100 years ago in The Saratogian
Thursday, Nov. 22, 1917
In a rematch of a controversial August bout in Saratoga Springs, Gene Westegaard again challenges Jack Ozar for the middleweight wrestling championship.
Westegaard, a former champion, lost to Ozar on August 21 when he was disqualified for rough tactics in a tiebreaking third fall. Tonight’s card takes place at the Star Theater in Mechanicville and draws “fully 800” fans despite a heavy rainstorm.
On the undercard, Schuylerville star Leo DeGreche (previous reports spelled his last name “DeGreschie”) takes on Carl Temple of Utica. Temple takes the first of three falls with an arm lock in just 95 seconds, but DeGresche, back from beating all comers at the Camp Devens military training facility in Ayer MA, wins the match with two falls in a combined 13 minutes, ten seconds.
“Temple stepped to the edge of the platform and addressing the crowd said that DeGreche was one of the cleanest, fastest and best boys he had ever wrestled with, and that he had no excuses for his defeat. The Utican claims that this is only his second defeat in the last two years.
Earlier, Mechanicville hopeful Young Cowan loses to Harold Young of Springfield MA in consecutive falls.
Before the main event, referee Adam Miller reads a telegram from former middleweight champ Joe Turner, who took the title from Westegaard in 1915, only to lose it to Ozar in 1916. In the telegram, the Washington D.C. wrestler challenges the winner of tonight’s bout to face him in Mechanicville within the next thirty days.
“Both Ozar and Westegaard looked to be in the pink of condition, although Westegaard was slightly ill and was suffering, it is said, from cramps,” The Saratogian reports.
Whatever ails Westegaard, he can add to the list a cut above his left eye when Ozar eblows him, apparently by accident, in the opening clinch. A grueling first fall takes more than half an hour before Ozar “secured his famous cradle hold” to pin the challenger.
Westegaard comes back to take the second fall in 20:05 with a “leg and arm hammer-lock.” Ozar, whose left arm is injured in the fall, asks for an extra ten minutes’ recovery time before the deciding fall, but is refused by the ref. The champ “gamely entered the ring and put up a stiff fight,” but Westegaard finishes him off quickly, in four minutes even, with a “hammer-lock with front half Nelson.”
After the match, Westegaard accepts Turner’s challenge, vowing to meet him anytime after December 13. The Saratogian sportswriter compliments tonight’s promoters for “securing the best athletes in the world to contest for and defend their titles.”