Joe Stecher

(1896-1974) born near Dodge, Dodge County. Athlete, farmer, one of the most famous athletes in the 1920s, he wrestled in hundreds of matches during a professional career from 1914 to 1934, winning and losing the national heavyweight championship three times, known for his scissors hold, he beat Charles Cutler in Omaha in 1915, Earl Caddock in New York City in 1920, and Stanislaus Zbyszko in St. Louis in 1925; elected to Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Schenectady, New York in 2002. Consult Sunday /Omaha/ World Herald Magazine of the Midlands, August 20, 1967, pp. 10-11 and obituaries in New York Times, March 30, 1974, p. 34 and Dodge /NE/ Centurion, March 28, 1974, p. 1 and Joe Jares, Whatever Happened to Gorgeous George- (Prentice-Hall, 1974) 156, 188-191 and Sunday World Herald July 1, 2001, pp. B-1, B-3.

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