Judo enthusiasts may be unaware that one of the greatest Judo fights ever film occurred in a movie from 1945, Blood on the Sun (affiliate link). James Cagney, who was a brown belt in Judo, stars in the film as Nick Condon, an American newspaper editor for the Tokyo Chronicle prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A few Japanese government officials […]
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On Friday, October 21, 1904, five St. Louis Police Officers went to a rooming house at 1324 Pine Street, site of today’s Soldier Memorial, to arrest three men suspected of an Illinois train robbery in August of the same year. What occurred next would be one of the most storied shootouts in St. Louis Police history. During the World’s Fair, […]
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Polish wrestler and strongman Stanislaus Zbyszko first came to the United States in 1909 to campaign for a shot at World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch. Zbyszko received and lost the match in a legitimate contest during 1910. Zbyszko continued wrestling for a few more years and won the World Greco-Roman Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1914 from hated rival Aleksander […]
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On October 16, 1920, Special Officers Preston Anslyn and William A. Moller were following two burglars in the 3800 block of Juanita Avenue during a heavy fog. One or both burglars shot the officers from a gangway as they walked onto the lawn of a house, where they thought the burglars entered. The officers both suffered fatal wounds, which killed […]
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General William Tecumseh Sherman of Civil War fame had deep roots in St. Louis stretching back to 1843. As a soldier, the US Army assigned Sherman to Jefferson Barracks. Sherman was also involved in St. Louis businesses as the St. Louis Street Railroad Company President until he left St. Louis for the Civil War in 1861. After the war, St. […]
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3 times over the last 150 years, martial artists created more modern versions of older martial arts. Unlike many prior systems, the innovators of these modern martial arts chose to share this information with outsiders and spread their arts around the world. Jigoro Kano’s dissemination of Judo is the best case study for how to develop and spread a martial […]
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Stanislaus Zbyszko was born Stanislaw Jan Cyganiewicz on April 1, 1880 in Jodlow, Poland, which was part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Zbyszko chose the ring name Stanislaus Zbyszko because it was the name of a fictional Polish knight. An article in the Walla Walla, Washington newspaper, The Evening Statesman’s on Tuesday, February 8, 1910, publicized Zbyszko’s university and intellectual accomplishments. […]
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After averaging 9 fights a year over the past 7 years, World Middleweight Boxing Champion Stanley “The Michigan Assassin” Ketchel was exhausted. Ketchel took a vacation on the Missouri ranch of his friend Colonel R. P. Dickerson in an attempt to regain his strength and enthusiasm for fighting. Ketchel never returned from vacation as he was shot and killed at […]
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On April 5, 1920, Frederick Charles Smith, also known as “The Red-Headed Bandit”, walked into the Easton-Taylor Trust Company at 4474 Easton Avenue. Smith had a revolver in each hand and demanded money from the cashier. Fearing for his life, the clerk promptly dropped $15,309 in a sack. John Lanigan, the bank’s president, sat in his office off the lobby […]
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George Hackenschmidt (1877-1968) was a world record holding weightlifter and World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion before wrestling was prearranged and lifters were using steroids. Hackenschmidt achieved a level of greatness due to several factors. He achieved a high level of physical fitness. His physical condition allowed him to be the most successful wrestler of his era. A few wrestlers may have been […]
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