Hack-Man Pro-Wrestling Frank Gotch Page

Last updated 1 April 2000


Can Frank Gotch Throw Demetral The Greek?

by Howard Angus

Frank Gotch, the champion wrestler of the world, will try to come back at the Los Angeles Athletic Club tonight after four years of retirement and following the plow in Iowa. He will be pitted against William Demetral, the Greek champion.

The bout will tell the tale, too, as far as the comeback is concerned. There is only one wrestler in the United States harder to throw than Demetral. He is Joe Stecher. Even he has sidestepped the Greek. It took Gotch at the height of his career just fifty-eight minutes to throw the Greek. That bout ended unsatisfactorily by the Greek's arm being broken when the two grapplers fell off the platform. So if Gotch wins tonight he has come back.

The bout itself has aroused more interest in the sporting world than any that has been held in years. Thirty-five thousand dollars has already been offered for a Stecher-Gotch bout. Higher bids than that one will be put in. So the public would like to know if Frank Gotch is the invincible who made the powerful Hackenschmidt, called the Russian lion, quit, and Yussiff Mahmout, known as the Terrible Turk, look like a novice. There is just a little fear all over the country that Gotch is an old man, as Foley said he was. Tonight's bout is the best way to find out. That's why everybody is interested.

There is one man more interested than anybody else. He's Jim Jeffries. While Gotch is in the ring grappling, Jeff will be holding a watch on the match. He will be a sharp reminder to Gotch on the mat of the other great champion who tried to come back and who failed miserably.

So great has been the demand for seats that only the general-admission seats are left. All of the reserved ones were gobbled up like so many hot cakes during a breakfast rush hour. There are only 600 general- admission tickets and the club men expect a pleasant evening trying to keep those back who get left out tonight.

No man could be more confident of his ability to come back than Gotch. He has never for a moment dreamed that there is the remotest possibility of Demetral throwing him. Nor does he doubt his ability to get Stecher later.

In his workout at the club yesterday he was just like a big, good-natured boy. He played with Charlie Daggett, Bill Huber and Noah Young. Most of the time he was kidding them or joshing some spectator. After working out he spent the rest of the afternoon showing a friend from Iowa over the club and taking him on an automobile ride over the south. His whole attitude toward the bout was one of indifference. He was a great deal more interested in the fact that he had to have a rip in his tights mended than that he had to wrestle at all.

Gotch is not in the condition he was when he wrestled Hackenschmidt and Mahmout, and admits it frankly. He does not think that he will ever be in as perfect condition again.

"Shucks, I can't expect it," he said yesterday. "I'll be 40 next month."

But the big Iowan is in much better condition than anybody would think who has not seen him. He has a layer of fat on his stomach, but it's skin fat -- not muscle. He can pull it away from his muscles just as if it were skin. His muscles are like iron.

The muscles of the champion are the most elastic of any athlete's who ever lived. When he relaxes he is actually flabby. But when he puts a strain on them they tighten into rough, rugged, iron lumps.

One old-time fan at the club said yesterday: "Let Gotch be out of condition -- he'll still win. His brains will do that for him." That raises a point that everybody seems to have overlooked. Gotch comes near being the inventor of the revised wrestling game.

Demetral, in sharp contrast to Gotch, was worried and nervous. He did not kid any when he wrestled, but went right after his men. The result was that the Greek got a black eye. In a scuffle Charlie Daggett put his fist into Demetral's left eye. It was swollen almost shut last night. In his workout with Ferguson the boy got a bloody nose and before they had finished both the challenger and his partner were bespattered with blood.

The Greek also is confident of winning, only not in the same carefree way of Gotch. Demetral is deadly in earnest. The championship lies before him and he has said to himself that he must win so often and spent so many nights figuring ways to throw Gotch that he, too, thinks he cannot lose.

Following are the dimensions of the grapplers:

FRANK GOTCH		WILLIAM DEMETRAL
39 years Age 29 years
5ft 11 1/2 in. Height 6ft.
208 lbs. Weight 196 lbs.
18 in. Neck 18 in.
47 1/2 in. Chest 44 in.
36 in. Waist 35 in.
42 1/2 in. Hips 40 in.
26 1/2 in. Thigh 27 in.
17 in. Calf 17 in.
16 in. Biceps 16 in.
13 1/2 in. Forearm 14 in.
8 1/2 in. Wrist 9 in.

The preliminaries for the Gotch-Demetral match were announced yesterday as follows:

John Hummerick vs. Otto Linnes, 135 pounds; six-minute rounds, two out of three.

William Huber vs. H. Wilson, 145 pounds; six-minute rounds, two out of three.

W. Weber vs. Babe Doyle, heavyweights; ten-minute match.

E. Daggett vs. Clark Connor, 175 pounds; ten-minute match.

Tony Ball against opponent to be chosen, probably Sam Clapham, 15-minute match.

Jack White vs. Jim Chaparalis, 15-minute match.

Two bouts of Japanese jiu-jitsu, ten minutes each. Preliminaries will start promptly at 8:15 o'clock.


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