Curran “The Giant Slayer” Jacobs

Friday, August 17th, 2018 | Columns, Wrestling | No Comments

They are now calling him “the Giant Slayer”.

It is the result of a stunning performance on July 14, in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. The event was the Snake Pit USA World Catch Wrestling Championship and it featured a packed 8-man bracket, with some of the toughest combat-style wrestlers in America, all with long resumes.

Catch derives from the old catch-as-catch-can style that was popular in Europe and America in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

And the winner was a former Michigan State Spartan named Curran Jacobs, who earned the world championship belt by overcoming three very tough, much larger wrestlers who came with the expressed intent of defeating Jacobs.

What this young warrior accomplished was amazing. He entered weighing 193 pounds; by far the lightest wrestler in the competition.  Matches consisted of five minute rounds, with a one minute break in between. Chokes and submission holds are permissible in the Snake Pit version of catch wrestling. Curran is part of an organization called the Catch Wrestling Alliance, and the CWA does not allow chokes.

That conflict led to considerable tension between the two groups leading up to the event, with social media going wild. Supporters on each side wanted desperately to see their champion triumph.

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The Day Gable wrestled ‘Goober’

Friday, August 17th, 2018 | Columns | No Comments

There have been many great wrestling showdowns through the decades, such as Caruso-Fehrs, Behm- Sanders, Lewis-Smith, Fraser-Houck, Perry-Hendricks. They were all classic matches, to be sure.

But one match that never makes the list is Gable-Goober.

And for good reason. It was a pure mismatch from the outset, and there was nothing important about the match at all.

But it surely was the funniest wrestling match of all time!

It took place one June day in 1978, in Iowa City, Iowa.

For those of us who grew up in the 1960s, the Andy Griffith Show was a staple of family life. Griffith played Sheriff Andy Taylor in the small town of Mayberry, with Barney Fife (Don Knotts) and Opie (Ron Howard) at his side. One of the main characters was a bumbling gas station attendant named Goober Pyle, played to perfection by actor George Lindsey.

The re-runs of the show can be seen on some station somewhere every single day in America. Andy Taylor, Barney Fife, Opie and Goober have become a part of American culture.

In an effort to raise funds for the University of Iowa athletic program in the 1970s and ‘80s, Amana Refrigeration, just down the road from Iowa City, came up with the idea of the Amana VIP Golf Tournament. It enjoyed a 20-year run, bringing in such names as Gerald Ford, former president of the United States; baseball legends Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Stan Musial, and entertainers like Glen Campbell, Roy Clark, Dinah Shore and Charley Pride. › Continue reading

Weekly Radio Talk Shows, Starting May 9

Thursday, May 10th, 2018 | Radio | No Comments

Beginning May 9, Mike can be heard on radio station KXEL (1540 AM) in Waterloo each Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m., talking about Iowa history. The show is hosted by Jeff Stein, KXEL news and program director and also an author and lover of Iowa history.

Weekly Columns, Coming Soon!

Thursday, May 10th, 2018 | Columns | No Comments

Mike has written over 600 columns and articles on the sport of wrestling through the decades and soon we will begin posting them on this web site, a new column coming each Monday. Look for them soon!