Kenneth Wayne Patera (born November 6, 1942) is an American retired professional wrestler, Olympic weightlifter, and strongman competitor.

His brother, Jack Patera, played football for the Baltimore Colts and was the head coach for the Seattle Seahawks from 1976 until 1982.

Ken grew to become one of the nation's premier track and field weight throwers, competing at Brigham Young University.

[6] At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, Patera was expected to be a serious competitor to Vasily Alekseyev, but he failed to total and was not among the medal recipients.

[2] official records – all achieved at a meet in San Francisco on July 23, 1972[10] When measured for the 1972 Olympics, he weighed 321.4 lb (145.8 kg) at a height of 6 ft 1.75 in (1.8733 m).

Patera competed in the inaugural World's Strongest Man contest in 1977, finishing third behind Bruce Wilhelm and Bob Young.

After a stint in the AWA, his first major feud was in the Mid-Atlantic territory against then United States Heavyweight Champion Johnny Valentine in 1975, with Patera as the babyface.

Officially, the match ended in a draw, but with Patera on the verge of defeating Valentine (who had been portrayed as nearly unbeatable) on television.

The two were matched in a series of house show main events, with Valentine always coming out on top and retaining the U.S. championship.

He was in top physical condition at this point, and his appearance had changed, as he wore natural brown hair, rather than his previous bleached blonde look.

[14] To ensure he would be accepted as a babyface, he claimed that former manager Bobby Heenan had abandoned him and "sold him down the river" while he was in prison.

Patera then began feuding with the Heenan Family (at the time composed of Paul Orndorff, Harley Race, King Kong Bundy and Hercules).

Shortly after his return, Patera ruptured the bicep tendon in his right arm, which led him to miss some time and re-emerge afterward with a stiff and bulky full-length brace for protection.

Within six months, Patera was being defeated by newer, younger talent and found himself floundering in a mid-card tag team with fellow Oregonian Billy Jack Haynes.

[15] In his final televised WWF matches in late 1988 (losses to Bad News Brown, Dino Bravo, "Outlaw" Ron Bass, One Man Gang, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Curt Hennig, Ted Dibiase, "Dangerous" Danny Davis, Haku (wrestler), Boris Zhukov, The Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, and "Red Rooster" Terry Taylor), commentators Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes remarked on-air that Patera's skills were in decline and that he should consider retirement.

Patera went on to wrestle for Herb Abrams' UWF, as well as PWA and on independent cards primarily in the Minnesota area well into the 1990s, sometimes even promoting his own events.

On August 12, 2011, Patera made a special in-ring appearance at Juggalo Championship Wrestling's "Legends & Icons" event, facing Bob Backlund in a losing effort.

He and fellow AWA heel Masa Saito later assaulted the police officers sent to arrest Patera at the hotel where they were sharing a room.