Browning Defeats Jenkins
On December 17, 1923, Jim Browning wrestled a rare match in his hometown of Verona, Missouri. Four hundred fans from the surrounding area crowded into the venue to watch the match between Browning and Clarence Jenkins, a wrestler from Emporia, Kansas.
Both Browning and Jenkins wrestled most of their matches in Kansas during 1923. Browning was starting a career that would see Browning claim a version of the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in the early 1930s.
Jim Browning in his prime (Public Domain)
Jenkins never left Kansas. Jenkins eventually joined the Emporia Kansas Police Department and wrestled only part-time for the remainder of the 1920s. Jenkins eventually rose to the rank of Assistant Chief in charge of the night shift.
In December 1923, Browning was a 20-year-old wrestling prodigy, while Jenkins was a 29-year-old solid journeyman. The men wrestled evenly for the first fifty-five minutes until Browning secured a body scissors for the first pinfall.
After the intermission, Jenkins said he was unable to continue due to broken ribs. Jenkins returned to Emporia for the holidays, while Browning stayed in Verona. Their careers also travelled in different directions.
Jim Browning travelled across the United States and Canada wrestling for every active promoter. Browning claimed his first World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1933. When Joseph “Toots” Mondt pulled off the double-cross of Jim Londos, Mondt put the title on Browning for safekeeping a year later.
Clarence Jenkins remained in Kansas, where he worked for the Emporia Kansas Police Department until he passed away at only 48-years-old after an illness of one month. Jenkins wrestled Ed “Strangler” Lewis in 1927 but primarily wrestled local Kansas wrestlers during the 1920s. Jenkins retired from the ring permanently in 1932.
Clarence Jenkins, professional wrestler and Emporia Kansas police officer (Public Domain)
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Sources: Springfield Leader and Press (Springfield, Missouri), December 19, 1923, p. 10 and The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Missouri), April 22, 1942, p. 1
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