Farmer Burns Wears Out Jack King

Martin “Farmer” Burns reportedly trained over 1,000 wrestlers in his career as America’s foremost wrestling trainer. Burns was also 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 still was 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 club would pay the winner $300, while paying the loser $100. The purse did not adequately compensate Burns and King for this match.

Burns and King were evenly matched, so the match evolved into 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. For long periods of the match, they just leaned on each other.

Finally, the referee called for a break. The referee hoped a rest would restore the men and cause some excitement in the sleep-inducing match. Burns possessed tremendous physical condition. Burns 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 after the restart. Burns finally threw King 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, Joseph “Toots” Mondt, made wrestling more exciting by working angles and adding colorful moves to the current style in the 1920s. Mondt called it “slam, bang, western wrestling.”

Fans screamed about faked matches but legitimate professional wrestling would be a niche, small spectator sport without the working. My grandfather told me you could go to the wrestling matches at St. Louis’s Coliseum in the 1920s, see the men put on a hold, run to the diner accross the street to grab a sandwich, come back and the wrestlers would be in the same position.

Martin “Farmer” Burns did not win the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1893 after beating King. Burns did 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 trained Gotch, who won the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1908.

You can leave a comment or ask a question about this or any post on my Facebook page.

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