Columns

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.

› Continue reading

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 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!

Teaching Iowa History, Results in Special Song Teaching Iowa history, results in special song

Friday, March 2nd, 2012 | Columns, Iowa History Journal | No Comments

Publisher’s Perspective – Volume 4, Issue 2 of Iowa History Journal

Not long ago, I received a letter from Mrs. Carol Alvis, who teaches social studies at Van Buren Middle School in Keosauqua. For those not familiar with Keosauqua, it is a city of 1,100 located in very southeastern Iowa, on the Missouri border. It is home to the oldest courthouse in continuous use in the state, dating back to 1840.

Mrs. Alvis began her letter thusly: “I am writing in response to the article you wrote in the May/June issue of the Iowa History Journal magazine entitled ‘Iowa schools are flunking in history’. In that article you stated that a few years ago the Des Moines Register reported that Iowa history was being ignored in Iowa schools.

“I just want to let you know that in the Van Buren Middle School 7th grade classes, Iowa history is alive and well.”

Continue reading…

Johnny Bright: Drake’s Greatest Legend

Friday, September 3rd, 2010 | Columns, Iowa History Journal | No Comments

by Mike Chapman (excerpt from Iowa History Journal, Volume 2, Issue 5)

When Johnny Bright strolled onto the cozy Drake University campus in the fall of 1948, no one could have realized what was in store for the Des Moines college in particular, and the game of football in general. After his three-year varsity career wound up in 1951, Bright left a legacy of achievement that may never be matched at any college.

The dynamic, athletic young man from Indiana had it all, including a name that lent itself to visions of grandeur. And it is sad that today very few Iowa football fans even know who Johnny Bright was and what he once meant to Drake University and to the state as a whole.

Continue reading…

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National Dairy Cattle Congress

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 | Columns, Iowa History Journal | No Comments

Publisher’s Perspective – Volume 2, Issue 5 of Iowa History Journal

When I was a kid growing up in Waterloo in the 1950s, I was a city slicker that didn’t know a darn thing about farm animals and implements. Still, other than Christmas, the most exciting time of the year for me, and most kids I knew, was opening day of the National Dairy Cattle Congress. It was a huge, weeklong show that took place on the western edge of the city, and offered attractions galore, for a very wide variety of people.

It was so much more extravagant than any local fair I had ever seen that it couldn’t even be compared. It was such a big event in the 1950s that the Waterloo schools gave all students a day off to attend it. All the previous week, it was the subject of talk among all the kids in the school I attended. We laid plans for the big day off, and how much fun we were going to have.

Read on…

Bill’s and Bob’s Field of Dreams

Saturday, July 10th, 2010 | Columns, Iowa History Journal | 1 Comment

Publisher’s Perspective – Volume 2, Issue 4 of Iowa History Journal

Iowa is well known in some circles as the home of “Field of Dreams” because the hit movie of that name was filmed on a picturesque farm near Dyersville. The 1989 film starred Kevin Costner as an Iowa farmer who saw ghost players come out of a cornfield to play on a baseball diamond he carved out of a pasture.

But in reality, there are two fields of dream in our great state. The first one was developed in the mid 1930s near Van Meter, on a farm owned by Bill Feller.

Through the years, I’ve been to both fields of dreams several times. Shoeless Joe Jackson was the star player of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox team that the Costner film focused on, and I created a Shoeless Joe Jackson poster in 1992 that has sold very well at the gift shop at the Dyersville movie site.

On May 26, I once again visited the “original” field of dreams, the one near Van Meter. I drove there with Scott Havick, the energetic and passionate director of the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter.

Continue reading…

History of the W.I.N. Memorabilia Show

Sunday, March 7th, 2010 | Columns, WIN Magazine, Wrestling | No Comments

Mike’s column from the latest issue of WIN Magazine talks about the history of the Memorabilia Show. This show will mark Mike’s 20th and last show.

He writes:

The 1991 NCAA championships in Iowa City stand out in my mind as one of the most memorable ever, for many reasons.

…It was the scene for an experiment I tried with two friends – Mike DeAnna, former Hawkeye star, and Bob Steenlage, Iowa’s first four-time state champion and an All-American at West Point.

We wanted to develop an event that would offer fans a gathering spot between sessions of the tournament. We were tired of trying to meet friends in smoke-filled bars or crowded restaurants, or jammed into motel lobbies. We felt other fans would embrace the concept of a general gathering spot between sessions, as well.

That tournament marks the debut of what has become known as the “WIN Memorabilia Show.”

We hope to see you there this year!

To read the full article, click here…

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