By Michael Hirsley
Tribune staff reporter
HUMBOLDT, Iowa ” Frank Gotch was born April 27, 1878, to German immigrants on a farm 3 miles south of town. He began wrestling for fun as a teenager and for money by the time he was 21.
He was trained by another famous Iowa wrestler, Martin “Farmer “Burns, who accompanied Gotch to Alaska at the turn of the century to do their own kind of gold prospecting.
Adopting the name Frank Kennedy, the chore-strengthened farm boy was so successful in five months of wrestling and wagering in gritty mining towns that he returned to the homestead with $30,000.
That significant bankroll launched a career against the elite level of pro wrestlers. Gotch’s biggest early hurdle was national champion Tom Jenkins of Cleveland, whom he beat in five of their eight matches and from whom he won the American title in 1905.
As Gotch wrestled all comers from all countries, his reputation grew and spread overseas, where a former champion weightlifter named George Hackenschmidt had turned to wrestling and built similar notoriety as “the Russian Lion.”
Hackenschmidt, who had defeated Jenkins twice, became the acknowledged world heavyweight champion. That set up a rivalry that heightened the profile of an already popular sport and its Iowa superstar.
At 5 feet 9,½ inches and 230 pounds, Hackenschmidt was 2 inches shorter but 34 pounds heavier than Gotch in their prime. The Russian’s 52-inch chest was 7 inches broader than Gotch’s.
The first Gotch vs. Hackenschmidt match was a two-hour marathon on April 3, 1908, at Chicago’s Dexter Park Pavilion. It took Gotch that long to win the first fall. Hackenschmidt, who had been favored, did not come out for the second in their scheduled two-of-three-falls match.
In the three-plus years until the rematch, Gotch did more than wrestle. Besides public appearances as a celebrity at the White House and major-league baseball games, he starred in a play called “All About a Bout.”
Before and after the rematch Sept. 4, 1911, at Comiskey Park, it was front-page news in the Chicago papers.
On Page 1, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported that a capacity crowd of 25,000 felt “defrauded “that Hackenschmidt surrendered to Gotch’s holds so quickly. The first fall took 14 minutes 18 seconds and, after a 15-minute break, the second was over in 5:32.
Hackenschmidt later blamed his poor showing on injuries to leg tendons in training. He lived to be 90 and made other excuses for the loss, including accusations that Gotch used dirty tactics. But he was respectful in the immediate aftermath.
The opening text in the Tribune account of the match quoted Hackenschmidt pleading to Gotch before being pinned, “Don’t break my foot. “Then, after a pause, “Don’t, that hurts.”
The story also reported that referee Ed Smith, sports editor of the Chicago Evening American, declared all bets off before the match, citing a request from Police Chief John McWeeny and White Sox owner Charles Comiskey.
Though that raised suspicions among the crowd, Smith had declared earlier that “the absolute squareness of the match is not to be doubted for a moment. The thing couldn’t be fixed one way or another for $100,000.”
In addition to the crowd at Comiskey, thousands of fans congregated in front of two new Tribune branch offices that had just opened and were posting bulletins from the match.
According to the paper’s account the next day, “For once, interest in the baseball scores, which were also bulletined, was overshadowed by the contest between Gotch and Hackenschmidt.”
The winner earned $21,000 and the loser $13,500, substantial paydays but less than promoter Jack Curley’s $29,937 share.
Gotch’s official final record was 154-6, but he also wrestled hundreds of exhibitions.
After touring as a circus wrestler in retirement, Gotch returned to settle in his hometown, where he served on the boards of a bank and an electric company. His worldwide fame had earned him an estimated half-million dollars, the equivalent of $10 million today. He became part-owner of an auto dealership and bought more than 1,000 acres of farmland.He was only 39 when he died of kidney failure in his home on Sixth Street in Humboldt. Uremic poisoning was cited.
His death on Dec. 17, 1917, was reported under front-page headlines in sports sections across the country. In his hometown, commerce ceased and school was canceled for his funeral. Out-of-town mourners were among the thousands who marched to Union Cemetery, where he was buried in the family mausoleum.
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