Weekly journal-miner., 1916-02-16
GOTCH-STECHER
 MATCH BEING PLANNED

NEW YORK, Feb. 12.- To bring out of retirement a champion in any line of sport, who has held the titular honors for some years, in order that he may test his strength and skill against younger and really formid- able opponent is an expensive opera ton. A champion with the lust for battle dulled by years of competition and secretly doubtful of his ability to hold his own with a more youthful challenger considers such match 2 business proposition in which he risks his hard earned laurels for so much money and the sum is usually so hign that it is an excellent balm in case the title passes from his possession.
 The promoters who are planning to bid for the Gotch-Stecher wrest- ling contest are going to discover this fact when the time comes for the making of bids for the match. While the Iowa champion and his Nebraska challenger are far from being match cd at this time, there is no question that they will meet On the mat for the worlds catch-as- catch-can cham pionship within the next year. Gotch has already begun training and will soon start upon country wide tour meeting all corners in short time bouts. Stecher is rapidly increasing his repu- ,ation and popularity by meeting op' ponents i1 various big cities in ac cordance with lengthy schedule pre- pared before he left his Inc me in Dodge, Neb.
 It cost Tex Rickard $l0l.000 in ad- .lition to bonuses, to bring Jim Jef- fries and Jack Johnson together al Reno, New, and while wrestlers have never received as much as pugilists in the general run of championship matches, it is certain that new rec ord in wrestling purses will be made when Gotch finally signs for his grap- pie with Stecher Whether the match will prove as disappointing to those that witness it as the Johnson-Jef- fries battle did to the spectators who gathered at the Nevada ringsidc on July 4, 1910, only time ca1 tell.
 As a general rule wrestlers hold their graphing ability for a number of years beyond the point where fight ITS begin to slip back. Jeffrics was tfirty-five when Johnson at the age of thirty-two wrested his title from lim. Gotch is thirty-cight and Stech-
 r twenty-three and while the latter has had a remarkable record to date many think that Gotch's long mat career and wrestling experience will offset the advantage of Stecher's youth. In fact some wrestling ex- perts figure that the Nebraska grap- pier is too young to tackle Gotch. Certain it is that study of the latter mat records impresses one with the formidable performances of the man when taken in connection with the well-known fact that he has always been moderate and methodical in his habits and training.
 Gotch, who is Sit II l-2 in. tall and weighs about 2l0 lbs. in condition, has won more than l60 of the l72 time handicap or finish bouts in ad- dition to throwing more than 200 op' oonents in fifteen minute exhibition or invitation bouts in this country and Canada. During his foreign tour he met and conquered about half that Stecher measures six feet. one inch in height and strips at about 200 lbs. He mas wrestled more than fifty matches and has never lost a decision although held to a no-fall match by Strangler Lewis and George Turner.
 Plans arc under way for the staging