A Review of the Nine
Frank Gotch/Tom Jenkins Matches
by Steve Yohe
During the early 20th century Frank Gotch meet Tom Jenkins nine times in important wrestling matches. Some wrestling historians consider this series of matches as the most brutal and important contests of their time. This Gotch/Jenkins series of matches stand along side of such feuds as John McMahon/James McLaughlin, William Muldoom/Clarence Whistler, Frank Gotch/Hackenschmidt, Joe Stecher/Ed Lewis, Jim Londos/Ray Steele, Lou Thesz /Buddy Rogers, Dory Funk JR/ Jack Brisco, Hulk Hogan/ Andre The Giant, Antonio Inoki/ Bob Backlund, Ric Flair/ Ricky Steamboat, and Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada to form the corner stone of pro wrestling storylines.
Many people (1) use the Gotch/Jenkins matches as examples of wrestling’s legitimacy, which supposedly took place before 1921. Everything I’ve learned from pro wrestling stops me from agreeing with such fantasies. Pro wrestling has always been made up of people interested in making money with sportsmanship and ideas of fair competition left to amateurs. It wasn’t the contest or your won/loss percentage that was important. It was the money you brought home to feed your family that decided if you were a success or failure. Pro Wrestling, as it is today, was a work. Styles are always changing but the concept of working matches has changed very little over the years.
In the early years of the 20th century, wrestling income was not based on attendance but on gambling. Betting was the foundation of American sports and wrestling was no different that any of the others that were developing during these years. Working wrestling matches probably had more to do with rigging bets of ignorant farmers than any feelings about good matches. There were very few American arenas in those years that could hold over 2,000 fans and the cost of a ticket was under a dollar. It seems that the major wrestlers of this time always had a lot of money. The only way to explain this wealth is gambling and the working of these people to get the most you could out of them. You have to think of these people living in a world not far from what we’ve watched in movie like “Gangs of New York” and TV shows like “Deadwood”.
Now I believe the wrestlers of this period to be just as they were billed. They were shooter/rippers who deserved their reputations and I believe only the best were pushed as the major wrestlers. I also believe that most of what they did were shoots or near shoots. Major wrestlers spent most of their time performing in carnival or traveling shows taking on all comers…who were overmatched. At times special matches were set up with local amateurs with good reputations, who really had little chance versus a true Pro. These matches, a good percentage of the time, were contests…. but when a pro stepped into a ring with another skilled professional or amateur…he knew the outcome before he left the dressing room. Some matches may have been shoots if the dominant wrestler was sure of winning, but, for the most part…. pro’s worked matches. Of course, this style of work also had to look completely legitimate, because some very hard people were betting on the outcome, and they were breaking the law. So Kayfabe, in those years, was no joke. “Show moves” did not exist.
Tom Jenkins was born on August 3, 1872 at Bedford, Ohio. His family moved to a Cleveland suburb soon after. At age 8, a toy cannon blew up in his face. His jaw was broken and he lost his left eye. This misfortune hardens him and he became a major street punk. Police problems led to a job in a steel mill, where hard work turned his life around. He developed discipline; strength and he soon learn the skills that led to the rough life of the wrestler. His first professional match took place in May of 1893, and the career that followed proved Jenkins to be the dominant American heavyweight of his time. (2) He had a good knowledge of the sport but he wasn’t a great technical wrestler. He was extremely powerful with good size who could be so aggressive that many considered him dirty. His finisher was “the strangle hold” but once that was ruled illegal in many states, he switched to a move called the jaw lock. This hold was similar to the strangle, but probably was a form of a sleeper. It was hard for an uneducated eye to tell the two hold apart. Big wins over Farmer Burns and Ernest Roeber lead to an American Title win over Dan Mcleod on Dec. 25, 1902.
Frank Gotch was born April 27, 1878, on a farm three miles south of Humboldt, Iowa. Wrestling is the natural sport of farmers and Gotch did it better than anyone. (3) By 1899, Gotch developed a reputation wrestling in local shoot style matches around Humboldt. Following a famous match with Dan McLeod on June 16,1899, the unskilled Gotch signed on with Farmer Burns for training. Burns was a great wrestler and trainer, who seemed to have control pro wrestling in the 1890’s up until 1913. He saw in Gotch a great athlete with size, strength, quickness, and speed. Frank was intelligent with a good attitude, but what really made him special were his good looks (4). I don’t know if Burns realized that he was looking at a “sports superstar” because, outside of boxing, very few of them existed in 1899, but I could just imagine Farmer Burns looking at the big kid while thinking “money in the bank.”
MATCH ONE
Gotch trained with Burns and wrestled in Iowa during 1900. Around the Sunday of the last week of October, Tom Jenkins travel to Humboldt to meet with friend Farmer Burns and to get a look at the new prospect. A private match then took place between Jenkins and Gotch, with the champion pinning the boy in 58 minutes. Only insiders were present and the only mention we have on this match is two sentences in the Humboldt Republican on Nov. 1, 1910. Private matches were almost always shoots with side-bet. It’s possible that this was just a workout. (4B)
Gotch wrestled through Iowa until 1901. He was getting a big push and became well known for a feud with Oscar Wasem over the state championship. In July of that year young Gotch was taken to Alaska by a weasel manager (who was a friend and partner of Burns) named Joe Carroll (who wrestled at the time under the name Ole Marsh). (5) Frank worked as a “ringer” under the name “Frank Kennedy” for four months. After doing at least three jobs to the skinny Ole Marsh and losing a boxing match, Gotch returned to Iowa in November with $35,000. This was enough money to pay the mortgage on the family farm. (6)
On his return, Gotch’s “push” gained steam, and he had main events in many of major wrestling cities in the mid-west. His fame and popularity grew and he recorded many victories, including a major win over Frenchman Paul Pons in Seattle (Jan. 10, 1903), one of the so-called great Greco-Roman Europeans that would fill the win column in Gotch’s record in the coming years.
The Public and the press saw Frank Gotch as the next champion and the build up to an American Title match with Tom Jenkins was the talk of the wrestling world (small as it may have been in 1902).
But on December 25, 1902, Jenkins lost his American Title to Dan McLeod at Worcester, Mass. Jenkins had a bad leg, said to have been caused by blood poisoning (?), so he had the injured knee raped in a leather and brass dressing. Jenkins won the first fall in 59 minutes with a three-quarter nelson and Mc Leod won the second fall in 24 minutes with a crotch and half nelson. During the third fall the medal portion of Jenkins brace broke and the brass point dug into Jenkins’s bad leg. At the 20-minute point, he told McLeod that he was spent and that if the match wasn’t called a draw, he would quit. McLeod wanted to continue, so he was ruled the winner and the new champion. (7)
MATCH TWO
This “screw finish” led to the public still thinking of Jenkins as the true champion and top wrestler in the country, so the pressure for a Jenkins/Gotch match continued until it was signed for February 26, 1903 in Cleveland. It was to be two out of three fall to a finish event and they claimed only the strangle was banned but the basic rules of wrestling also outlaw punching, elbowing and gouging. Of course all of these moves took place, and the match was consider at the time to be one of the roughest in history.
The first 90 minutes of the match was all stand up, but it wasn’t the no action stand up of Lewis/Stecher and other matches. They stood roughing and fouling each other for most of the time. Jenkins got the best of it because he knew more tricks and Gotch tactic was to just hold Jenkins and hope for a mistake. He also would jab out with the flat of his hand as Jenkins was coming in to lock up. This tactic upset the crowd more than Jenkins and result was a hostile audience. Jenkins’ trick was too reach across Frank’s body, seemly to grab an arm, but elbow him in face during the motion. At one point the referee threaten to end the match, yelling that he came “to referee a mat battle…not a prize fight or a cock fight.” Jenkins then pushed Gotch into the ropes and slid him to the mat. Jenkins, 25 pounds heavier, punished Gotch. At one point he applied a strangle. The referee broke it and Gotch got back to his feet weaken by the illegal hold. Jenkins lunged and got behind Frank. He used a hammerlock to take it back to the mat but Gotch broke the hold after a struggle. Jenkins then used a bar nelson and crotch to pin Gotch’s shoulders. (9) Time of the first fall was one hour and fifty-five minutes.
Gotch returned after the rest period in bad shape. His face was bleeding from the shots to the head and the strangle hold had weaken him. After twelve minutes of more rough stuff including another illegal strangle, Gotch was catch in Jenkins’s jaw lock and pined.
This was a decisive victory for Jenkins, but many Gotch fans complain about the weight difference (185 lbs to around 215) and the fact that Jenkins wasn’t DQ’ed for using the strangle in both falls. Gotch fought well in a good match and he didn’t lose “face” by doing the job.
(SMART TALK: I’m not against the idea that this was a contest. The early stand up, in which Gotch refused to lock up and go to the mat, is the same tactic he used in the first match with Hackenschmidt….only in this match he didn’t have the size or the experience of Jenkins. We know the wrestling powers (mainly Farmer Burns) saw Gotch as the future, but Jenkins was the dominate wrestler, and maybe an agreement couldn’t be made on a worked finish…so they just wrestled. Seems Jenkins made sure he dropped the title to McLeod, before the match, to make sure it was safe in case something went wrong. On the worked side…it was the smart finish to book. If the rookie Gotch had beaten Jenkins in this first match, it would have killed Jenkins in any future matches. Jenkins was the top wrestler in America, if Gotch defeated him, there was no one else for him to make major money with. Hack was in Europe and no one knew at that point if he was ever going to come to America or even wrestle Catch style. Also Gotch had a huge fan base betting big money on him to win. Him losing just made more Jenkins money for the title change.)
MATCH THREE
On April 8, 1903, Jenkins got his rematch with Dan McLeod at Buffalo, New York. He regained his American Title winning two straight falls, the first in 1 hour and 17 minutes, and the second in 14 minutes and 30 seconds.
Gotch continued to train and grow in strength and skill. Joe Carroll took him to the North West where he won a major match from Emil Klank (his future manager), Farmer Burns himself (his manager), John Berg, Duncan McMillan (a trainer) and Dan McLeod (a stable-mate). His toughest match probably came from a 6’5” Indian, named Chief Two Feathers, who was 220 pounds of muscle but without Gotch’s training.
The second public match between the two wrestlers took place at Bellingham, Washington on January 27, 1904 in front of a sellout 3,000 gamblers that paid as much as $25 for a seat. There actually were people in the rafters over looking the ring, and at one point four of them fell into the ring.
For years, Jenkins relied on bar room style brawling to beat opponents but in Gotch he met his match. (9B) For 20 minutes the two butted, elbowed, kneed, and gouged. Gotch knuckled Jenkins. Jenkins thumbed Gotch’s eyes. With in three minutes, both were covered in blood. It didn’t take long before everyone realized that Gotch wasn’t the same wrestler that met Jenkins the year before. Jenkins took Gotch to the match, but Gotch’s speed reversed him. For the rest of the match Gotch rode him 90% of the time. Nearing the 53 minute mark, the worn out Jenkins began to hug the ropes, so Gotch slammed him four times before holding the champions shoulders down for a count of three.
Jenkins had to be carried back to his corner, but after a 10 minute rest period, he rush out at the start of the second fall and got Frank into a head scissors… that brought blood spouting from Gotch’s nose and mouth. But Jenkins’s strength left him and the hold was then easily broken. He tried the strangle but Gotch broke that too. Frank sensed he couldn’t lose and he started taunting the soon to be ex-champion, as he broke one illegal hold after another. Jenkins jaw was cut open and his nose was so smashed that he couldn’t breath. Frank countered one strangle by slamming him to the mat. With nothing left to do, Jenkins threw a wild punch that connected. Gotch shook his head clearing it, before jumping at and knocking Jenkins down again. The referee (9C) then stepped in, DQ’ing Jenkins, and awarding the bout and title to the man from Iowa. Tom was so weaken that it would have been brutal to continue. The ringsiders, who were drenched in blood, cheered the new champion. (10)
Jenkins later admitted deliberately fouling Gotch. He claimed that he lost it when Frank gouged his one good eye. He was afraid of losing his title and his sight in the same night.
(SMART TALK: The argument is strongly on the shoot side with this match. The brutality and the easy victory hurt Jenkins and any future match. It was going to be hard to find gamblers with Jenkins money after that destruction. Promoters really stretched the limits of what was allowed in a true wrestling contest, and Gotch used the lesions learned in these matches to beat Hackenschmidt in 1908. I can sympathize with Hack. No European referee would allow any of the fouls or conduct that took place on Jan. 27, 1904.
In believing this was a shoot, I should also state that I believe it was the last one in the series. I believe that Gotch proved his superiority and Jenkins didn’t want to take another beating. If Tom wasn’t on Farmer Burns team before…he was now. It would be about money after this match.
On the work side, this was the proper finish; booking the Gotch loss in Cleveland increased the Jenkins money for this match….cash that ended up with the Burns group.)
MATCH FOUR
Gotch spent most of the rest of 1904 wrestling his manager, trainer or members of the Burn’s stable. His major wins were over Jim Par, Yankee Rogers, Mc Leod, and Emil Maupas. Jenkins demanded a rematch in Cleveland with an Ohio referee, and Gotch agreed.
Jenkins first traveled to London, England in hope of making big money. Gotch & Jenkins were major star with in the wrestling culture in America but the only true worldwide superstar in wrestling was the Russian giant George Hackenschmidt. A weightlifter, bodybuilder, bike rider, gymnast who wrestled, he had catch the imagination of the sports world…first by winning major Graeco-Roman tournaments in Europe and then dominating the wrestling scene in England. The public thought of him like a Wilt Chamberlain and his fame spread. He was billed as the Graeco-Roman World Champion. He later become to Frank Gotch’s career what Sonny Liston was to Muhammad Ali….and with the same results. Jenkins knew it was only a matter of time before “Hack” came to America and he wanted to be the one making money off it. A newspaper article authored by George Lurich, another GR style wrestler who was a hated rival of Hackenschmidt, said that Jenkins had a meeting with George and agreed to not only job for Hack in his style, but also in the American Catch As Catch Can style, in return for the champion accepting the match. Lurich and Hack hated each other but the stories legitimacy is up held by the fact that’s what later happen.
On July 2, 1904 at London England, Jenkins meet George Hackenschmidt in a GR world title match and Hack toyed with him by winning two short falls without much effort. Tom went down to defeat without a foul committed.
The third match took place February 2, 1905 at Cleveland, Ohio for the American title (which was sometimes called the world title in newspapers). Those involved had a problem; the resent losses by Jenkins made him a poor bet against the fans image of Gotch being unbeatable. They solved their problem by having Jenkins come out as the aggressor and out wrestling (rough wrestling but wrestling…not gouging and fighting) Gotch for 28 minutes…before using his jaw lock to get an easy pin.
The gamblers jump to there feet at the end of the fall. The Gotch people offered even money that their man would be able turn the match around with hundreds of dollars being pass back and forth. All the while taking advantage of the fans, believing that it was Jenkins night for an upset.
Funny how the beginning of second fall, showed Gotch making an impressive comeback.a complete reversal of form….pinning Jenkins in 48 seconds with a crotch hold. There was more wrestling in the third fall, with Jenkins attempting to use his strangle hold, but he was badly overmatch as Gotch pinned him with a reverse body hold in eleven minutes. (11)
In the days that followed, the Cleveland newspaper was filled with the story of how the sports public was insisting the match was “fake” and that Gotch threw the first fall to simulate the Jenkins money. Both Gotch and Jenkins were available and were questions by reporters. Gotch, at first, did not deny the charge, but later commented that it didn’t matter if he had laid down in the first fall…because he still won the match. He claimed: “There never was a prize fight or a wrestling match pulled off that someone did not yell fake.” Jenkins replied to the question was: “Not that I know of”. He revealed that he had an injured right arm before the match but he did not tell his friends and he did not tell them to bet on Gotch. So you can see that the reporter did a great job in defending the sports credibility (12).
(SMART TALK: The match was a work. Some claimed that a fake match would be more competitive….but these bookies had a good reason to put Frank over so strong and it had something to do with making really big money.)
MATCH FIVE
The series then moved to New York City and Madison Square Garden, the biggest and most important arena in America. The MSG promoters had big plan for the spring with both of America’s biggest wrestling stars appearing with George Hackenschmidt, who was sailing in from an Australian tour, to meet the winner in May.
On March 15, 1905 they drew a crowd of 5,000, which was considered a sell-out and the largest indoor wrestling crowd in New York history (13). After Gotch’s last two wins, no one expected a Jenkins win, and all the gambling money was on Gotch to win….but one of those funny surprises took place again…Jenkins won.
Jenkins took Gotch down at will in the first fall and at no time did Frank show any of the aggressiveness of his other matches. The Iowan was pin in 19:34 by some type combination of arm bar and half nelson. The second fall saw Gotch, once again; revert back to form and his former dominance. Twice Gotch picked Jenkins up into a hold that was described like this “lifted him bodily upon his head and proceeded to spin him around like a top.” Frank put Jenkins in this move twice and then pined Tom after six minutes and forty seven seconds. It seems to me that Gotch was using an airplane spin during one of his famous “shoot” matches. Jenkins was worn out but he returned to control threw out the third fall. Taking Gotch down, he worked on applying a hammerlock. Twice he had near falls on the champion but didn’t succeed until the ten minute and eleven minute mark, when he got the three count after a crotch and chancery hold. Jenkins was proclaimed the American Catch champion.
The Gotch storyline is that Frank was sick and over worked in the time leading up to this match. It also should be said that it was reported to be a thrilling match with an ending no one expected.
(SMART TALK: Gotch, being smart enough to drop the title, made everyone a ton of money. Jenkins had the deal to meet Hackenschmidt, not Gotch, and this win over his rival repaired his reputation just in time for his Madison Square Garden super match with Hack less than three weeks later. Ideal booking, that was good for everyone.)
MATCH SIX
America’s idea of a World Wrestling Title basically goes back to the night of May 4, 1905 when George Hackenschmidt, European Greco-Roman world champion (well..kind of) defeated Tom Jenkins, the newly crowned American Catch-As-Catch-Can champion in Madison Square Garden. Hack won two straight falls in a match billed as being under Catch rules but once started seemed to be a straight GR match. No catch holds were used by either wrestler. Jenkins was on the defense the whole match and didn’t use any of his rough tricks he was famous for. The only time Tom did try to rough, the Russian became enraged. Hack got to his feet and “hurried Jenkins over his head to the floor. A half nelson pined the American in 31:15. The second fall lasted 22:04. Hackenschmidt’s win was decisive and the wrestling world would believe he was the undisputed world champion for the next three years. The night after this match Hackenschmidt wrestled and defeated six men in 32 minutes at the Columbia Theater in New York. (14)
Gotch was at the match that night challenging both men, but said he would wrestle Jenkins regardless of the outcome of the match. Jenkins was still the American champion and he agreed to defend that title against his rival two weeks later on May 19, 1905 at Madison Square Garden. Hack refused to meet Gotch, saying no rule exists saying he has to wrestle a man already defeated by a champion who lost to him, but most smart fans figured that Gotch represented too much money for Hack to pass on, so a Hack/Gotch bout would follow Gotch re-winning his title from Jenkins. All the gamblers put their money on Gotch…they were wrong again.
The match, which was considered one of the most savage of all time, started at 10:30 Eastern time and lasted past the deadline for the New York Times. The first fall saw Gotch take Jenkins to the mat and ride him for over 20 minutes. Much of time was spent working on getting Tom into a hammerlock but the champion broke away to hit Gotch with a heavy blow. Gotch protested but the referee Tim Hurst, an eccentric baseball umpire, told him to go on and wrestle. Jenkins put him into a strangle for several minutes before Hurst realized it was an illegal hold. As soon as the referee broke the first, another was applied. Gotch threw him to the matt and turned him in to what was called a “double thigh and crotch hold” (looking at a drawing of the move, it looks like a form of the powerbomb (15)), as he was falling Jenkins grabbed the top rope. This decreased the concussion of the bump. Gotch protested but the referee did nothing and they began to wrestle anew. Jenkins kicked and strangled him, fouling him deliberately. Gotch returned fouls of his own. At one point, it was claimed that Gotch bit him on the arm. Six times Jenkins was almost pined but saved himself each time by going to the ropes. This angered Gotch and he stopped the match to protest for a few minutes, until assured by referee Hursh that Jenkins would play fair. But Gotch grew tired and started delaying the match by making more protests. He seemed to blow up and the fall ended at the one hour, twenty-seven minute and seventeen second mark as Gotch fell into a weak hold and a gentle push put him meekly on his back to be pined. A reporter claimed it look like Gotch “quit cold”. The announcer called the move a “mug hold”.
The second fall started at 12:04 in the morning. Jenkins continued with his mugging tricks, with more butting and uppercuts. He also used his strangle. Late in the fall both men took a bad fall out of the ring to the floor. They both crawled back into the ring. After some roughhouse wrestling, Gotch straddled Tom for the fall. Gotch won in 36:23 but he was clearly weakened, while Jenkins seemed to be the stronger of the two.
Jenkins overpowered Gotch in the third fall, pinning him with a full nelson in 11 minutes and 10 seconds. Gotch fell to the mat after the match and it was ten minutes before he could be carried back to the dressing room. (16) Gotch’s people’s storyline was that the city of New York and its appointed referee ripped him off.
(SMART TALK: All reason said that Gotch was going to re-win his title over Jenkins and move on to challenge Hackenschmidt, but once again someone had the wrestling sense to book for the pocketbook over the ego. If the last match had brilliant booking…this one had double-brilliant booking. This is one of my favorite booking moves in history and I would hate to have my illusions disturbed by the idea that Gotch was double-crossed by New York promoters. One thing is sure, the Gotch fans in Humboldt never forgave the big city, and you probably could find people today grumbling about it. It should be noted that Gotch never had another important match in New York City.)
MATCH SEVEN
The illiterate Jenkins spent most of the next year coaching wrestling at West Point, a job he received after being appointed in 1904 by one of his fanboys, President Teddy Roosevelt. Gotch spent part of 1905 playing with the idea of promoting a boxing match with James Jeffries, but a beating in a boxing bout, reinforce the idea that he was better off in wrestling. After spending most of early 1906 in Montreal, Gotch returned to the USA for his return match with champion Jenkins signed for May 23, 1906 at Kansas City’s huge Convention Hall.
A contest of “muscle, science and nerve fit for the gods” ended with Gotch having regained his American Title. In a match free of brawling and fouling, Gotch lost the first fall in 26 minute and 36 seconds when Jenkins fed him a leg that trapped the Iowan in a “full back hammerlock”, which was “worked into a half nelson, then a full nelson, and finally into a full back hatch” for the pin.
Gotch’s manager this night was a Horace Lerch, who brought to the match over $3,000 from Buffalo Gotch supporters to bet. (17) After Frank lost the first fall, he ran around the arena covering Jenkins money from fans confident that Jenkins was better man.
After a ten-minute intermission, Gotch “came back like a tiger.” Angry he roughed Jenkins around the ring, picking him up and slamming him to the mat in a heap. Gotch worked on Tom’s legs and used what seemed to be his feared toehold. At fourteen minutes and 30 seconds, Jenkins rolled over on both shoulders to be pinned, but when the hold was released, his right leg seemed all but broken.
Gotch dominated the third fall, as Jenkins could barely stand. At 17 minutes and 15 seconds, the 6,500 fans present cheered as Frank used a half-nelson and crotch to slowly roll the famous champion on to his back for the pin. (18)
After, Jenkins gave a speech telling all present that he was defeated fairly and that Gotch would be champion for a long time. Sounded like someone with a good job at West Point.
Gotch challenged his new rival, George Hackenschmidt, and fans all seemed to think they had seen a “great match.”
(SMART TALK: This was the last match of the championship series in which fans considered the two wrestlers semi-equals. This match was free of brawling and fouling, so it’s pretty clearly a work with its goal being the creation of an undisputed American Champion.)
Jenkins’s prediction of a long reign proved wrong, for on Dec. 1, 1906, one of those surprise results took place. The unbeatable Gotch lost his American title to a 165-pound wrestler named Fred Beell. No one but a few smart sharks had bet on anything but a Gotch victory, so once again we can see someone making a small fortune. There are many reports of farmers losing everything betting on these wrestling matches. Two weeks later, on Dec. 17, 1906, Gotch easily defeated Beell in a return match to become American champion for a third time. (19)
This isn’t as big an upset as it seems today. Beell only weighted 165 pounds but he was a powerhouse who is considered as one of the greatest wrestlers pound for pound of all time. After this match, he became firmly connected with Farmer Burns and the result set him up as a long-term contender and fall guy to Gotch. In Farmer Burns training books, you find many photos of Beell demonstrating holds. It should be remembered that the last fall ever lost in a wrestling ring by the great Frank Gotch, was to Fred Beell on April 26, 1907 in Chicago. (20)
Gotch got his match with world champion George Hackenschmidt in Chicago on April 3, 1908. For almost two hours the match seemed like a rerun of Frank’s first match with Jenkins. He stayed away from Hack’s strength and standing would block any advance by the strong man by jabbing out with a flat-handed blow to the face as the champion came forward. He also thumbed Hack in the eyes over and over, until his own American fans began to boo him. The difference between Hack and Jenkins was revealed when Gotch took the Russian to the mat and found his opponent had no defense. Three times Hack’s request for a draw was refused, before Hackenschmidt just quit. America went nuts over Gotch and the fact that an American beat a European superman over came the terrible finish to the match. (21)
Frank Gotch became America’s first true wrestling superstar and, in 1908, he was as famous, as any non-boxer in sports. Of course, the sports world was much smaller in 1908. Baseball, to most people, was a rude sport who’s players had a reputation for punching out fans and umpires….when not throwing games, had Honus Wagner, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and a young Ty Cobb…none of them making $4,0000 a year. Boxing, king of sports but always in danger of being banned by the government, had James J. Jeffries, retired sense 1906, and the hated Jack Johnson, who didn’t win the world title until December of 1908. By April 1909, Gotch was claiming earnings of $100,000 and owned 1,000 acres of Iowa farmland. (22)
In November, Gotch took a theatrical troop to England were he nightly performed a music-hall sketch which contain a worked wrestling match. For three months, he tried to talk Hackenschmidt into another match but all he got from his effort was hard feelings. Hack had just finish dealing with a knee operation and probably realized he would never be the same.
While Gotch was away, a new star, from Bulgaria, was created in Yussiff Mahmout. He had beaten many of the top wrestlers and everyone thought he was more than a match with Gotch. In a major match Gotch and Mahmout met in Chicago on April 14, 1909 in front of 10,000 people.
The people came expecting a great contest, but went home disappointed… as Gotch won two straight easy falls in 8:00 and 9:10. (23)
Even today, you heard some people claim that Mahmout was a superior wrestler to Gotch, but after this match he became part of Farmer Burns troop of wrestlers and even wrestled as the policeman for Gotch. He made a good income from this position but it also meant that Frank would never have to worry about giving him another championship match.
MATCH EIGHT
Jenkins’s career was winding down and, when not coaching at West Point, he was being used to put over major contenders to Gotch’s title. Mahmout had beaten him before the big match with Gotch and most fans no longer considered him to be a major factor.
An eight match took place at Des Moines, Iowa, on June 14, 1909 with the world title on the line. Gotch won the first fall in 18 minutes and 20 seconds using a half nelson and body hold, and the second in 8 minute with a half nelson and crotch hold. At all stages of the match Gotch demonstrated his superiority and Jenkins was on the defensive throughout the entire match. (24)
By this stage of Frank’s career, he was through doing jobs of any type. Every match was two straight falls and in short time. The last fall I can find him losing was to Fred Beell April 26, 1907. People, who believe that all these matches were shoots, explain this as Gotch improving to a level that no wrestler in the world could equal him. The other side would explain this as Gotch’s ego being too big to put anyone else over.
Gotch was the first in pro wrestling in history to not base his income on gambling, but on gates and appearance money(24B). In the publics mind, he had reached such a level that any association with thrown matches or gamblers would have had endangered his reputation as a sportsman and businessman. Sense the public generally consider most matches to be worked and crooked, even when they weren’t, I think it’s possible that a decision was made to just beat everyone two straight and fast. This would give the doubters very little to turn against him.
The next major wrestler to be builded up for a match with Gotch was the European champion Stanislaus Zbyszko. Upset over press reports that Zbyszko was the world’s best wrestler, Gotch agreed to met him in Buffalo in a non-title handicap match on Thanksgiving (Nov. 25) 1909. The champion had agreed to pin Stan twice in an hour but was unable to win even one fall, so Zbyszko won the exhibition via forfeit. (25) Zbyszko was then put over by Jenkins two straight falls on January 6, 1910 at Cleveland.
The rematch with Gotch for the title took place on June 1, 1910 in Chicago. In front of a large crowd of 8,000, Gotch won two easy falls. The first fall lasted only 6.2 seconds. After a quick handshake, Gotch put Zbyszko into a half nelson and arm bar and rolled him to the mat for a pin. The second fall went 27:36 before Gotch pined Stan with an arm bar and wrist lock. (26) Gotch was carried from the ring on the shoulders of his fans and in the dressing room retires from wrestling for the first time. He claimed he had no more contenders worthy of a match.
The pro-Gotch crowd considered this a great victory, that proved just how great the champion was in 1910, but some reporters claimed the different results in the two Zbyszko matches proved a fix was in place (27) Many Chicagoans also were bitter over having paid to see a major contest between two equals only to see another Gotch blowout that lasted half an hour. For awhile it seemed the promoter was going to lose money on the match, because the pre-match sale was so weak that he had to lower prices, but he ended up making around $2,000 from a gate of $23,985. Gotch did well, taking home 60%. Big Stan got a small 5%.
On July 4, 1910, Gotch was introduced in the ring before the famous Jack Johnson championship KO of James J. Jeffries at Reno Nevada. Farmer Burns and Gotch had been in the middle of the Jeffries storyline for most of the year, Burns playing a part in the training of Jeffries and Frank being a part of Jeffries traveling show. The boxing match remains one of the most important sports events in American history.
MATCH NINE
Gotch got married on Jan. 11 and resumed wrestling on Jan. 16, 1911. Hackenschmidt returned to America and the build up had begun for another match. Gotch toured the nation, wrestling himself into condition. One of the wrestlers he met was Tom Jenkins. The match took place on March 25, 1911 at Denver in front of 4,500 people.
Everyone understood going in that the semi-retired Jenkins had very little chance against Frank and all the gamblers had to bet on was the time for each fall and the manner of securing it. Both falls were scored by the crotch and half nelson in 17:30 and 14:37. (28)
Jenkins returned to West Point where he remained a well know teacher to Generals. At times, he would pop up in a news story. Such as the time Hackenschmidt returned to America traveled to meet the man he won his world title from.
Gotch continued on as world champion, defeating George Hackenschmidt on September 4, 1911 in a huge rematch that drew the largest gate in history and a crowd of 25,000. He won in two straight falls again in another terrible match that killed Chicago wrestling for a number of years.
Once this was done he found he had no further wrestling rivals worthy of a large payday and announced another retirement. He and Burns did try to create other wrestling stars. People like Henry Ordemann, Marin Plestina, Jesse Westergaard, Charles Cutler and the like, but Frank could never stay inactive long enough not to beat all of them….in two straight falls.
Gotch did agree to do a job for Joe Stecher in 1915, but a broken leg and bad kidneys put a stop to any idea of training. Frank Gotch died December 16, 1917 from renal failure. The great athlete was 39 years old.
Tom Jenkins lived to be 84. He died June 19, 1957.
The Tom Jenkins/Frank Gotch series of match are important to the careers of both. Without them Gotch would be remembered as a protected star who wrestled trainers, managers and lightweights and only had disappointing one sided matches…while Jenkins would be remembered only for putting over stars like Hack, Mahmout, and the Zbyszko brothers. Every fan should be aware of these matches, for they were the foundation of this sport and it matters little if they were works or shoots.
REFERENCES:
1) Wrestling top authority on Frank Gotch is Mike Chapman. He has written two books on the subject: FRANK GOTCH: WORLD”S GREATEST WRESTLER and GOTCH: AN AMERICAN HERO and many others on Amateur Wrestling. Much of what I know comes from Mike Chapman and he has dedicated much of this life to the advancement of wrestling. I have complete respect for Mike Chapman (and like him personally), but his background comes from amateur wrestling, and he feels the idea of working matches an insult to the sport. He believes Frank Gotch was a wrestling saint who’s integrity allow him only to do shoots. So he absolutely believes the Gotch/Jenkins matches to be contests (shoots).
My background is Pro Wrestling and this experience make me think everything is a “work” and all the research I’ve read makes this pragmatic type of thinking my reality. So I want it known that some very acknowledgeable experts, disagree with my views on working and gambling. I personally dislike going over the topic, over and over and over, but find it impossible to avoid. Nothing written in this post will change the mind of a Mike Chapman and no reply will affect a Steve Yohe. My hope is that Mike will never read it.
This Gotch/Jenkins topic was first written about over 15 years ago in Dave Meltzer’s WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER in letters written by a John Williams. Williams is one of my best friends and we have talked about this topic a million times over the years. So many times that I don’t know what is an original idea and what isn’t. I would have been very happy if John had written this but he spends his time posting on Jumbo Tsuruta, Riki Choshu’s Army and Bob Backlund at tOA and didn’t want the job. I know a huge moan will follow every time Williams reads the word “shoot” in this paper.
2) FRANK GOTCH: WORLD”S GREATEST WRESTLER by Mark Chapman page 28
3) THE FRANK GOTCH RECORD in THE HISTORICAL WRESTLING SOCIETY #5 by Richard Haynes—This was a record book self-published in the 1990’s. Most wrestling historians look down on this series of books by Haynes for many reasons…mainly because of many errors…but I’ve always valued them because it was the only information I had before I started doing research and making contacts with other historians.
4) I have worked in a hospital for 25 years, thus I’ve been around many women of all ages. I’m famous for using the ward copy machine for wrestling projects & people are always looking over my shoulder asking questions. One night I put out photos of Gotch, Buddy Rogers, Jim Londos, Lou Thesz, Sandor Szabo, Ricky Steamboat and a few others that were considered good looking in their time. I asked every women in the hospital who they liked best. My surprise was that 100%, of the females asked, thought Frank Gotch was the sexiest one of the bunch. Everyone picked Gotch, a guy who lived in 1900. (Buddy Rogers couldn’t even get the hospital gay vote.)
4B) This report of a early Jenkins/Gotch match comes from research done by superstar historian Don Luce which was completed as I was going this paper. He looked at two local newspapers but the report could only be found in THE HUMBOLDT REBUBLICAN Nov. 1, 1910. It may be the only mention of the match in history.
5) Among other things Carroll had connections organize crime in the Seattle area.
I wrote this in my JACK CURLEY BIO: “By 1909 with the outlawing of
Boxing, Curley was promoting wrestling in Chicago with the Illinois Athletic
Club. Curley would later claim he had promoted the 4-14-09 Frank Gotch/
Yussiff Mahmout bout that drew 10,000 people ($38,828) to Dexter Park Pavilion
and a Gotch/Dr. B. F. Roller match in Kansas City (4-27-09). Later that year he
accepted the post of athletic director of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in
Seattle. Also managing Dr. Roller, Curley waged a promotional war with a
gambler/promoter named Ole Marsh (Joe Carroll) who was a member of the
notorious Maybury gang and the man who made Frank Kennedy (Frank Gotch)
rich during a stay in Alaska in 1901. This confrontation ended with Marsh in jail
and Curley on a train back to friendly Chicago.”
6) The $40,000 story is told in many places. One is THE MILWAUKEE PRESS April 8, 1917. FRANK A. GOTCH: WORLD CHAMPION WRESTLER (1913) by George S. Robbins claims the amount to be $35,000. He claims to have made &18,640 from one match. This was done with the price of a ticket less that a dollar. I hope these figures tell you something about the relationship between wrestling and gambling during this era. $40,000 is also a huge amount of money in 1901.
7) The $40,000 story is told in many places. One is THE MILWAUKEE PRESS April 8, 1917. FRANK A. GOTCH: WORLD CHAMPION WRESTLER (1913) by George S. Robbins claims the amount to be $35,000. He claims to have made &18,640 from one match. This was done with the price of a ticket less that a dollar. I hope these figures tell you something about the relationship between wrestling and gambling during this era. $40,000 is also a large amount of money in 1901. In 1903 the second highest paid player in baseball, George Davis, made $6,300 a year.
8) CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Dec. 26, 1902
9) I used FRANK A. GOTCH: WORLD CHAMPION WRESTLER (1913) by George S. Robbins for the description of pinning move of the first fall. Others claim that Jenkins won both falls via the jawlock. The 1913 book pre-dates all the others and I haven’t got a good newspaper report, so I used it.
9B) Most of what you read in books has Jenkins being a dirty wrestler, but I think
most books have been written via the Gotch perspective. Gotch had a reputation for being rough and he would injure weaker wrestlers to scare future opponent. Maybe it was just the catch style of the time, but I would say both were dirty.
9C) The referee in Bellingham was Tom Davis, who was a well known barnstormer
with strong connections to Farmer Burns. He had traveled to Alaska with Gotch
in Oct. 1903 and wrestled around Washington State with Burn’s troops.
10) I took the description of this match from three or four newspaper reports. I like the idea of using the most violent accounts because it has been called one of the most brutal matches in history. BELLINGHAM HERALD Jan. 28, 1904---CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER Jan. 28, 1904 and some reports I believe are from the POLICE GAZETTE but I received without a name or date.
11) FRANK A. GOTCH: WORLD CHAMPION WRESTLER (1913) by George S. Robbins—page 61-63
12) CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER—Feb. 5 to Feb. 9, 1905
13) NEW YORK TIMES, March 16, 1905—Can’t really says that I believe it was the largest indoor crowd in New York history. Seems they were able to increase the seating to fit up to 10,000 for later cards.
14) BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE—May 5, 1905 or NEW YORK TIMES May 5, 1905
15) FRANK A. GOTCH: WORLD CHAMPION WRESTLER (1913) by George S. Robbins—page 80—Every time I do one of these papers I find a powerbomb. I’m kind of tired of making the discovery. It must have been a common move. The drawing is from the New York Evening Journal. It looks like Jack Kirby drew it.
16) I took the description of the match from the CHICAGO TRIBUNE May 19, 1905 and from FRANK A. GOTCH: WORLD CHAMPION WRESTLER (1913) by George S. Robbins page 81 to 83.
17) KANSAS CITY TIMES—May 23, 1906
18) THE KANSAS CITY JOURNAL—May 24, 1906
19) NEW ORLEANS TIMES-DEMOCRAT Dec 2, 1906 and CHICAGO TRIBUNE—Dec. 17, 1907 –Please note that there is no mention of a ring post in any report of Gotch’s title loss.
20) MILWAUKEE PRESS-April 27, 1907
21) CHICAGO TRUBUNE—April 4, 1908
22) CHICAGO TRIBUNE-April 4, 1909
23) CHICAGO TRIBUNE-April 15, 1909
24) MILWAUKEE PRESS-June 15, 1909
24B) To give you an idea how much Gotch was making from public appearances, in May 1916 Frank refused to wrestle Joe Stecher in a finish match on Decoration Day because he would have to break his circus engagement. He claimed the match would cost him $18,000. In April 1916, he was making $1,100 a week to perform for the Sells-Floto circus.
25) THE BUFFALO COURIER—Nov. 25, 1909
26) CHICAGO TRIBUNE-June 2, 1910 and KANSAS CITY JOURNAL June 2, 1910
27) KANSAS CITY JOURNAL—June 2, 1910 A E. W. Cochrane wrote “The innocent public had to stand for two matches instead of one and was fooled into thinking the big cheese from Poland was a wrestler. In the good old days when men fought for glory and were not money mad the best man won. Today men wrestle for money and no glory.” “If he (Gotch) intends to wrestle any more handicaps and finish bouts as he has with Zbyszko everyone will be better satisfied if he does quit.”
28) POLICE GAZETTE-- April 1911
Thanks to Mike Champman, John Williams, Mark Hewitt, Don Luce, Scott Teal, J Michael Kenyon, Fred Hornby, Tim Hornbaker and Koji Miyamoto.
