Arizona republican., 1920-09-09
SAM CHATHAM SAYS
 GOTCH WAS ONE OF BEST MEN IN CAME
BY SAM CHATHAM

Was Frank Gotch the best wrestler that ever lived, and what would be his chances against the present champion Joe Stecher? The above question has been asked probably thousands of times by the wrestling fans of this country and Europe. Having met every champion of the mat since Hackenschmidt, I will endeaVor to give a brief outline of the style of each man. Gotch was without doubt a wonderful wrestler and one of the best men who ever stepped upon wrestling mat. He was the master of thousands of holds and could apply each of them in manner which no other man has been able to accomplish even before or after him. His movements were such that. although he weighed around the 200 mark at his best, he had the agility of a lightweight There is a big ms take made when sport writers say that Gotch won most of his matches with the toe hold. Although he originated that hold, 1 don't believe that he ever won any of his important matches With it. To be more correct, his famous hold was the half nelson and crotch, and whenever he had that hold applied on his opponent it was always a cer- tainty that the referee was going to pat Gotch on the back. Gotch was cruel wrestler, by which l mean that he would torture his opponent when
 
 would never give quarter, no matter what hold he had, until he was told by the referee to let go. For gameness Gotch had very few equals and would never quit until he had tried every means of fighting his way through. In his last match, which took place in San Diego, Cal, in which I was his opponent, I can recall an incident which proves the gameness of Gotch. The Iowan was not in the very best of shape, and after 30 minutes of hard wrestling I was fortunate enough to secure a head scissors on him. 1 tried every means to pin Frank, and even had the hold applied over seven min utes,- in which time Gotch fought gamely to get loose, but his wonder ful gameness pulled him through and he was decided the winner i'll straight | falls. Gotch was not a bulky man, be- | ing the poSsessor of q physique that any of the old sculptors might well | have used as his model for the Greek Hermes There is only one man who l I honestly think had a chance to de- | feat Gotch, and that was Youssif Nah mout the Turk It is true that Nah mout was once his victim, but If they would have ever been rematched l be- lieve the decision would have been re- versed. The reason Gotch was such a wonderful wrestler is that he studied l every kind of wrestling, such as the l old fashioned side holds, Cornish style, 1 jiu- jitsu, Icelandic and Greek-R Roman 1 Combining each style together as he l did gave him an idea how to apply 1 and counter every hold known to the wrestling game. Take the present | time men, for instance. There are not many who can change style very much. Joe Steeher, who l met al Long Pine, Neb. is a good man, but he relies on his legs too much. He is not very strong above his waist and must
 nearly always apply the scissors to vii | a match. The exrchampion, Earl Cad
 dock, who I met in Chicago last De
 cember, is a fast man and very tricky
 but lacks the weight and strength t'
 be able to hold the heavyweight cham
 pionship. Farmer Burns was a maj
 who in his day could give the best mai
 of the present time a good run, and feel sure that there are not very man, wrestlers who Burns could not bea
 that are now posing IS grapplers. Tn wrestling game has in the past fey
 years been making good progress an l is coming back into the limeight, an
 no doubt in the near future it will hay
 the support of the best sporting eie
 ment in the country. It is far bette
 game to watch than boxing and is yer
 educational, as there are pointers [
 be learned which help the ordinar
 person to handle himself in the cas
 of self defense.