Terry Joyal (March 1, 1937 - August 17, 1998), better known by his

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projectin ...

Terry Garvin, was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

. He is best known for his work with

kayfabe In professional wrestling, kayfabe, as a noun, is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true", specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not staged. ...

brother Ron Garvin, with whom he won several tag team championships in the Southern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. He is also known for a case of sexual harassment in 1992 that led to the end of his employment with the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and va ...

Professional wrestling career

Joyal grew up in Montreal, Quebec. He trained to become a professional wrestler at a gym in the Loisirs St. Jean de Baptiste church in Montreal. He made his wrestling debut in 1958 in Ontario. He held the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship of Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling two times in 1964 with partner Chin Lee. Beginning in 1965, Garvin began an approximately five-year stint as the tag team partner of Ron Garvin. In November 1967, he wrestled for

Championship Wrestling from Florida Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) was the corporate and brand name of the Tampa, Florida wrestling office existing from 1961, when Eddie Graham first bought into the promotion, until 1987, when it closed down. It is also referred to a ...

and won the Florida version of the

NWA World Tag Team Championship The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed member promotions to create their own territorial version of the "NWA Worl ...

with Ron Garvin, trading it with the team of Paul DeMarco and Lorenzo Parente. Garvin then began teaming with Duke Myers. The pair's

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

was

Jimmy Garvin James Williams (born September 25, 1952) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring names "Gorgeous Jimmy" Garvin and Jimmy "Jam" Garvin. A member of The Fabulous Freebirds, Garvin is best known for his appearances ...

, the stepson of Ron Garvin. In 1972 in NWA Tri-State, the team won the

NWA United States Tag Team Championship The NWA United States Tag Team Championship is a name used for several secondary tag team championship used by various National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) members since 1958. There are eleven different versions of the NWA United States Tag Team Champ ...

. By 1973, he was working in NWA Mid-America, where he won the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship three times with Myers. Later in the year, he won the title two more times with Ron Garvin. The Garvins also held the Mid-America version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship that year. He returned to the Gulf Coast in 1974, teaming once again with Ron Garvin, to win Southeastern Championship Wrestling's NWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship. By the early 1980s Garvin retired from the ring and went on to book for Bob Geigel's NWA territory,

Central States Wrestling Heart of America Sports Attractions, also known as the Midwest Wrestling Association, Central States Wrestling and the World Wrestling Alliance, was an American professional wrestling promotion that ran shows mainly in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska ...

, in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

. In 1985 Terry was approached by

Pat Patterson Pat Patterson (born Pierre Clermont; January 19, 1941 – December 2, 2020) was a Canadian-American professional wrestler and producer, widely known for his long tenure in the professional wrestling promotion WWE, first as a wrestler, then as ...

and eventually was offered a job working for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) behind the scenes. His employment with WWF ceased on March 2, 1992 for allegations of molesting underage ringboys.

Personal life

Garvin was openly

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

. He was good friends with fellow gay wrestler

. He knew Patterson, as well as tag team partner Ron Garvin, when he was growing up in Montreal. Garvin died on August 18, 1998 after suffering from cancer.

Ring boy scandal

In the 1990s Garvin was accused of sexually harassing an

underage In law, a minor is someone under a certain age, usually the age of majority, which demarcates an underage individual from legal adulthood. The age of majority depends upon jurisdiction and application, but it is commonly 18. ''Minor'' may also ...

ring boy, who was fired from his job after refusing Garvin's advances. He later reached a settlement with the WWF; Garvin, as well as Pat Patterson and ring announcer Mel Phillips, resigned after this incident. WWF owner

Vince McMahon Vincent Kennedy McMahon (; born August 24, 1945) is an American media proprietor and retired professional wrestling promoter, executive, and performer. From 1982 to 2022, he served as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of WWE, the ...

was interviewed on ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles ...

'' regarding the incident; during the broadcast, retired wrestler Barry Orton called in and accused Garvin of sexually assaulting him in 1978 when he was 19. Orton also accuses Garvin of harming his wrestling career after the sexual advances were declined; Orton spent most of his life as a jobber, despite being part of a famous wrestling family that included father Bob Orton, brother Bob Orton Jr., and nephew

Randy Orton Randal Keith Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American professional wrestler and actor who is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand but is currently out of action due to a back injury. He is widely regarded as one of the grea ...

Championships and accomplishments

** NWA World Tag Team Championship ''(Florida version)'' (1 time) - with Ron Garvin *Continental Wrestling Alliance **CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) * Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling/Southeastern Championship Wrestling ** NWA Mississippi Heavyweight Championship (1 time) ** NWA Southern Tag Team Championship ''(Gulf Coast version)'' (2 times) - with

Chin Lee Chin Lee () is a former Canadian city councillor in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from Scarborough for Ward 41 Scarborough-Rouge River until his resignation in May 2018. Lee was elected to Toronto City Council in the November 2006 civic elections for ...

** NWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ron Garvin * Mid-South Sports/Georgia Championship Wrestling **

NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship The NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship was the top tag team championship in Georgia Championship Wrestling from 1968 to 1980, when it was replaced with the NWA National Tag Team Championship. The title was revived in 1998 by Music City Wrestling ...

(2 times) – with Ron Garvin ** NWA Macon Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ron Garvin * NWA Mid-America ** NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship (5 times) – with Ron Garvin (2),

Duke Myers Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked ...

(3) ** NWA Southern Tag Team Championship ''(Mid-America version)'' (1 time) – with Ron Garvin * NWA Tri-State ** NWA United States Tag Team Championship ''(Tri-State version)'' (1 time) - with Duke Myers *''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publi ...

'' **PWI ranked a totally different Terry Garvin #247 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991 *Universal Wrestling Association **UWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garvin, Terry 1937 births 1998 deaths Canadian male professional wrestlers Deaths from cancer Gay sportsmen LGBT professional wrestlers Canadian LGBT sportspeople Sportspeople from Montreal 20th-century LGBT people Professional wrestlers from Montreal NWA World Tag Team Champions (Florida version) NWA Macon Tag Team Champions NWA Georgia Tag Team Champions