Buddy Colt

Ron Read (January 13, 1936 – March 5, 2021), known professionally as Buddy Colt, Ty Colt and "Cowboy" Ron Reed, was an American professional wrestler who worked in NWA promotions including the St. Louis Wrestling Club, Championship Wrestling from Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling.

Among others, he won the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship seven times, the NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship four and the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship once.

Read grew up in Bladensburg, Maryland, before becoming an aviation mechanic and sergeant in the United States Marines, discharging in January 1957.

Trained by Killer Karl Krupp, Read made his professional wrestling debut in 1962 in Nick Gulas and Bob Welch's NWA Mid-America in the Tennessee region, worked under the name “Cowboy” Ron Reed.

Aside from NWA Mid-America, he also worked St. Louis Wrestling Club, went to the West Coast to work for the World Wrestling Alliance (WWA) where he was renamed Ty Colt.

In 1969, he renamed to Buddy Colt working NWA Western States, the Amarillo, Texas promotion run by the Funk family, where he quickly won the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship.

On February 20, 1975, Colt was the pilot of a plane which crashed in water near Tampa Bay, resulting in the death of Bobby Shane.

Colt and passengers Gary Hart and Austin Idol were seriously injured.

He retired from wrestling due to broken ankles, which later developed gangrene and were fused together, but continued to fly.

He remained in Championship Wrestling from Florida as a color commentator along with Gordon Solie and had part ownership of the company.

Read died on March 5, 2021, aged 85.

He had Parkinson's disease and dementia, and was survived by his wife, son, and five daughters.