=on}} chest.<ref name="OWOW"/><ref name="slam"/> He also was known for whipping his opponent into the ropes so that they would bounce back into his chest.<ref name="slam"/>
On January 30, 1948, Yukon Eric defeated Sonny Myers to win his first professional wrestling championship, the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship.<ref name="OWOW"/> He held the championship for a week, before losing it to Miguel Guzmán on February 6.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tx/tx-h.html|title=Texas Heavyweight Title|access-date=January 9, 2010|publisher=wrestling-titles.com}}</ref> After this, he moved to Southern Ontario, where he spent the majority of his wrestling career.<ref name="CaHOF">{{cite web|url=http://www.sportshall.ca/collection_detail.php?i=5436&t=p&page=40&gallery_id=19|title=Turofsky Gallery|access-date=January 8, 2010|publisher=Canada's Sports Hall of Fame}} {{dead link|date=May 2018}}</ref> Two years later, on February 15, 1950, he defeated Bobby Managoff to win the Montreal Athletic Commission's International Heavyweight Championship.<ref name="OWOW"/>
During a match against Wladek Kowalski in 1952, Kowalski botched a knee drop, and legitimately severed part of Holmback's left ear.<ref name="CaHOF"/><ref name="SI"/> Afterward, Kowalski went to visit Holmback in the hospital, but began laughing at the bandages wrapped around Holmback's head.<ref name="SI"/> The incident cemented Kowalski as a heel (villainous character) and prompted Kowalski to rename himself Killer Kowalski.<ref name="SI">{{cite web|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1029165/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025225729/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1029165/index.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 25, 2012|title=killer Kowalski Tears Ear Off...laughs|date=July 14, 2003|last=Hoffer|first=Richard|access-date=January 8, 2010|publisher=Sports Illustrated}}</ref> A rematch between the two on January 14, 1953, at the Montreal Forum was the first ever televised wrestling match in Canada.<ref name="slam"/>
He won the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship twice with Whipper Billy Watson, with their first reign beginning on February 13, 1958, when they defeated Fritz Von Erich and Gene Kiniski.<ref name="OWOW"/> They lost the championship just over a month later to Stan and Reggie Lisowski on March 20, 1958.<ref name="stan">{{cite web|url=http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/s/stan-neilson.html|title=Stan Neilson profile|access-date=January 9, 2010|publisher=Online World of Wrestling}}</ref> Later that year, he won the championship for the second time when he teamed with Dara Singh to defeat Stan and Reggie Lisowski on August 7, 1958.<ref name="stan"/> Three years later, on December 28, 1961, he won the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship for the second time with Watson, and the third time overall, when the pair defeated John and Chris Tolos.<ref name="OWOW"/> Worked in Minnesota for American Wrestling Association from 1961 to 1962. He later moved to Florida, where he wrestled until the time of his death in 1965.<ref name="WV"/>
In 2007, Holmback was one of the honorees of the Cauliflower Alley Club's Posthumous Award, along with Betty Jo Hawkins.<ref name="CAC">{{cite web|url=http://www.caulifloweralleyclub.org/reunion-news/past-honorees/|title=Past Honorees – Posthumous Award|access-date=January 9, 2010|publisher=Cauliflower Alley Club|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411213015/http://www.caulifloweralleyclub.org/reunion-news/past-honorees/|archive-date=April 11, 2009|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
==Personal life== Holmback grew up in Aberdeen, Washington, with three sisters. He attended Washington State College, where he played American football, lettering with the varsity team in 1938 as a sophomore.<ref name="slam">{{cite web|url=http://www.canoe.com/SlamWrestlingBios/yukoneric.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991002065705/http://www.canoe.com/SlamWrestlingBios/yukoneric.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 2, 1999|title=SLAM! Wrestling Canadian Hall of Fame: Yukon Eric|access-date=January 9, 2010|work=Slam! Sports|publisher=Canadian Online Explorer}}</ref>
==Death== After divorcing his wife and suffering financial problems, on January 16, 1965, Holmback drove to the church in Cartersville, Georgia, where he had gotten married, and took his own life by shooting himself in the mouth with a .22 caliber pistol. He was reported missing when he failed to show for matches in Jacksonville, Florida, and St. Petersburg, Florida. His body was found the next day in his car in the church parking lot.<ref name="OWOW"/><ref name="WV">{{cite web|url=http://www.wrestleview.com/news2006/1200555394.shtml|title=Al Snow coming to GWA, Ohio indy news, CHIKARA + Georgia Wrestling – Nostalgia|date=January 17, 2008|last=Martin|first=Adam|access-date=January 9, 2010|publisher=WrestleView}}</ref> He was survived by his three children; two daughters and a son.<ref name="slam"/>
==Championships and accomplishments== *'''Cauliflower Alley Club''' **Posthumous Award (2007)<ref name="CAC"/> *'''National Wrestling Alliance''' **NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Pat O'Connor and Roy McClarity **NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship (3 times)<ref name="bodyslamming">{{cite web|url=http://www.bodyslamming.com/deceased/yukoneric.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041213095534/http://www.bodyslamming.com/deceased/yukoneric.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=December 13, 2004|title=Yukon Eric|access-date=January 9, 2010|publisher=Bodyslamming.com}}</ref> – with Whipper Billy Watson (2)<ref name="OWOW"/> and Dara Singh (1)<ref name="stan"/> **NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)<ref name=TexasBook>*{{cite book| last1=Will | first1=Gary | first2=Royal | last2= Duncan | title=Wrestling Title Histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present | publisher=Archeus Communications | year=2000 | location=Pennsylvania | chapter=Texas: NWA Texas Heavyweight Title [Von Erich] | isbn=0-9698161-5-4 | pages=268–269}}</ref><ref name=TexasWeb>{{cite web | url=http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tx/tx-h.html | title= NWA Texas Heavyweight Title | access-date=March 30, 2017 | work=Wrestling-Titles}}</ref> *'''Montreal Athletic Commission''' **MAC International Heavyweight Championship (1 time)<ref name="bodyslamming"/>
==See also== * List of premature professional wrestling deaths * Lists of solved missing person cases
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/19991002065705/http://www.canoe.com/SlamWrestlingBios/yukoneric.html Slam! Wrestling Biography] *{{professional wrestling profiles}}
{{NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship}}
Category:1916 births Category:1960s missing person cases Category:1965 deaths Category:1965 suicides Category:American male professional wrestlers Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:Fictional characters from Alaska Category:Formerly missing American people Category:Missing person cases in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Champions Category:NWA International Tag Team Champions (Toronto version) Category:NWA Texas Heavyweight Champions Category:People from Monroe, Washington Category:Professional wrestlers from Washington (state) Category:Stampede Wrestling alumni Category:Suicides by firearm in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Washington State Cougars football players Category:20th-century American people