Gotch vs. Zbyszko Now Available
Frank Gotch dominated American wrestling from 1905 to his retirement in 1913. Gotch, the current American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, won the biggest match of his career on April 3, 1908. Gotch defeated current World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Georg Hackenschmidt in Chicago, Illinois.
Cover of Gotch vs. Zbyszko available on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardcover
Gotch proved as dominant a World Champion as he had been as the American Champion. Gotch agreed to stipulations, like throwing his opponent three times in under thirty minutes or forfeit the match, to generate fan interest in his contests.
Gotch’s manager Emil Klank recruited European wrestlers to travel to America. Fans turned out to see Gotch wrestle foreign wrestlers with strong reputations like Hackenschmidt and Yussuf Mahmout.
At the end of 1909, Polish wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko traveled to the United States to wrestle Frank Gotch. The men wrestled in Chicago during June 1910. Gotch emerged victorious in a controversial contest.
Why did Gotch avoid another match with Zbyszko? Did he think Zbyszko would beat him? Were outside forces weighing on the champion? What could explain the formerly fearless champion failing to arrange the biggest money match available to him?
I answer all these questions in Gotch vs. Zbyszko: The Quest for Redemption released at Amazon on February 2, 2002 in Hardcover, Paperback, and e-book.
The book covers Stanislaus Zbyszko’s first tour of the United States between 1909 and 1914. I covered Zbyszko’s second trip to the United States, where he wrestled between 1921 and 1925 in Double-Crossing the Gold Dust Trio: Stanislaus Zbyszko’s Last Hurrah.
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