The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-10
Old Dr. Roller
 And His History
Wrestler Was Football Star at De Pauw University in
 Younger Days

Dr. Ben F. Roller, the Seattle-phy
 sician wrestler, who, tonight, meets
 Hjalmar Lundin, in Hartford, is a versatile athlete and self-made man. Born on farm in; Illinois, July 1,
 1876, he found a fight for an educa-
 tion awaiting him as soon as he was old enough to know that he wanted one. He finished the common schools
 with an average of 9S per cent. for ten branches and passed examinations for a teachers certificate with an average of S8 per cent.
 Roller entered DePauw University at the age of IT and his raiment at that time consisted of a pair of over alls. He was bent on business, how ever, and when repairs were being made in a basement of one of the col- 1ege buildings he got job pulling nails at 15 cents an hour, buying his first suit of clothes. With what was left over he purchased a set of books.
 During his time at DePauw, Roller made his board and room rent by do- ing janitor work and by washing dish- es. His worth as an athlete soon be- gan to assert itself. Big and rugged, he naturally went in for the toughest sports and soon became star "a at football. He was made captain of the football team, likewise it's coach, talk ing the place previously held by professional coach secured from liar ward or Yale His football team is even now talked of at DePauw as the best that college has ever produced
 But his athletic activities didn't fn- terfere with his classroom work. Be- sides working his way through and finding time for track and field sports he did seven years academic and col- lege work in five years and was pres ident of his class three years out of the five. Also he was one of the class orators at graduation. Representlns DePauw, he established long-stand- ing conference records in weight and field events at Indianapolis.
 In the spring of 1898 Roller repre- sented the Chicago Athletic associa- tion in meeting against the New York Athletic club and won the worlds championship in the discus, hammer throw and 56 pound weight throw. In the fall of that year Roller matriculated at University of Penn sylvania. He had no money to speak of and so accepted an offer to play football that he might ed up some coin by working as guard at Woodside park during the summer months.
 Roller says one of his biggest set backs came in the fall of 1898. He had worked hard to get start ana had established many records for the Pittsburgh Athletic club, only to find that the club had given him sS5o in worthless checks. Consequently, when the money he had counted on didn't come through, he was obliged to work nights during the winter to support himself.
 Tn 1902 he was graduated from Pen1- |
 70 %11 CoJ md If s10o in gold, the largest prize of fered and with an average of eS 1-2 per cent. For three years out of his l four at Pennsylvania he had been i president of his class. He also coach sd and explained his class football I teams, being ineligible for the varsity because of professionalism. His pro- had been of the open, above board type.
 He played halfback on the class team and both times his team was in the interclass series it won the cham pionship. beating out teams led by the famous Truxton Hare and Joe over Roller turned to the profession [ of medicine, and passed the state boards of Pennsylvania, Illinois, ore gone and Washington. He had good business head and quickly built up a fortune in professional and business 
 For two years he was member of the featuring and teaching faculty of i, the State University of Washington. | The football field still had loud call for him and in the fall of 1906 he coached explained and played half back for the San Francisco Athletic club team, which won the coast cham pionship, scoring 91 points and not be- 1 Ing scored against once
 It was in 1906 that Roller entered the wrestling game. His success was from the first and he won over every prominent American except Frank Gotch. Last ! year he won the American champion