Farmer Burns Wears Out Jack King

Martin “Farmer” Burns reportedly trained over 1,000 wrestlers in his career as America’s foremost wrestling trainer.   However, Burns was a great wrestler in his own right.  Before he retired to train wrestlers full-time, Burns won the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from Evan “The Strangler” Lewis in 1895.  Burns held the title for two years.

In 1893, Burns was still a contender for the belt and preparing for an early, unsuccessful try at Lewis’ title.  To prepare for the bout with Lewis, Burns challenged well-thought of Minneapolis wrestler Jack King in Decorah, Iowa on Tuesday, March 7, 1893.  The Decorah Athletic Club promoted the bout.  The winner would receive $300, while the loser would walk away with $100.  Both men were underpaid for this bout.

Burns and King were evenly matched, so most of the match was a boring stalemate.  Neither man could get a hold on the other one.  Both men also wore down at about an equal rate, so for the first two hours and five minutes of the match, both men unsuccessfully attempted to grab a body part and leaned on each other.

Finally, the referee called for a break.  He hoped that a rest would restore the men and cause some excitement in the sleep inducing match.  Burns possessed tremendous physical condition.  He seemed to recover quicker than Jack King.  When the men restarted the match, Burns looked to be the fresher man.

The men continued in a stalemate but King weakened around the fifteen minute mark and Burns finally threw him for the first fall in the three out of five falls match.  However, Jack King was visibly ill.  King told the referee he could not go on.  The referee awarded the contest and winner’s purse to Martin “Farmer” Burns.

This match illustrates the problem with legitimate professional wrestling.  If the men were evenly matched, it could often be a drawn out, boring affair.  One of the men Burns trained for wrestling, James “Toots” Mondt, would make wrestling more exciting by prearranging the finishes and having the wrestlers cooperate in the outcomes.

Fans screamed about faking but it is doubtful legitimate professional wrestling could have survived without significant changes.  My grandfather told me you could go to the wrestling matches, see the men put on a hold, go have dinner, come back and the wrestlers would be in the same position.  Hardly exciting stuff.

Martin “Farmer” Burns did not win the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship a few week later but would beat Evan Lewis in 1895.  Burns held the championship until 1897.  Burns beat a little known wrestler named Frank Gotch in 1899.  Seeing greatness in the young Gotch, Burns spent most of his time training Gotch for his future World Championship and wrestled less.  Burns was on his way to his next career.

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Source: The Rock Island Daily Argus, Wednesday, March 8, 1893 edition, p. 5

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