Jim Londos

Jim Londos , actually Greek Χρήστος Θεοφίλου , Christos Theofilou or Christopher Theophelus , (* 1894 in Koutsopodi , Greece ; † August 19, 1975 in Escondido , California ) was a Greek - American wrestler . He was multiple world champion of professional wrestlers in freestyle wrestling.

Life

Jim Londos was born Christos Theofilou as one of 13 children to a poor Greek family near Argos . Most biographies give January 2, 1897 as the date of birth. However, his life dates from 1894 to 1975 are given on his tombstone in Escondido. His father was an amateur wrestler and was already teaching little Christos the basics of wrestling. At the age of 13 he left his homeland for economic reasons and came to the United States . In the first few years he stayed in various parts of the west coast and took every job that was available to him. He worked as an electrician, as an assistant in grocery stores and even as a nude model in drawing schools. He finally came to San Francisco in 1913 as a "waterboy" for a train company . There he started wrestling again in 1914 in a YMCA club. In the same year he appeared in a circus as a prize wrestler, who fought against "challengers" from the audience, who had meanwhile matured to a dazzling-looking young man with a height of 1.78 m and a body weight of around 90 kg.

On February 25, 1914, he played his first professional fight in Oakland , which he won against a Tony Ajax. That was the beginning of an unprecedented career as a freestyle wrestler (catcher, wrestler), which would last until 1959 and in which he was to win the world title of professional wrestler several times with various organizations. In 1916 he adopted the "stage name" Jim Londos. There are different versions of how this name came about. The most probable is that this was based on the then famous adventurer writer Jack London .

Jim Londos fought mostly in the United States, but also performed a few times in Europe , Australia, and South Africa . He was able to attract masses of audiences. He fought once in the United States in front of 40,000 spectators and in Athens in 1934 even in front of an allegedly 100,000 spectators. Even in Paris , which is spoiled with sporting events , 15,000 spectators saw one of his fights in 1937.

Jim Londos has been charged with some of his bouts being arranged. That may well have been possible, but it cannot be clarified any more at the present time. For this reason it should not be discussed in more detail. In total, Jim Londos held a world title for 16 years. But it should not be concealed that in those years there was utter confusion in the award of these world championship titles. There were tons of federations (NBA, NWA, NYSAC, WWWF, etc.) that all chose their own world champions. In addition, even the US states selected or recognized their own world champions. Titles were withdrawn and awarded as it was opportune. But Jim Londos was world champion from 1930 to 1946 with at least one association. During his playing days, he was nicknamed "The Wrestling Plasterer" and even "The Friend of God".

Jim Londos was married to Avra ​​C. Rochwite (1912 to 1998) and had three daughters with her. After finishing his career, he settled in Escondido near San Diego , where one of his daughters lived and where he also owned a house. He was economically well off and had been active in charity since 1946, primarily supporting his compatriots who had been damaged in the Greek civil war. For this work he was honored by the US President Richard Nixon and the Greek King Paul .

Jim Londos died on August 19, 1975 in Escondido.

Athletic career

1914 to 1929

After his professional debut on February 25, 1914, Jim Londos fought mostly in California. He always weighed between 95 and 100 kg throughout his career and achieved his success primarily through his speed and agility and less through brute strength. On November 29, 1917, he met Ed "Strangler" Lewis for the first time in Camden , who was four times world heavyweight champion in his career. He lost that fight after 1 hour and 57 minutes of fighting time. In the next few years he fought countless times against this opponent and lost no less than seven fights.

On June 29, 1917, Jim Londos was defeated in Sheridan by the light heavyweight world champion Clarence Eklund, because he did not succeed in a so-called handicap match to defeat him twice within 75 minutes. In 1918 he won in Atlanta and Savannah the Belgian Constant Le Marin and the British John Kelly, both very strong wrestlers. On February 4, 1920, Jim Londos finally won a victory over Ed Lewis in Norfolk . On April 30, 1920 he suffered a defeat in Norfolk against the Poles Wladek Zbyszko (Cyganiewicz).

Jim Londos celebrated great victories in 1926 when he defeated a number of world-class opponents in Atlanta. He hit u. a. Paul Martinsson, "Farmer" McLeod, Charles Rentrop, Masked Marvel and on March 30, 1926 the ex-world champion Stanislaus Zbyszko , the older of the Cyganiewicz brothers. These successes earned him a fight against Joe Stecher , who had become world champion on May 30, 1925 with a victory over Stanislaus Zbyszko . Jim Londos lost this fight and Joe Stecher remained world champion.

On June 8, 1926, Jim Londos fought in Atlanta for the first time against the German-Russian Pete Sauer (Ray Steele), who would later also become world champion, and defeated him. On November 9, 1926, however, he suffered a defeat against Dick Daviscourt . In 1927 he got a draw against John Pesek and victories over Pete Sauer, as well as Jim Browning , whom he should meet several times in his career in important fights. On April 7, 1927, he fought again in Atlanta against Jos Stecher for the world heavyweight title. In a tough argument, Stecher retained this title after 2 hours of fighting through a draw. In 1927 he fought for the first time in his native Greece and defeated Karl Zbyszko in Athens.

In 1929 Jim Londos got the chance to become world champion again. He fought on August 23, 1929 in Philadelphia against the German Richard Schikat (Dick Shikat) for this title. The organizer was the NBA (North American Boxing Association). The title was vacant because it was revoked from world champion Gus Sonnenburg because he did not defend his title in time. Dick Shikat won this fight. Later on, Dick Shikat was also recognized as a world champion by the NWA (North American Wrestling Association) and NYSAC .

1930 to 1939

On January 1, 1930 Jim Londos beat in Atlanta Heinrich Steinborn (Milo Steinborn) and met on June 6, 1930 in Philadelphia again on Dick Shikat in the fight for the world championship. He finally succeeded in this attempt. He beat Dick Shikat after a fight time of 1 hour and 29 minutes and was thus world champion. He successfully defended this title on July 8, 1930 in Atlanta against Dick Daviscourt and in the following years against many opponents. His title defense became famous on June 30, 1931 at Yankee Stadium in New York , which was attended by 40,000 spectators and in which he defeated Pete Sauer after 69 minutes of fighting time. On January 19, 1932, he beat in Atlanta Blue Jim Jennings and on May 30, 1933 also in Atlanta again Milo Steinborn after 49 minutes and 30 seconds of fighting time.

As early as 1932, Jim Londos had been stripped of his world title by the NYSAC because he refused to defend his title against Ed Lewis. The other associations continued to recognize him as world champion. On June 25, 1934, Jim Londos won this title again in New York by defeating Jim Browning after 1 hour and 10 minutes of fighting time. On September 30, 1934, Jim Londos defended his title at Wrigley Field in Chicago against Ed "Strangler" Lewis, where former professional boxing champion Jack Dempsey was referee. This fight was attended by 35,265 spectators, which generated the then record income of 96,302 dollars. Jim Londos beat Ed "Strangler" Lewis and was NYSAC world champion again.

Before this title fight, Jim Londos fought several fights in New York in 1934 and defeated such strong wrestlers as Ernie Dusek, Alexander Szabó (later world champion), Everett Marshall and others. Dr. Henry Fields. In 1934 he was in the ring for the second time in Athens. In the Panathinaiko Stadium he defended his world title against the Russian Kola Kowriani , whom he defeated in front of a record crowd of allegedly 100,000 spectators.

Jom Londos then lost the NWA world champion title on June 27, 1935 when he was beaten by the Irishman Danno O'Mahoney in Boston . On October 4, 1937, Jim Londos got this title back with a victory in Maryland over Bronko Nagurski , a former football player, who had meanwhile become NWA world champion . Before this fight, Jim Londos was in Europe and defeated Karel Nowina in Paris in a world championship fight in front of 15,000 spectators in two courses after fight times of 43 minutes and 25 seconds and 1 minute.

Against Bronko Nagurski, Jim Londos managed to successfully defend his title on November 18, 1938 in Philadelphia. Overall, he fought a little less often now. But he defeated in 1938 a. a. in Bergen Abe Kasley and in Newark Joe Savoldi.

1940 to 1949

On June 11, 1941, he beat his old rival Pete Sauer in three meetings with 2-1 victories. In the meantime, the NWA world title had been revoked once again. In 1946 he won in Sydney over Seelei Samara, lost to Buddy Rogers in Denver in 1947 and won on November 7, 1949 in Phoenix over Gorgeous George.

1950 to 1959

There was a spectacular clash on February 3, 1950 at Wrigley Field in Chicago between Jim Londos and the giant Primo Carnera , the former boxing world champion. In this fight, which ended in a draw after an hour of fighting, Max Baer , another former boxing world champion, was the referee.

Jim Londos played his last fight on January 17, 1959 in Melbourne . There he won against Tiny Mills in front of 14,000 spectators. He was already 65 years old.

swell

• Athletics magazine , numbers 19/1930 and 29/1930,
• Kraftsport trade journal , number 29/1937,
• Website "www.wrestlingmuseum.com",
• Website "www.onlineworldofwrestling.com",
• Website "www.wwf4ever.de",
• Website "www.georgiawrestlinghistory.com",

Web links

• Portrait of Jim Londos
• Portrait of Jim Londos in English
• Jim Londos in the database of Find a Grave (English)