Hide Article Text (OCR)
uIIeiiitSAILING OF CHAMPS1]ieifkA INOT ALWAYS FAIResirSOME OP THE BIG MONEY GET- JOTERS HAD TOUGH TIME GETTING A START.ia,IXGOTCH HAD HARB STRUGGLE CDn* Champion Remembers Time When Si Lg He Would Wrestle for OneSimolean.rer,r:* *The path of the champion athlete isnot a golden one. The riche* he reapeafter he reaches the top of the ladder sii r are in exceedingly sharp contrast with mi r what he earns as a tyro. This is true of..Jin all branches of athletics, but the ' 51 most startling illustrations are found po 8 In boxing and wrestling. On April 14. ne Frank Clotch. perhaps the greatest ro] wrestler ever turned out in America. ralt;£ received nearly $ 16.004* for about 20 ba n minutes’ work in his victory over Mahth mout. the Turk This is the greatestFum he ever earned in a single en- imgagement and when the money was th counted out to him his mind must nx . ’ have Jumped back 11 years ago when j balie would have wrestled everv nlghti.SiIA i m mt, tor a dollar a contest and expenses.! Back about 1808 Farmer Burns was si;rlouring tne country with a troupe of ..s athletes very much along the same if Vj;lines that Jeffries and Gotch are now*, r reaping their harvegt. The great dif- a ference was that Burns was not get- pi ting much money for his efforts. Whenifthe troupe reached Des Moines. Farmer advertised that he would giveol anyone who would stay 15 minutes ti with him $25. A lot of easy marks ei appeared and were disposed of with M little trouble. One night a husky, sjawkward youngster appeared at the V*theatre and announced that he believed he would like to earn that $25e©tsbeBums was offering for anyone whowould keep from being thrown in aquarter of an hour.When Gotch First Met Bums.The youngster was Frank Gotch, lineman on a rural telephone line. He did not look much like a wrestleoltidlt;t!*he gave evidence of wonderfulr, strength. He had Just completed aIs day s work climbing poles and un* tlt;^d tangling wire and got into the the**™with but little time to spare. He waa e given the chance and sprung the sur-licj prise of the time by balking all Burns’ P ar efforts to throw him. At that time c ild Burns was not picking up the dollars c te- very fast and he was loath to part ol- with the $25. Instead of paying thealfrtm.of»■-*vsum. he struck a compromise with Gotch, hiring the youngster to join 1 the troupe for $10 a week and ex-1 a pens©*. That was the beginning of 1 our greatest wrestler’s career on th*mat. Gotch has not climbed a pole since then, unless for training exer-| t else, and it is not probable that he♦ocatlonagain soon, for he has invested his money wisely in Iowa farm land and is one of the richest athletes in thecountry.Last year Gotch made $50,000. as much s the president of the United States, Eleven years ago he did notearn one-fiftieth as much and it is tprobable that his 1910 income will be double that of 1909.They All Start From the Bottom. Gotch’s humble beginning is but one i illustration of the opening atages of 1 the careers of other fighters and wrestlers. Jack Johnson and Jim ' Jeffries, who will share that $101,000 1purse July 4 next, were as poor asGotch at the start of their climb to athletic fame. Jeff was a blacksmith working with a railroad construction gang at small wag« s before he learned || (that he was a fighter He got his real beginning in the pugilistic line byi' playing the human punching bag act for James J. Corbett at Carson City, when the latter was preparing for his fight with Fitzsimmons in 1897. He got but a small fee for this, but he learned how to fight, and his reward came quickly, w’herets Gotch had a harder time getting up to the “easy money” stage.Johnson a few rears am was will.ing to fight for anything. A sum sufficient to purchase one meal was enough to get the big negro into 8 ring at any time during the early stages of his career in Chicago At one time the champion was In Springfield, 111., without a cent and an appetite that would not be denied. A boxing show was carded for that night and a preliminary, a battle royal, was on the card A $5 purse was hung up for the survivor of the engagement Five burly negroes appeared for the tilt, including J. Johnson, of Galveston, Tex. The latter was unknown to the crowd, but before the battlers hadbeen in the ring a minute he had a reputation of being some fighter. He knocked two out with as many punches, floored the third and the fourth Jumped out of the ring, whipping four men he got $5. If he whips one man. James J, Jeffries, July 4, be will earn in the vicinity of, including his share of the purse and his rights in the motion pictures.Nelson's Start a Modest One.Rattling Nelson’s start was another modest one. He fought a circus champion at Hammond and for whipping the tourist got $1. His coat was stolen while h© was fighting, however, so he auit loser on his first ro. Thelightweight champion today is worth $200,000, so he asserts, all of which was the result of that first successful fight for a dollar. He is to receive $12,000 for fighting Ad Wolgast. no matter how the battle ends. His risehas been a rapid one. marked by thrift and he is well fortified againstthe future.
Newspaper Details
Telegraph Herald
Dubuque, Iowa, US
Sun, Jan 23, 1910
Page 16
Full Page
Clipped by
Joaquin P.
USA 14 Apr 2023
Other Publications Near Dubuque, Iowa
Sunday Morning Telegraph
Dubuque Daily Telegraph
Dubuque Daily Herald
Dubuque Democratic Herald
Dubuque Witness
