Wrestling Last Night

Malone Evening Telegram – May 8, 1931
By The Associated Press

SYRACUSE, N. Y. – Jim McMillen and Billy Bartush drew, 45 minutes without fall; Hans Steinke, Germany, threw Willie Davis, Virginia, 12:20; Renato Gardini, Italy, threw Casey Berger, Texas, 36:00; Glen Stafford threw George Tragos, St. Louis, 10:43.

BOSTON – Al Morelli, 210, Boston college, defeated Pat McKay, 205, Memphis, Tenn., straight falls, 15:00 and 26:00; Stanley Stasiak, 240, Boston, and Nick Lutze, 215, California, drew, 30 minutes; George Zarynoff, 200, Russia, threw Louis Loew, 210, France, 19:00.

Jim McMillen Throws Lewis At Coliseum

Chicago Tribune – October 21, 1936

Father Time, aided by Jim McMillen, finally caught up with Ed (Strangler) Lewis last night at the Coliseum Annex as the 45-year-old former heavyweight champion was beaten after 23 minutes 10 seconds of wrestling. McMillen threw Lewis, who has campaigned for 27 years, with a flying tackle after breaking a series of headlocks. The 1,500 fans had anticipated a Lewis victory. Gross receipts were $1,400.

On the Mat

Time – February 2, 1931

In Madison Square Garden, Jim Londos humped an enormous torso shaped like a single pile of white dough and topped with a tiny spike of head, wrapped his arms around Jim McMillen, U. S. wrestler who once played with Red Grange on Illinois’ football team. For 56 minutes, 54 seconds they grunted, sweated, flopped with terrific thuds on the canvas. Once Londos threw McMillen out of the ring. Then McMillen slipped Londos through the ropes. Then both fell down into the press bench, were helped in again, resumed grappling. At last Londos picked up McMillen, slapped him down, rolled him over with a quick half Nelson that won the match and kept one of the world’s heavyweight wrestling championships safe for Greece. Two nights before the bout, at a dinner in the Madison Square Garden Club, lion-headed, box-chested Londos had been presented with a jeweled gold belt supposed to symbolize the wrestling championship of the world. However, it is not the only belt with this significance. Don George, Michigan graduate, also claims the world’s championship because he beat Gus Sonnenberg two months ago. Not since herculean Frank Gotch retired in 1913, after a career in which he won 154 matches out of 160, has there been an undisputed heavyweight wrestling champion. In the last seven years two main groups of wrestlers have emerged to do business separately, each with its own champion: a group controlled by Promoter Jack Curley in the East, the other by old-time Billy Sandoz in the Midwest and on the Pacific Coast. Curley’s champion is recognized by the National Boxing Association, whose authority over wrestling is vague. Sandoz’ champion is supported mainly in Massachusetts, Michigan and California. To Curley goes credit for having revived wrestling, long discredited by its reputation as an incurably crooked sport, as a big money-maker in eastern cities.* It is still maintained by experts, and borne out in college wrestling, that when wrestlers are sincere they immediately fall to the mat and lie prone, grunting, until one succumbs from fatigue. No matter what can be said for its spirit, such sincerity is exceedingly weak as entertainment.

*Rev. Charley Urban, onetime University of Pennsylvania footballer and 220lb. wrestler, signed a professional wrestling contract with a Philadelphia promoter. “A preacher doesn’t get much money and the little I can make on the side will keep me in a cheerful frame of mind which . . . will be reflected in my sermons,” said he.

Savoldi Captures Londos Claim To Title

Associated Press –  April 8, 1933

CHICAGO – Jumping Joe Savoldi, who used to shatter football lines for Notre Dame, had one big area of the wrestling world rocking with claims and denials today.

Joe strode into the Chicago Stadium ring last night to tackle Jim Londos, claimant of the championship. To the amazement of 8,000 customers, he walked out with a one-fall victory after 20 minutes and 26 seconds of rough-and-tumble grappling. The match attracted a gate of approximately $12,000.

Londos And Stecher Do It All Over Again Tonight

Chicago Tribune – March 3, 1933

Joe Stecher, the Nebraskan who is one of wrestling’s patriarchs by virtue of his years of experience, will seek his fourth lease on the world’s heavyweight championship tonight at the Chicago Stadium. He will engage Jim Londos, who has made the most sustained claim to the crown for the last three years, for the second time in six weeks.

Londos-Stecher Mat Drama Goes On Boards Again

Chicago Tribune – March 2, 1933

The second 1933 showing in Chicago of the Jim Londos-Joe Stecher wrestling number, familiar to followers of the grappling pastime at intervals during the last decade, will be presented at the Chicago Stadium tomorrow night before what is expected to be a record crowd at a local match.

Jim Londos And Joe Savoldi Meet Tonight

Chicago Tribune – April 7, 1933

Jim Londos and Joe Savoldi will wrestle tonight at the Stadium in the main bout of a five-match program. The encounter is to be decided by one fall, with a time limit of an hour and a half.

In one of the other bouts, Jim McMillen will meet George Zaharias. Matchmaker Coffey has promised McMillen that he will get a chance at the winner of the main bout at a later date if he is victorious tonight.

On The Hoof

Saturday Evening Post – December 14, 1935
By Milton MacKaye

The standing of wrestling as a profit-making enterprise has received little attention in the economic journals, and even those publications devoted to the fevers of sport have been niggardly in space and headlines. There has been a general tendency to regard wrestling as a sort of little country cousin of the opulent boxing profession, a rude and primitive trial of strength persisting feebly in the backwoods sections, but destined ultimately to become as extinct as the broadsword. As a public spectacle, it has been rated just ahead of long-distance walking contests and the hop, skip, and jump, and considerably behind the breath-taking thrills and romance of puss-in-the-corner and the potato race.

‘Ali Baba Bah!’ – So Scoffs Gus

Detroit Free Press – April 28, 1936

As far as Gus Sonnenberg is concerned, he will be wrestling for the world’s championship Friday night when he takes on Danno O’Mahoney at the Olympia. The dispute in the courts has not affected Gus in the least.

Wrestling Results

Elmira Star-Gazette – July 23, 1937

New York – Ernie Dusek, 228, Omaha, Neb., threw Abe Coleman, 205, Los Angeles, 32:41.