Browning Menewaskan Jenkins
Pada Disember 17, 1923, Jim Browning bergelut dengan perlawanan yang jarang berlaku di kampung halamannya di Verona, Missouri. Empat ratus peminat dari kawasan sekitar berkerumun ke venue untuk menyaksikan perlawanan antara Browning dan Clarence Jenkins, seorang ahli gusti dari Emporia, Kansas.
Kedua-dua Browning dan Jenkins bergelut dalam kebanyakan perlawanan mereka di Kansas semasa 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.
Selepas rehat, 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)
You can leave a comment or ask a question about this or any post on my Facebook page atau Twitter profile.
Sources: Springfield Leader and Press (Springfield, Missouri), Disember 19, 1923, p. 10 dan The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Missouri), April 22, 1942, p. 1
Pin Ia
