Show STRONGEST N G EST MEN EN IN SPORTS BY BY Robert Edgren ren oj L b J l L 2 lr rf 5 r rif rr y k y j EDDIE A T t l t t of O 1 CHot v t WAS l Mo OP oa Foo 1 4 BAIL u. u r or orr l 1 t Sr 1 c r 1 x c I r 1 THE A k E Cz Ge MIT CI To USED OSEt To o PICK OP VP p NI HI HIS MEN MCH AND kiO lt TORSO R o o OF S I 1 t 1 Ol IM S 4 STRONGMEN d A TH ROW U x Et rt b TUG rH I f f TM F nl si HE IJA 5 THE e ow MAT MA T jY lE M m v i I- I J JP ORI T f V fl nn- nn OP Tt Taff RItU Il t t i 0 r i 3 T T. GAW G G TH 6 li lir 1 AW ANO cv OVER oo 00 0 P OK e e-e e eT wR NR vaRs o to A. A AD LEM uLC T e FLAT FIAT Jeffries Was Strongest American Ever to Enter Professional Sporting World the Turk Mountain Couldn't Wrestle but He Steam Opposition Into Insensibility S STRENGTH may not be the whole thing in any branch of athletic K competition but it helps Strong men have won champi championships of all kinds They were supermen supermen natural natural champions Training and practice did the rest I They had l th the f foundation l to to build u ld on There have been champions I who worked up irom from a SICKlY insignificant youth youth see see any fiction story stor- 1 but they have been the lonely exceptions The man w who o started with natural natural natural nat nat- ural strength had a lead hard to over over- corn comb The strongest fighter in all ring history history his his- tory was Jim Jeffries Jim i Is p popularly popularly u i ff gj ry supposed p to have grown n up p as y a boiler maker In fact his first job wa wain was In a cannery near Los Angeles Two men were employed to haul truckloads of ot canned fruit from cannery cannery can can cannery nery to warehouse along an in inclined incline d railway one at a time It It was har harto hard d dt to keep men as they complained that tha t the trucks were too heavy and on th the e Incline It was almost impossible for any two men to a truck without t I danger of losing control Jeff Could Take Em From Anyone Pair Pall after pair quit One day when two men had left lert Jim Jeffries a n 15 j old year boy weighing about pounds strolled in and asked for a ajob job oro To get eel rid of him they told him to start hauling the loaded trucks un un- aided Jim walked up to the cannery and andI andIn andin In a few Cew minutes was seen coming I down the Inclined railway guiding guiding- two loaded trucks one ahead and one behind be behind behind be- be hind him He worked that way fromI from ten to fourteen hours a day during the I canning season The boss bos was so struck by Jeffries' Jeffries strength th that he paid i him two mens men's I wages J thI I It was later that h Jim worked v t tas as a boner boiler maker malter but only for a short time Jeffries was so strong he hardly felt blows that would kill an ordinary man Once a painters painter's scaffold fell feU on him from an upper story blocks weighing fifty pounds striking him on the neck and tearing out a piece of flesh Jefferies Jef- Jef feries ferles shook himself and laughed In the ring he took the hardest blows of Fitzsimmons Sharkey and other great hitters an and apparently did didt not t feel reeL them He lie was a only 17 when he g fought hell Griffin a colored oI d heavy heavy- i weight who fought Johnson and Langford and all the rest of them The boy walked Into Griffins Griffin's heavy punches until Griffins Griffin's arms arms- dropped from sheer weariness and then knocked Griffin out dg Among wrestlers s the strongest trained man n I ever saw was George the Russian Lion Weighing only pounds Hack was one mass of muscle His favorite trick was to pick up his opponent turn him over In the air and throw him to the mat This usually resulted in stunning the victim when Hack would turn him over without any more trouble Hack liked to exorcise by putting up one hundred fifty pound dumbbells with either hand Gigantic Turk Was Human Steam Roler the gigantic Turk who visited this country about eighteen years ago was six feet ten Inches tall taU and weighed four tour hundred fifteen I pounds Of course couse there was little use in tackling him I lIe He handled R Roeber e a and Jenkins champions In their day and skillful men b by simply pulling them down and rolling over them Roeber who was a short stocky fellow was so nearly nearly- smothered under the Turks Turk's huge bulk that the referee Tim Hurst ordered the Turk to get up The Turk dl didn't nt understand understand un un- un- un English and finally Hurst hammered him in the face with his fists to make him move evidently thought this a part of the game in America and America and that the referee was against him and working work work- ing Ing- Ingin in Roeber's interests second leaped into the ring and beat the Turk over the head witha with I a bottle at which protested mildly to his manager When Roeber was rescued he was flattened out like I la a pancake and unconscious I I I Wrestled i Turks to Death told me through an in interpreter interpreter in- in that when hen he was younger he used to wrestle to the death as a member of the sultans sultan's retinue of h wrestlers wrestlers s strangling n k kickIng kick kick- ing and bone ug breaking breaking- tricks f all u part t of the game game on on gala occasions the victors victors vic vic- tors adding interest by strangling the beaten men As far tar as I I could see trained entirely on Turkish coffee corree as thick as soup and cigarettes which he smoked Incessantly The original Terrible Turk was a at smaller the r b bottom man than of t the U ocean 1 w where He e lies he was carried by his belt full of American Ameri Ameri- f can 1 gold when shipwrecked on his re reThe return re- re i turn n trip The strongest weight lifter was Louis Lou Lou- is Cyr the tho French Canadian Cyr was apparently a n fat man round as a ball of fair height hugo hUg limbed smoothly muscled He really lifted ted tremendous weights not faking faking- like other professional professional strong men Cyr had a standing challenge with a big bis side stake to any other strong man In the world to duplicate an any of his weIght lifting feats But the stage strong men knew ho he could make malte them all look foolish His challenge found a taker One of ot his favorite never stage stunts was to put ten fat men on a platform lift them and carr them around carry Strong Man of Today Is Big Pat Ryan The strongest est amateur thrower Is Pat weight Ryan holder of tho the sixteen-pound sixteen hammer record of feet 3 inches as well as various other weight records Ryan nyan Is six feet five Inches tall and when at his best record breaking form weighed pounds In costume For all his huge bulk he Is remarkably nimble on his feet throwing the hammers with three turns In either a seven or a a. nine foot circle I Ralph Rose whose shot putting putting- record record rec rec- ord will stand was six feet six inches and weighed about as much as Ryan although he was a mere wisp of ot some pounds when at his best So many men of tremendous strength have played football that It Is hard to list them Ed Eddie die le Hart I of Princeton weighed pounds could run one hundred yards In ten flat and ha had j the Iron strength of a gorilla in his long arms and bony hands It was almost ImpossIble to pull him down His ver very touch hurt and rival toot football ball players often said that Eddies Eddie's fingers I left black and blue marks marls wherever wherever they happened to meet an opposing arm or leg I Glass of ot Yale Tale six feet five was the i I Continued on page 5 5 I STRONGEST ME MEN x Continued from page 2 strongest man of his day a sinewy sinewY fellow fel tl- fl- fl I low like Iron Hogan of ot Yale had bad a record playing four years and never having time I taken out for tor him or sustaining an In- In Jury In-I In Hall Hal Was Samson of the Gridiron Buck Bucky Hall laU of Princeton twenty years years ago was was was' the football giant ol ot othis his time sharing honors with wih the great Cross and Hickok of Yale Hooper of Michigan center weighing pounds was another huge iron man Any of these these men mep and many more that I might name could have become ring champions but they never tried it Few Fet college stars ever took up professional protes- protes boxing largely because they valued their amateur standing In sport Babe Ruth although smooth and soft looking Is a tremendously tremendously- strong man His hits legs are sturdy his chest and shoulders s big almost s out of proportion r o h his neck e extremely lt e short l t There have been bigger men In baseball but few tew with Ruths Ruth's tremendous store of ot nerve nenA energy which is the the- basis of ot all al strength tho Among fl fighters there have been a afew afew few Tew men with strength that was al almos almost al- al mos most moss uncanny One of ot these was a fellow fellow tellow tel fel fel- fel low named Ballerino living In Los Angele Angeles Angeles An An- geles gele formerly a sparring partner of I John L. L ulvan Ballerino the old timers sa say was wasI I the the- theone one n man who could have John L. L I swing on his hIs' I j Jaw without Y even nJ letting t i hrs head hea go back with the blow If You Dont Don't Believe Beleve This This This-I We Cant Can't Help It ItHe I Ile He Ito never amounted to much as a fighter tighter le being slow But nut his strength I Iwas I Iwas was astonishing He Pie was slope lope shouldered I dered bow legged short necked pecked and his arms hung to his knees He lie le had a abone abone abone bone breaking grip and was taR fond of using It f. f Once ho gripped John Jeffries Jeffries Jef Jef- fries tries a pound brother of ot James J. J when they tile met snOt in a cafe Ive a good mind to punch you said lv John straightening out his crushed fingers Dont waste your our time grinned g Ballerino Here step on m my finger Inger the floor back bak Laying his hian hand ham hamon on foor down he extended his middle finger er John stepped on it It I. I and Ballerino lifted him U up on that one finger and placed ced him standing on the bar Some Sonic men like lUte Coy of at Yale Tale have I astonishing strength under strain of excitement nt Football fans an r remember member 1 when Coy went wild in a Yale Yale Prince Yale few years ago when ton game game- a line was i game apparently to tatters nl w whipped with W edh his tore ro l Individual the Tiger plunges plunges' and could not be stopped Until Yale had scored o enough to win nM W nb Yn After t dt the game Coy had to be car carried r ned ried to the dressing room fairly sate o of oJ nervous pervous collapse Sheri day Loved to Enter Competitions J. J There Thele have been other men who coul I mel bre break k re records in a a concentrated effo t i without excitement Martin could summon double his ordinary strength for a final effort but It was was wast with Martin Martin- just love loye of competition There hav hay been other men who alwa's always al al- al ways was had sv at reme strength on One One of the tile of ot these Is Tom Car Ca roll professional weight throwing rol champion who at 65 could throw the thie tle six fifty pound weight thirty-six thirty feet with one hand hand standing VA H inches Carrolls Carroll's reach is six eighty-six his he s Carrols Carrol's has height g been eS six X a 11 feet e constable n six Of fl in recent e Fruitvale lr years d Cal Cal his home San One day not long ago a FrancisCO heavyweight scrapper heard about big blK Carroll and went over to ton Carrol pick a quarrel with him so he lie boast of ot putting one over on the vet vet vet-l eran weight champion He le met Carroll Carrol and without a word worth swung on his chin Carroll picked him up IP by the col threw him over his shoulder like a sack sack- at of grain and carried him six blocks blocs to 10 the tho lockup 5 He I kicked like a steer r said Carroll Car Car- Car 4 1 ic te IJ h ai i ro roll but b it didn't d do him any good ofa J didn't hU hilt him because I didn't want to hurt him him Cop Copyright 1921 by the Bell Bel Syndicate ate If inc C- C t |