Dory Funk Jr., the Amarillo-raised wrestling champion who helped turn the Funk family name into a global force, has died at 85. His career stretched from West Texas football fields to the NWA championship, WWE’s biggest stages and a training school that helped shape generations of wrestlers.
According to News 4 San Antonio, Funk died Tuesday while receiving hospice care in Ocala, Florida, his wife, Marti Funk, told the Ocala Gazette. His cause of death was not immediately disclosed, and funeral arrangements had not been announced.
Before he became a professional wrestling icon, Funk was a standout athlete in the Texas Panhandle. West Texas A&M lists him as a 1990 Hall of Champions inductee in football; he played tackle for the then-West Texas State Buffaloes under coach Joe Kerbel and was part of the 1962 team that went 9-2 and won the Sun Bowl.
Funk entered professional wrestling in 1963 through his father Dory Funk Sr.’s Amarillo-based Western States Sports promotion. After his father’s death in 1973, Dory Jr. and his younger brother Terry took over the family operation, which promoted events across West Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle, according to News 4 San Antonio.
From The NWA Championship To WWE’s Hall Of Fame
In 1969, Funk won the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship and held it for more than four years, one of the longest uninterrupted reigns in the title’s history. The WWE noted that his career lasted more than half a century, included extensive work in the United States and Japan, and featured a WrestleMania 2 victory alongside Terry.
The brothers were inducted together into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009, becoming the only siblings to each win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Funk’s influence also continued outside the ring through the Funking Conservatory, where he and Marti trained or mentored wrestlers including Kurt Angle, Edge, Christian, Jeff and Matt Hardy, Mark Henry and Mickie James.
Earlier this year, the Ocala Gazette profiled Funk ahead of his 85th birthday, describing the longtime Florida resident as a retired champion whose work as a teacher and ambassador remained central to his legacy. The story also noted that Funk’s final professional match came in Japan in 2024, when he wrestled at age 83.
Funk’s death comes nearly three years after Terry Funk died in August 2023 at 79. The WWE’s tribute to Terry recalled the brothers’ long partnership, from their Amarillo roots to their international careers and shared place in wrestling history.
