CALGARY—Retired wrestling icon Bret Hart won’t be known as just the Hit Man come Thursday. That’s when a Siksika First Nation elder will bestow a Blackfoot name upon the Calgary-based star.

Clarence Wolfleg Senior, whose Siksika name is Elder Miiksika’am, will grant the name to Hart during a smudging, face painting and drumming ceremony at Mount Royal University, according to a spokesperson from the school.

Hart originally enrolled at Mount Royal in 1977 to study film, according to his Twitter account. Earlier this year, the school gave him an honorary bachelor of health and physical education degree in physical literacy.

But Hart has a history with the Siksika as well.

“A lot of people knew his father, Stu Hart — my people knew him very well,” Wolfleg said of Hart’s late father.

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The elder Hart was instrumental in establishing a Canadian wrestling scene in Calgary, which included encouraging Indigenous youth in Alberta’s southern regions to try the sport, Wolfleg said.

“(Hart) wasn’t sure if his late father was bestowed a name by somebody. So ... I told him, ‘It’s a fitting thing that you’re carrying on the legacy of your father. So think about it and what you’re going to do in the future,’” Wolfleg explained.

Throughout his career in World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation), Bret Hart was a fan favourite, especially in Canada, his home country. He was known for using submission moves to beat his opponents, who regarded him as one of the more technically proficient wrestlers on the circuit.

Bret Hart won multiple championships in the 1990s during his tenure in the WWE and thereafter when he joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW), including world heavyweight, intercontinental, tag team and U.S. championships.

Wolfleg said youth in Siksika, the Tsuut’ina Nation and the Blood Tribe often looked up to Hart and his late brother, fellow WWE star, Owen Hart.

He said that was primarily in the 1970s and 1980s, when Stu Hart ran Stampede Wrestling, a Calgary-based wrestling school.

“(Stu Hart) promoted wrestling and wrestling venues in Calgary for a long time ... a lot of our people would always go to those events. He also had some people in mind out in Siksika to work with them and get them into the wrestling area,” Wolfleg said.

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He said he can’t reveal what Bret’s Blackfoot name will be, because the naming ceremony is sacred.

Bret Hart retired from wrestling in October 2000. WWE inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2006.

The Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen were named after the wrestler when the team was founded in 1994.

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