The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-05-23
CURLEY'S WRESTLING
TRUST is CRUMPLING
UNDER PUBLIC'S IRE
Nv FRANZ q. MENKE

the coffin which contains the remains
of Jack Curley's wrestling trust.
The city officials of Chicago, disgust
ed by the hippodroming of the Curley
clique, have taken the position that
these blokes either must wrestle for
midable outsiders-Plestina, Pesek or
Hanson-or stay out of Chicago.
It's crumpling smash!
The burlesquing of the group killed
the sport in New York, which for two
years was a gold mine. The public
which can be fooled some of the time,
but not all of the time, finally turned
against the Curleyized form of wrest-
ling in New York-and the game is
embalmed and put away.
Afterward a graphing show was put
on in Newark. 1t was hoped that the
sport, as Curley operates it, might go
big there. One of the old-fashioned
Curley affairs was staged-or, rather,
| it was over-staged. And Newark ever
since has been vowing Never again"
Nearly Shut Out
With New York closed, Newark i'm
passive, Boston closed, Pittsburgh
closed, Chicago about to put up the
d
other towns in the same mood, the mat
game that Curley operates knows no
real existence except through Nebras-
ka and Kansas.
And because they're rather bright
and keen minded out there, and be-
cause they won't stand for the bunco
game for very long it means that the
doom of the wrestling trust is sealed.
| And why not?
Never in the history of sportdom has
anything been put over on a long
suffering sportive public with the au-
dacity of those trick bouts between
I five men who worked under the pro-
motion of Curley. Through the years
there were some men who, claiming to
be ''in on the know" boosted that
they could name not only the winner
of a match, but the hour and the min
ute
And they proceeded to do 1t.
1t is an established fact that Joe
Stecher, Stanislaus Zbyszko, Ed Lewis,
Wradek Zbyszko and Earl Caddock-
the five important operating tools of
the trust-wrestled each other in near
/ ly 100 matches.
Matches About Even
Those who have tabulated the activi-
ties of the quintet have found that
barring Stanislaus-each won from the
other about the same number of times,
| each wrestled about the same number
of draws, and each held the tainted
championship" about as frequently
and as long as the other.
Stanislaus Zbyszko is the exception
i That's simply because he joined the
/ group only a trifle more than a year
ago and of course, hasn't had as much
to hiDpodrome as the others. But Stan
despite his late start, is doing his stuff
very cutely.
I For nearly five years Marin Plestina
was alone outside the trust. He would
not wrestle Curley's way-and so Cur
ley barred him from getting a crack
at any of his gang. Now Plestina has
brace of partners in the matter o.
def hurting. One is John Pesek; the
other Charlie Hanson.
Put Out by Foul
Pesek once was within the Curley
fold. His last job was to ruin Pies
tina by the dirtiest, foulest tactics ever
used on a mat. He nearly blinded Pies
tina in their match in New York. Fol-
his fouling, Pesek was disqualified fol
life by the New York State Athletic
commission
Afterward the Curley gang is sale
, to have dumped him overheard. Nov
he wants revenge and is willing t
wrestle any of the Curley gang on thu
| winner-take-all basis.
Hanson, student of Martin Gear
mer'0 Burns, wrestled a three hou
} draw with Stan Zbyszko last winte
J when Stan was champion. Star
! thought he was meeting a dub. Eve