The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-27
FRANK GOTcH, 37
 TODAY, DECLARES
 TITLE IS VACANT

Now that the pugilistic heavy weight champion has been decided, and the notorious Cauoasian race again boasts of having the, worlds premier glove artist, the wrestling fans are clamoring for a recognized leader in their ancient sport, Frank Gotch, who has so long held the mat honors. has retired undefeated. to his Iowa farm, with something like quarter of a million dollars, 1salted away, and has shown no inclination to return to the game in which he won fame and fortune The husky Hawkeye State mat warrior will cele- brate his thirty ty-seventh birthday to- day, having been born in Humboldt, Ia., April 27, 1878, and he shows wis dom and sound sense in quitting while the quitting is good. He is clean living chap who doesn't know the taste of booze, and for whom the white lights have never had any at traction Such being the case, he
 might s'come back and escape John sons fate. but even the cIeanest lfv- ing man can't, escape the law of na-
 ture which insists that youth has sim
 ply got to be served and that the vet athletic championships are being
 passed around.
 There are indications that the wrestling sport is rapidly regaining its o1d-tine favor. In the middle West the graphing game has never lost it's hold on popular interest, and there has lately been a revival of interest along the Pacific and Atlantic
 coasts. The Knockout blow given boxing in California has cauAed the sports to take to wrestling as a sub stitute.
 ants fer the wrestling title left vacant I by Gotch's retirement the Zbyszko brothers, Stanislaus and WIadeck, are among the most prominent. Stanis- 1aus was the first to twist the tongues of American wrestling fans by bring l ing the name of Zbyszko out of Po- lard Stanislaus proved himself a
 mighty hard man to. beat, but Gotch conquered. him in St Louis in 1909
 and repeated the trick in Chicago the following year. WIadeck Zbyszko, younger brother of Stanislaus, defeat
 ed Tom Jenkins, the former Ameri- can champion, when the veteran tried
 to pull comeback last year, and he has also bested many other good men. i fh-addition to the many veterans of l the game who are classed as possible 1 champions, the revival of interest in wrestling has resulted in the discov- I cry of a number of young fellows who l hope to pull off a Willard One of l the most promising of the kids is
 like Gotch, a middle Western farmer, tJoe Stecher. He is twenty-two years old. and has been in the professional
 game three years, never losing a fall
 SteeI1er halls from Lincoln, Neb., and has be9n declared by some experts I to be the coming Gotch.
 | As a matter Of fact, Frank GotcK \ was never clearly entitled to call him self the wrestling champion of the I world. He was the champion o1 I America and Europe, right enough and he med all chaIIaporors h41t if is
 a matter for grave doubt whether he could have defended his honors Fl against the greatest grapp1ers of In i dia and Japan What baseball is to
 America and soccer football to Great
 Britain, wrestling is to India and Japan Men who have seen the gian1
 grappIers of the mountainous inter Hl for of India, have asserted that il
 would be easy to discover a score os
 wrest1eTs any one of whom couId
 down the best mat man the westerr Il world has ever prod71cef There :.