Although hard to miss at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, Stevens Physical Plant electrician Ken Thompson has a history and skill set not known by many students. During the 1980s, Ken Thompson was a professional wrestler under the name of “Cowboy” Ken Thompson. A roughneck heel, or villain in pro wrestling, Thompson used illegal tactics during his matches, despite his imposing frame. Thompson wrestled in the Hoboken, Jersey City, and Bayonne areas, and even briefly performed in the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) with the likes of Jesse “The Bodybuilder” Ventura and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine.
In 1981, Thompson arrived at Stevens as a part of campus police, having worked as a Hudson County corrections officer in Jersey City. After 6 years, Thompson became Stevens’ locksmith, left in 1993 for Ohio, and returned to Stevens in 1996 as a member of Stevens Physical Plant, a jack-of-all-trades at first until he settled in as a campus electrician.
Perhaps the most surprising tenet of Thompson’s resume is that he is an accomplished martial artist and a member of the Team Wright New Jersey USA Hall of Fame, led by Austin Wright, Sr., a three-time international gold medalist and holder of the grand champion belt. Ken Thompson is currently a coach at Wright’s Universal Warrior Arts (UWA) school in Bayonne, his hometown.
With his history of martial arts, Thompson wants to educate students, especially at Stevens, about self-defense. “Everybody should know some kind of basic self-defense tactics,” Thompson said. “You need to know how you have to think before you can do anything.” Knowledgeable in combative arts, techniques to cause damage while inflicting no physical self-harm, Thompson is willing to work with interested students, or even host a workshop if there is enough interest.
For students interested in learning self-defense techniques or looking to organize a workshop, they can contact Ken Thompson at cowboythompson@gmail.com.
