History of Catch Wrestling - The Ultimate Submission Fighting Art
*Information courtesty of Matt Furey
Table of Contents
Farmer Burns
Perhaps the most famous catch-wrestler of all time was Farmer Burns, who was purported to have wrestled some 6000 matches in his career, won most of them by pin fall (forcing both of the opponent's shoulders to the ground) or by submission. Some of the contests, however, as noted in the book, Lifework of Farmer Burns, were still decided by a throw. He was a wiry, 165-pounder with a 20-inch neck, who could take a six-foot hangman's drop and stay in the noose for three minutes while whistling Yankee Doodle Dandy. He used quickness, tenacity, endurance, and a devastating array of submissions to crush the biggest of foes. This was the time of real ‘shoots’, before professional wrestling became what it is today, a ‘sports entertainment’ show with prearranged matches and unreal techniques.
In 1893, "Farmer" Burns opened a gymnasium in Rock Island, Illinois, where he trained several hundred students. Later still he opened a wrestling and physical culture school in Omaha, Nebraska, and helped others across the country establish schools as well. Burns involvement in wrestling was so rich and so deep that he taught amateur catch-as-catch-can in Iowa high schools. Without question, the reason why high school and college wrestling is so BIG in Iowa to this day, is a direct result of the forgotten but not lost foundation the "Farmer" laid there a century ago.
In 1908, "Farmer" Burns top student, Frank Gotch, of Humboldt, Iowa, captured the world heavyweight championship when he soundly defeated the Russian Lion, George Hackenschmidt, in front of 30,000 people in Chicago's Comiskey Park - the largest crowd to ever see a professional sporting event in America at the time. He successfully defended the title against Hackenschmidt in 1911 as well. Many still consider Frank Gotch to be the greatest pro wrestler ever, as he had an array of holds that he applied with lightning speed and technical brilliance that few, if any, could match.
Burns documented many of his techniques and training regiments in his famous 1914 by-mail home study course entitled, "Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture", a staple for anyone interested in the study of catch wrestling history and technique. Of special note is the final lesson in the course titled, "Wrestling and Jiu-jitsu", which describes the inherent rivalry between the two styles through technical comparisons both mental and physical. Burns and Gotch, even in the early 1900s, did not simply slough off and ignore jiu-jitsu or judo, and instead observed the strengths of these styles to help them to develop and sharpen their own.
In many matches, Burns and Gotch defeated Japanese practitioners, and when Gotch was world champion, he received an invitation to the White House from President Theodore Roosevelt, who was an avid student of boxing and judo. Gotch was pitted against one of the top Japanese judo men in a comparison of holds contest. Gotch was able to readily escape from the judo submissions while the same could not be said for the Japanese artist. It should be noted that in this period judo placed a heavy emphasis on submissions, including leg locks, and was in itself a supreme style to jiu-jitsu.
One of Burns' major claims to fame was the inability of any Japanese artist to choke him out. He said at least 1,000 people had tried, but their technique no effect on him. This may have had more to do with his freakish 20-inch neck than anything else - as he never demonstrated an actual technique that others can duplicate.
Some years later, another catch wrestler, Adolph Ernst, who went by the name of Ad Santel, traveled to the Orient in hopes of making money from matches against Jigoro Kano's top judoka. Santel beat all but one of the high-ranking judoka he was matched-up against and, to Kano's dismay, declared himself World Judo Champion!