William Muldoon, Physical Culture Legend

I first read about William Muldoon in a biography of John L. Sullivan, the last bare knuckle heavyweight champion.  Sullivan ushered in gloved boxing by refusing to take part in any more bare knuckle bouts.

The last major bare knuckle bout was fought by Sullivan against Jake Kilrain in 1889.  Odds were against Sullivan, a binge drinker indulging heavily between bouts.  He was in terrible condition before fighting Kilrain and the fighting public knew it.

Kilrain was expected to be Sullivan’s hardest challenger.  Kilrain lived up to his billing as evidenced by John L. needing 75 of the scheduled 80 rounds to beat Kilrain.  The man responsible for getting Sullivan into shape for this important victory was William Muldoon.

Muldoon’s biggest challenge was keeping Sullivan out of the bars.  Muldoon would go in to to a tavern and drag him back to training camp.  The biography of Sullivan said Muldoon was the one man Sullivan feared.  Anyone who scared John L. Sullivan was someone I wanted to know more about.

William Muldoon was born on May 25, 1852 in Alleghaney County, New York.  He joined the Union Army as a drummer boy in 1864 at 12 years of age.  Even at this young age, he was wrestling other men and boys and doing quite well.

Muldoon made his early living by a combination of prize wrestling and working as a New York City policeman.  He would be promoted to detective before resigning in 1881 to be a full time wrestler.  Muldoon already won the World Championship prior to his resignation.

Muldoon beat all the top Greco-Roman wrestlers.  The only wrestler he could not defeat was Clarence Whistler.  They wrestled for seven hours without a single fall in one bout.

 Muldoon was never defeated for his title, which he quit defending in 1890 at 38 years of age.  In 1889, when he dragged John L. out of the bar, he was 37 to John L’s 31 years of age.  Upon his retirement, Muldoon began focusing on his system of training and building his health farm in West Plains, New York.

In 1900, when he was 48 years old, he opened his health institute, “The Olympia”, in Purchase, New York.  He continued training boxers, wrestlers, athletes, celebrities and other health conscious people.  He ran one of the first commercially viable health and fitness companies.

Like many old time wrestlers before and after him, Muldoon lived into his eighties.  It would seem their focus on healthy living prior to the steriod era allowed them to live longer and more productive lives.  Before his death at 81 years of age on June 3, 1933, he was also chairman of the New York Athletic Commission.

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