names death_date weight birth_place height debut birth_date image article_title name retired
john pesek march 12 , 1978 185 lb -lrb- 84 kg -rrb- ravenna , nebraska 6 ft -lrb- 183 cm -rrb- 1914 february 21 , 1894 johnpesek.jpg john pesek
 john pesek 1950s
john pesek

john pesek -lrb- february 21 , 1894 -- march 12 , 1978 -rrb- was an american professional wrestler and notable greyhound racing dog breeder .
he was born to bohemian parents near ravenna , nebraska , the fifth of seven children , and grew up living the hard life of the american pioneer .
his father martin died in an accident when john was twelve .
he originally planned a career in boxing but took to professional wrestling instead , with which he became familiar by attending the traveling carnivals of the era .
his first high-profile match was in 1914 when he defeated wladek zbyszko .
pesek was nicknamed the nebraska tiger man for his ferocity and catlike dexterity .
he was also legitimately strong and could hold his own on the mat against opponents that frequently outweighed him considerably .
pesek is recorded as losing only about 20 matches in his entire career , which he began undefeated until january 16 , 1920 when he lost to fellow nebraskan joe stecher .
among the few other men to ever defeat pesek were jim londos and ed `` strangler '' lewis .
a true `` hooker '' who believed in wrestling as legitimate competitive sport , pesek disliked the wrestling `` trust '' that emerged in the 1920s for its booking of pre-determined match outcomes .
his reluctance to co-operate with promoters isolated him from the wrestling mainstream for much of his career .
one important wrestling figure with whom pesek did agree to work was ed lewis , for whom he became a `` policeman '' to ward off the so-called `` trustbusters '' , outlaw wrestlers who posed threats to promotions and their champions by refusing to co-operate -lrb- fix matches -rrb- during matches .
on november 14 , 1921 , pesek squared off against one of the most prominent trustbusters , serbian-born wrestler marin plestina at madison square garden .
pesek proceeded to administer such a severe beating -lrb- through continual fouling -rrb- that plestina was hospitalized .
all three falls of the match were forfeited due to repeated head butting and eye gouging by pesek .
his repeated fouling caused a near riot .
the new york times credits plestina with `` intensified fairness '' in the face of pesek 's continued fouling .
this is the reason pesek was banned from wrestling for life in new york .
these comments are taken from a new york times article dated november 15 , 1921 .
new york 's athletic commission refused to award pesek his prize money and banned him from wrestling in the state , but the tiger man had done his job .
on another occasion , pesek was hired to give lewis ' ally , boston-area promoter paul bowser , a hand in his battle with rival promoter jack curley .
curley was aggressively promoting olympic wrestling medalist nat pendleton and issued a series of haughty challenges , among them boasting that pendleton could beat lewis and any other wrestler on the same night .
pesek was enlisted to face curley 's protégé , and in a legitimate contest held on january 25 , 1923 , pesek defeated and injured pendleton to claim an $ 8000 purse and give bowser a major financial and publicity victory .
pesek would memorably cross paths with joe stecher again , wrestling him three times in 1926 .
stecher , now the world champion , won the first meeting on april 29 , and the second match on august 25 ended in a draw .
then , on october 6 at los angeles ' olympic auditorium , subbing for ed lewis , pesek diverted from the planned result and trapped stecher in a wrist lock .
stecher appeared to submit , but in order to save face the referee disqualifed pesek under the pretense that he had used an illegal choke hold , allowing stecher to retain the title .
stecher was said to have cried after the match .
despite making a good living in america , pesek eventually grew tired of backroom politics and opted to go overseas for a while in 1929 .
traveling to new zealand and australia , he became a sensation there , winning 47 consecutive bouts .
pesek 's reputation as a maverick held him back from holding many championships in his career , and he has been characterized as a `` trustbuster '' in his own right .
it turned out that none of the titles he did hold were either won or lost in the ring .
from 1931 to 1933 , he was the recognized midwest wrestling association -lrb- mwa -rrb- champion , until he forfeited the title to wrestle for another promotion .
later , pesek was recognized for a time as national wrestling association champion .
he was belatedly given the vacant nwa championship on september 13 , 1937 , as he had been the only man to post a $ 1000 bond for a proposed tournament one year earlier .
however , he was soon stripped of the title when he refused to meet two challengers .
pesek was again awarded the vacant mwa championship in 1938 , but was stripped of it in june 1940 for , once again , failing to meet the top contenders .
by the end of the 1920s , pesek had begun turning his focus towards racing greyhounds , and on of his nebraska farm he built up one of the nation 's leading stables .
he won several national titles , and the pedigree of one of his greatest dogs , australian-born `` just andrew '' , could be found in 95 percent of american greyhound stock by 1975 .
john pesek continued to appear occasionally in exhibition matches through the 1950s , long enough to wrestle on the same card as son jack , who would go on to enjoy a lengthy wrestling career of his own .
john died at his home on march 12 , 1978 and is buried at the highland cemetery outside ravenna .
a bronze statue of john with two greyhounds was being created at the time of his death , and it was posthumously unveiled in front of ravenna bank on may 28 , 1978 .
although lesser known than some of his contemporaries , john pesek is recognized today as one of the best wrestlers of his era .
he was inducted into the professional wrestling hall of fame in 2005 , as well as the wrestling observer newsletter hall of fame in 1996 ; pesek had earlier been inducted into the `` lincoln journal '' 's nebraska sports hall of fame in 1957 .
his contributions to the sport of greyhound racing have also been recognized by his induction to the greyhound national hall of fame in 1978 -- his dogs `` gangster '' and `` just andrew '' were inducted in 1964 and 1975 , respectively .
