Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-11
COTCH TELLS OF HIS ADVENT
Becomes Wrestler by Graos Of Burns and
, Walloying Of Mcleod.
FORMER TRAINS HIN, LATTER SKINS HIM
Under Assumed Name Mcleod Throws
BiE village Cutup who BECOMES
Champion OF United
states.

ITO two men l guess I may attribute
my standing as a wrestler" said Frank
Gotch, champion heavyweight Of the mat
in the United States, If not the world |
who will wrestle Farmer Burns at the
Auditorium tomorrow night. Those two
men," added Gotch. "are Farmer Burns
who taught me the business, and Dan
Mcleod, who threw me all over myself
once at a country fsir, when / was sup
posed by my neighbors TO be invincibje.
McLeod's awful humiliation Of me made
me determined to become a wrestler IL I
II was possible. and Burns helped develop
that possibility"
1t is a strange coincident that the great
toe hold, which Burns uses with such fatal
results to his adversaries, is the browning
hold of Gotch, too. once he gets that
hold, as once Burns gets it, the other
fellow is supposed to be a goner. Jim
Parr proved utterly unable TO resist
Burns application of 1t. With Burns
and Gotch each having n toe hold at the
same time, IL such thing were possible,
there would certainly be a tug-of-war
Continuing as to his advent on the mat
Gotch who looks in the pink of trim,
said:
"of course, 1 did not intend to take up
maker. when a youngster. and probably
still would have been plain Frank Gotch
of Humboldt Ia, had not Dan Mcleod,
the ex-champion, made me look like fool
before all the town people-people who
regarded me the strongest and best wrest-
Ter on earth. To tell the truth, had an
exalted opinion Of myself. But 1 was like
the town folk, did not know anything
about the art of wrestling. With me It
was a case of run in, take hold and bear
a man to the ground.
IL was as ignorant of half and full Mel
sons, hammerlocks, strangle and toe holds
as were my admirers. l thought 1 knew
II all, and that is why Dan Mcleod made
me look like fool.
'It happened as follows: We had little
country fair at our home and the com
mittee, all friends of the family. thought
il a good idea to arrange series of ath-
letic events, and 1 was considered the best
athlete for miles around and was expected
to capture all the prizes, the town folk
subscribed handsomely. Unfortunately as
It proved, they advertised the events and
the prizes throughout the state, with the
result that they received numerous en-
tries. Among the entrants was one Mr..
Reynolds a furniture dealer from a
nearby town, and who, by the way, cap
tured all the prizes which the committee
thought were cinched for me- Reynolds
won the shot-put the saber tossing, the
/ hop, step and jump. In fact, he won
everything and the best could do was
to finish second
"To say l and the town folk were dis
/ appointed would be putting II mildly.
Reynolds looked and acted the part Of
/ F,,r md ha
l. They wanted me to spill him all over
the ground in a wrestling match. OF course,
we knew he was no match for at that
/ game, and we were puzzled as to how to
breach the wrestling question. After lot
of quiet pow-wowing they subscribed $50
and told me to challenge him for the
! amount
"'Can you wrestler blurted.
"Dont know anything about it, he re-
piled.
'Wrestle you for $5O said.
"'wish / knew something about wrest-
ling. Would take a chance, big as you are
for the money
"You are not going to leave town
bluffed are your
"'Guess III have to-
"Then we began chatting him, calling him
cur, etc. This made him mad, and dig
BluE uOWn INTO ms puCkelt ne puleu out
a roll OF bills big enough to choke a cow
He said: I did pretty well today and can
| afford to take chance bat / will not
wrestle here on the cindors. Come over
on the grass
ct thought he was weakening and
wanted to I'LL his back with einders. We
are making the match here. and here we
will wrestle,' / said. He acted as II he
wanted to crawl out of the match and
after heap of coaxing and joshing he
finally consented to take holds on the Gin
der road. We took holds and-well. that is
all remember of how and what happened,
only that he walked off with the money
"They carried me home, so they told me
a long while after put me TO bed and
hired a specialist to dig the cinders out of
my back. They did not have to chloroform
me. either. was dead to the world.
about two weeks after my father sent
one OF my brothers up to my room to in
quire when l would be able to have DIN
ner with the family. / felt pretty cheap
and really was ashamed to look pa in the
face, but I braced up, went down TO din
ner and found under my plate a card
which read
Dan Mcleod. champion catch-as-catch-
can wrestler Of America"
whats this7' l meekly asked pa
Mr.. Reynolds dropped in to see you
and left his card was pas reply
81 worked on the farm some time after
that but while I was 'geeapping' the
horses my thoughts were on Mr.. Reynolds.
or, rather, Mcleod. and wishing I could
travel over the country as a champion
wrestler under an assumed name and pick
up easy money I purchased a book on
wrestling, tried the holds on my brother,
and within a year was good enough to
give a second ratof an argument"