Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-10-03
FRANK GOTCH WRITES.
Gives His Ideas About the Referee
Awarding Stecher Decision
Over Plestina.

had no power TO award Stecher the
decision over Plestina ole Marsh of
this city was at the ringside and he
says it was the worst decision he ever
saw, and absolutely wrong.
Following is Frank Gotch's letter
published in the Omaha Daily News:
Having read all three of the Oma-
ha papers comments of the Stecher-
,Plestina match of September 3, wish
to congratulate you for having nerve
enough to say in your paper that the
referees decision was rotten. 1t sure
was, and in all the history Of wrest-
ling you cannot find one SO rotten.
Plestina was in the ring for two
hours and five minutes and during
that time Stecher never was sehlnd
him nor did he ever have Plestina ev-
en- on one knee. Plestiua was behind
Stecher three times and had Stecher
down on the mat once for about three
minutes There was no time in the
match that Flestina was not right up
against Ste"her and during the two
hours and five minutes Plestina never
backed away from Stecher ncr was he
showed to the ropes.
/ see the Omaha papers mention
quite often the word Sailing
When two men are wrestling on the
square as these men were there is
no such thing as Sailing. One man
leads and the other blocks If he can
and it takes just as much science 10
block as it does to lead and some
times more. Plestina blocked every
lead Stecher made for over two hours
but Stecher could not do that with
Plestina, for Plestina got behind him
and also put him to the mat and held
him there for several minutes.
The match was catch as catch
can" two best in three falls and to a
finish, and so long as 40 foul was
committed either wrestler had a
right to lead or block as long as he
saw fit or could, and the referee had
Inc right TO tell either of them to go
down on the mat and let the other on
top of him. and when Referee ReetZ
told Plestina to get down on the mat
and let Stecher on top he did some
thing he had no power TO do, for
There is no such rule. And when he
gave Stecher a fall because Plestina
refused to get down and let Stecher
on top he pulled something thai |
would not think it possible 70 put ov-
er on as intelligent a bunch of wrest-
ling fans as there are in Omaha. No
lone but a boob would go down and
Ilet a man on top OF him, nor would
any man who knew how to referee,
and was on the square, expect him TO.
Rule three says, no fall is to count
, oytyy ic
back, two shoulders uouchiag the
floor at the same tiI1n TO constitute Il
fall. Plestina never was thrown to his
knees and yet the referee called the
fall against him while he was stand
ing on his feet and had hold of
Stecher. When Plcstina protested and
refused to wrestle further with such
a referee, the referee gave the match
to Stecher l do not know who Ed
Reetz is, but | think / am about
as capable of refereeing as he is, and
II know that l know the wrestling
game far better than he does or ever
will, and | say that it was the rot
tenest AID most uncalled for robbery
of match that ever heard Of.
When / defeated Hackenschmidt
the first time | blocked for two hours
land three minutes before l took him
to the mat, and he then quit and |
won the worlds championship. The
match September 3 meant great
IDEAL more to Plestira then most peo-
pie realize; had he won and /, for
one, fully believe he would, he would
have been first in line for match
with Earl Caddock for the title, and
it almost meant thousands Of dollars
to him in other matches. l have
talked with experts on the wrestling
game and men who know wrestling
from A to Y and they tell me that
seldom if ever have they seen more
perfect wrestling than Plestina did
that night with Stecher.
A finish match is finish match,
whether it takes five minutes or five
hours. and people know that when
they go to see it, Perhaps many peo-
pie in the audience did not under
stand wrestling aid expected it to
last only few minutes. Others who
had their money bet on Stecher ex-
pected and also wanted to see Stecher
grab Plestina and throw him to the
mat and scissor him and beat him
very quickly. but there were many
paid their money to see match TO
finish and came there with the inten-
ton of staying to the finish AID they
had a right to see ii to a finish.
/ also see by your paper that Pies
tina offered to leave his share OF the
gate receipts and bet it against Stech-
er's share that he could beat him,
either the next day or two weeks
| from that day, and charge no admis-
sion. but Stecher refused. Plestina
was roasted by the press AID part OF
the public, when, to my way OF think
ling, he should have been boosted,
and | for one wish to congratulate
Plestina on the wonderful match he
put up.
/ expect a great many people
imagine that the referee has the pow
er TO do as Reetz did when he gave
the match to Stecher, but | say that
/ he has not-no more than referee
OF boxing match would say to one OF
the boxers, You are not boxing to
suit me, so you hold your hands be-
hind your back and let the other box
er hit you in the jaw" Nothing could