Whip & friends featured on Soo war-time triple bill

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With the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month once again upon us,

we take time to reflect on professional wrestling during wartime.

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When we talk about the First and Second World Wars, it’s usually about the fighting abroad, the horror of battle, those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Of course, what happens on the front line is only part of the story.

Digging through results recently, I came across a fascinating fundraiser for war bonds — Victory Loan Drive as it was called in Canada — that featured a remarkable triple bill of pro wrestling for the factory workers of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

It provides a good reminder that many served at home too, building the machinery and weapons that were needed to fight the wars.

As the mysterious columnist in The Sault Star “THE RAJ” put it (in all caps): “THIS IS YOUR SECOND FRONT.”

* * *

Sault Ste. Marie — “the Soo” — could mean either Ontario or Michigan, as they are neighbors/neighbours across the St. Marys River, with the river providing access from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The Canadian city is the third largest in northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay (which was actually two cities at the time, Fort William and Port Arthur), while on the American side, it’s the second biggest city on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, after Marquette.

The background is important because the cities during the time of this story were industrial hubs, and, equally important, a good distance in-land, a far less likely target for the Axis powers than a coastal city like New York City, Boston, or Halifax, Nova Scotia. Whatever was built there, near as it was to the deep, rich mineral reserves of northern Ontario, could be turned into useful goods and shipped through the Great Lakes, out the St. Lawrence River, into the Atlantic Ocean.

There was not a big history of pro wrestling on either side, as it was quite a way out of the way. The first card in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, was in 1930, and it was sporadic, at best.

So the names known for working at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens coming north was a big deal.

* * *

The main man behind promoting the show in the Soo was Charles Tupper Toombs, who went by Tupper, not Charles. He was a local boxing coach, involved in the Upper Peninsula Golden Gloves competitions, and rose to become director of the Sault (Ont.) Boxing Club.

Toombs’ day job was at the Algoma Central Railway, where he spent 30 years, retiring in 1953.

He was always generous in the community, and baseball and hockey teams with the “Tupper Toombs-T.W. Cain” sponsorship were common all the way back to the 1930s. Tupper had had his own successes in sports. As per the Star, as a teenager, Tupper was invited to tend goal for the senior amateur Port Arthur Bearcats, but never got past the established goalie, Hugh Lehman, who’d make the NHL. (Note, records are scant for those days, and I could not confirm.) On the diamond, he was a second baseman for the Paper Mill team that, according to the Star “dominated the City League for so long a time.”

It was a regular part of the local newspaper to write about Toombs’ boxing charges, often accompanied by photos of Tupper with the young boys, either posed, or acting as a referee, almost always while wearing a collared white shirt and tie. He also served as a member of the Sault Memorial Gardens Commission. He was also a leading crusader in 1950 against commercialized Sunday games in the city. “As one who has participated in practically all branches of local sport for many years and who realizes the value of these activities, I cannot see how commercialized Sunday games would be for the betterment of sport,” Toombs wrote in a paid ad in the Star.

The patriotism came from his parents, who, as the Star noted, thanks to their Southern Ontario lineage “were staunch supporters of the Conservative party. They were faithful followers of Sir Charles Tupper, Premier of New Brunswick at the time of their son’s birth.” [Note, the Star‘s sports editor, Greg Douglas, was wrong, as Charles Tupper had been Premier of Nova Scotia.]

* * *

It appeared to have come about very quickly.

On April 20, 1943, it was announced that there would be three wrestling exhibitions four days later. “The grunt and groan boys will go through their paces three times Saturday, once in the morning, then again in the afternoon and wind things up with another show in the evening,” read the Star.

The goal was to raise funds for the war effort; tickets were free, distributed first to factory workers, but everyone was expected to contribute:

The shows, which are being held in place of mass Victory Loan meetings planned for the Steel Plant Chromium, A.C.R., Foundry, Great Lakes Power Company and Civic employees, have been made possible through the courtesy of a group of public spirited men who shelled out the necessary maxuma to bring the boys here.

Victory Loans was the campaign run by the Canadian government during both World War I and World War II to appeal for money to finance the war effort.

* * *

Right from the start, the names announced as making the trip were Whipper Billy Watson, Pat Flanagan, Jan Gotch and Earl McCready.

Speculation started. “We don’t know as yet just which of these boys will be in the ring together since no program has been drawn up but it struck us that the fans would really enjoy a real brawl with all four of the bruisers in the squares at once … That would be a spectacle,” mused The Raj in his column.

The combatants arrived by train on the afternoon of April 23, to a modest collection of fans and curious onlookers at the station (“Quite a crowd,” wrote The Raj, leaving it very vague).

Much of the ink in the paper was used to give some details about the wrestlers, though to readers of this site, they should be familiar names:

Whipper Billy Watson‘s life had been impacted by war. Born William John Potts in East York, Ontario on July 25, 1917, his father was killed in France two weeks before the end of World War I and he was raised by his mother and step-father, whom he resented. After training under Phil Lawson, Potts went to England in 1936, where lightweights were valued.

Potts and three other Toronto friends, Whinnet Watson, Al “Krusher” Korman, and Kenneth “Tiger” Tasker, who all weighed under 200 pounds, sailing over on a cattle boat bound for Cardiff, Wales. They would find themselves linked for years to come, though somewhat confusingly in the case of Watson and Potts.

At one point, with Watson at the top of the bill, he was unable to perform and Potts stepped in. The name stuck, and adding the Irish Whip (learned from a Japanese wrestler) to his repertoire, Potts was done as a moniker. As for Watson, he stayed a life-long friend as wrestler Pat Flanagan. “He was Uncle Whinnet to me when I was a kid growing up,” said Phil Watson, the Whip’s youngest son. Watson worked around England from 1936 to 1940. He escaped with a new bride, Patricia Utting, as the bombs were dropping, in July 1940, their convoy of passenger ships escorted across the Atlantic by British warships.

Back in Canada, unable to serve his country because of a misplaced thumb to the eye which left him with only 10% vision on one side, Watson began making a name for himself, first in the Toronto-Cleveland corridor, and was soon main eventing Maple Leaf Gardens.

Pat Flanagan — the former Whinnet Watson — is the second wrestler to use the name Pat Flanagan, following a grappler of that name from St. Louis who preceded him by only a few years. The Toronto-based Flanagan’s wagon was decidedly hitched to the fortunes of Whipper.

The Raj perceptively paired Flanagan and Watson in his preview, writing, “Watson and Flanagan are more of the Hollywood type, Both are very good natured and good looking on the street but we’d think again before tackling them.”

Earl McCready was one of the greatest wrestlers in Canadian history. Period. He was the first-ever winner of three-straight NCAA wrestling championships at Oklahoma A & M, from 1928 to 1930, and then took freestyle gold at the British Empire Games in 1930. (His 1928 Olympic Games hadn’t gone as well, and he did not place.) Maclean’s Magazine, in a 1931 article, mentioned that McCready’s arrival on the pro scene was a boost for Canadian content. “Hitherto the sport has prospered in Canada without much native talent. Earl McCready, Regina’s representative on Canada’s 1928 Olympic team, has proved his fitness for competition in the most select company.” The Raj noted that McCready “would make a good pal … and a dandy bodyguard.”

Jan Gotch was definitely the least-known of the four names. Born Walter Grebek in 1912, he was a real journeyman, and, like Watson, Flanagan and McCready, was a world traveler for pro wrestling. “This Jan Gotch isn’t a bad looking guy in street clothes but they say he’s something ferocious in the ring. He roars like a lion and his hair sticks out on his head like a lion’s mane,” wrote The Raj.

Of note, I couldn’t determine exactly why Gotch, McCready and Flanagan had not enlisted, though their beat-up wrestling bodies could have been a reason.

* * *

In a day when newspapers ruled, there were often numerous editions printed in a single day. Therefore, the description of the morning matches helped promote the later shows.

“A very slim crowd came out to officially welcome the boys from Toronto but members of the Victory Loan committee are confident that they’ll pack ’em in this afternoon and tonight,” reported the Star. “All tickets for this afternoon have been handed out and even if only half take advantage of the chance to see some top notch wrestling the attendance figures should be well up in the thousands.”

It also noted that “Dr. M. M. McOdrum addressed the crowd on Canada’s Fourth Victory Loan making an appeal for as great a response as the Sault has shown in the past.”

10 a.m. results
Whipper Billy Watson beat Jan Gotch
Earl McCready beat Pat Flanagan

* * *

The midday matches got but a paragraph in the edition printed for Monday, April 26 (since no one did Sunday papers at the time in Canada).

4 p.m. results
Whipper Billy Watson beat Pat Flanagan
Earl McCready beat Jan Gotch

* * *

An astute observer would note that the wrestlers built to a proper finale, with the current British Empire champion, Whipper, against a previous holder of the title in McCready.

8 p.m. results
Whipper Billy Watson went to an hour-long two-out-of-three falls draw with Earl McCready
Pat Flanagan drew with Jan Gotch over 30 minutes

The Star put over the main eventers, but didn’t short-shrift the opener:

But it was the first bout of the evening which drew most of the yells. Both Jan Gotch and Pat Flanagan gave all they had for the crowd and it was pu—lenty.

Gotch’s favorite trick was to glide in on Flanagan and clout him under the jaw or on the eye with an arm or thigh and this brought roars of disapproval from the audience.

Flanagan came back with some mule-like kicks on his own hook and a couple of times he floored Gotch with the sole of his shoe. Twisting an arm or a leg was child’s play to these guys and they played at it quite a bit. Gotch came out of the ring hobbling on one foot at the end of the 30 minute limit but Flanagan was in no better shape with his swollen eye and bruised body.

The estimate was that 1,500 fans turned out for the last show of the long day, with a total of about 2,000 going to all three shows.

The Raj summed it all up: “It was only supposed to be an exhibition but the way McCready, Watson, Flanagan and Gotch went at it the performance looked more like bone-cracking contests… if those were exhibitions we wouldn’t want to be around when the boys get mad.”

* * *

It is rare to see many quotes in the sports section at the time, the columnists paraphrasing more than citing directly.

So it was a pleasure to see The Raj talking to Watson and Gotch, in the Monday newspaper:

“This is the first time I’ve wrestled in the morning since I was over in England” commented Whipper Billy Watson after his tussle with Jan Gotch Saturday morning in the Victory Loan Show at the Arena rink, “I must say that it’s plenty cold, especially here…” Watson was over in the Mother Country about three years ago performing for the people over there and he attracted quite a bit of interest with his ability.

“I was over there during the blitz” said Jan Gotch, “and I’m telling you that it was some show”… there’s one good reason why your purchase of Victory Bonds is essential. You wouldn’t want to see any more blitzes on Great Britain and certainly none on our own soil. Gotch was over there for quite some time and only arrived back in Canada a little over one year ago.

* * *

While Watson, McCready, Flanagan and Gotch all wrestled for years, and their careers are well documented for the most part, the story of the promoter, Tupper Toombs, took a terrible turn later in 1943.

John Blackstock Toombs, born to Tupper and his wife, Sarah Jane Blackstock, was an amateur boxer, no doubt influenced by his father. John completed his studies at attended Sault Ste. Marie Collegiate Institute and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in November 1941, and arrived overseas in 1942.

Flight Sergeant Toombs went missing on November 26, 1943. He was a navigator on a Lancaster bomber, after departing from Skellingthorpe, England.

On December 11, 1943, the Department of National Defence for Air, notified the family:

Advice has been received from the Royal Canadian Air Force Casualties Officer, Overseas, that your son was a member of the crew of an aircraft which failed to return to the base after a bombing raid over Berlin, Germany, on November 26th, 1943.

The letter, written by W. R. Gunn, Squadron Leader, RCAF Casualties Officer, for Chief of the Air Staff, noted that there was a possibility that John was alive, though within five weeks, if no details were learned he would be declared dead.

John was 21 years old when shot down, along with six other servicemen: D.H. Calman, C.J.B. Cogdell, E.F. Johnson, E. Smith, J.A. Stephens, A.P.E. Strange.

It wasn’t until March 1949 that the remains of John Toombs were discovered. According to documentation with Veterans Affairs, Toombs’ body was found at Elagrund cemetery, and was transferred to Berlin-Herrstrasse cemetery.

For a time, Tupper was the chair of the Poppy Committee in Sault Ste. Marie, as well, raising funds for the Canadian Legion through sales of pin-on poppies. In 1956, he gifted a new Royal Canadian Air Cadet Corps ensign in memory of his son.

Tupper Toombs himself died on August 9, 1964, in Toronto, Ontario, at the age of 74.

A year later, Tupper’s daughter, Jane, along with her husband, Tom, and their children, bought an In Memoriam classified ad in the Star:

Nothing can ever take away
The love a heart holds dear;
Fond memories linger every day
Remembrance keeps him near.

He didn’t live long enough to see his nephew’s son, Roderick Toombs, rise to the top of the pro wrestling business as “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.

TOP PHOTO: Whipper Billy Watson, left, and Earl McCready

REMEMBRANCE DAY / VETERANS DAY STORIES