Joe Stecher Wrestles for State Title
Joe Stecher made his professional wrestling debut in late 1912 or early 1913. Stecher proved to be a dangerous professional from the beginning of his career.
Martin “Farmer” Burns, the storied wrestler and trainer, brought one of his proteges, Yussiff Hussane, to test Stecher in a legitimate contest during June 1913. Burns and most followers of the sport expected Hussane to humble the young wrestler.
Joe Stecher with his championship belt (Public Domain)
Instead, Stecher took Hussane to the mat and applied his leg scissors. Stecher squeezed the hold and put rib breaking pressure on Hussane’s mid-section. Hussane realized his dire predicament and bit Stecher’s thigh causing an immediate disqualification.
Hussane chose to force a disqualification instead of having to submit to the 20-year-old Nebraska farmer. Hussane refused to continue and forfeited the match to Stecher.
Stecher’s performance so impressed Burns that Burns began training and mentoring both Joe Stecher and his brother Anton “Tony” Stecher. Tony Stecher wrestled as a lightweight but achieved fame as Joe’s manager. Later, Tony Stecher promoted professional wrestling in Minnesota.
By the end of 1913, Joe Stecher won seventeen of the eighteen matches he wrestled that year. One wrestler held Stecher to a draw, but no one beat him. Based on his outstanding record, Stecher wrestled I.A. Johnson of St. Paul, Minnesota for the Nebraska Heavyweight Wrestling Championship on December 22, 1913.
The men wrestled at the Albion Opera House in Albion, Nebraska. The organizers of the show charged $1.00 for front row tickets, $0.75 for the next five rows and $0.50 for general admission tickets.
The organizers stipulated “Ladies Are Invited”, which was not always the case in this era. The organizers also banned smoking, which was very unusual.
Billed as “The Terrible Swede”, I.A. Johnson made several boasts to the local newspapers about how easily he would defeat Joe Stecher. Johnson said he would throw Stecher for the first fall in five minutes. Johnson outweighed Stecher by about twenty pounds, which may have led to Johnson’s overconfidence. Stecher entered the ring at 202 pounds
A wrestler won the first fall quickly, but his name was not I.A. Johnson. Joe Stecher used his scissors hold and half-Nelson to pin Johnson in seven minutes.
After a ten-minute intermission, Stecher used the same hold combination to pin Johnson for the second fall in four minutes. Stecher easily won his first title in only eleven minutes by winning two straight falls.
Stecher did not slow after winning the Nebraska title. Within a year and a half, Stecher wrestled for the American Heavyweight Championship. After winning that title, fans recognized Stecher as the World Champion. It would take the rise of Ed “Strangler” Lewis in the mid-1910s to present the first legitimate challenge to Stecher’s dominance.
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Sources: The Albion Argus (Albion, Nebraska), December 18, 1913, p. 5, and The Fremont Tri-Weekly Tribune (Fremont, Nebraska), December 30, 1913, p. 5
