Another Article - Greek Athletes in New York City: Time of the Titans
TIME OF TITANS:
GREEK ATHLETES IN NEW YORK CITY
By Steve Frangos
Published in The National Herald, June 17, 2006
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I am excited to announce that The National Herald has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.
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The history of amateur Greek
athletics in New York City is still a
matter of debate. This is especially
curious since, from 1901 to the present,
published accounts on the
Greek amateur athletes of New
York City abound. Many Greek immigrants
joined local athletic clubs
and gyms throughout the five boroughs.
We will restrict our survey here
to the Greek American Athletic
Club of New York City. As far as
available published accounts now
report, the GAAC was, at least as of
1901, originally based in Brooklyn’s
Ulmer Park. By 16 May 1913, however,
the GAAC had moved to
Manhattan. We know this, in part,
because of a news report:
“Alexander Haggis, the wrestling
instructor of the Greek American
Athletic Club, last night defeated
Gus Peterson, the Princeton University
professional, in a catch-ascatch-can
wrestling bout in the gymnasium
of the Greek American Athletic
Club on 313 West 53rd Street.
Haggis, who is a former AAU
champion, proved the master of Peterson,
and won in two straight falls
in 57 minutes 24 seconds and 51
minutes 15 seconds, respectively.
Peterson made the mistake of trying
to do all the aggressive work, while
Haggis allowed his opponent to expend
much of his strength before
beginning operations. Haggis threw
his man with each a crotch and toehold.
Peterson’s left ankle was
weak, and Haggis devoted his attention
to this weakness, finally wearing
Peterson down.”
The address for the club aside,
the key phrase here is “catch-ascatch-can
wrestling.” It was this
American-style of wrestling and its
focus on the submission hold which
launched literally hundreds of
Greek immigrants into first amateur,
and then professional,
wrestling in North America. As
Greeks in the present day are commonly
associated with restaurants,
in the early 1900’s, they were commonly
seen as the strongmen
wrestlers of the largest arenas, the
most prestigious vaudeville stages
and spectacular circus tents in the
country.
Greeks – as internationally recognized
strongmen, noted wrestlers
and award-winning athletes – represented
a period of time and a host of
familiar names and careers which
have all somehow become lost in
the self-consciousness of contemporary
Greeks and Greek Americans. This is nothing short of astounding.
As an example of the common press
coverage Greek athletes often got,
we need only cite the New York
Times sports section of February 18,
1912. A five-column photograph of
the “Greek American Athletic Club
Stars” heads the page. We see no
less than 44 athletes proudly posing
in their club uniforms, along with
three men in suits.
When reviewing the history of
Greek immigrants in sporting
events, however, the real question
we should be asking ourselves is,
what were these athletes doing
when they weren’t running, jumping,
boxing or fighting in a ring?
When reading those few accounts of
early Greek amateur athletes, I often
wonder if the writers ever took
into account that these early Hellenes
were treated like dirt by “native-born”
Americans, as well as by
many other ethnic groups, when
they were not all together on the
sports field. The few writers or lecturers
who present information on
these historical sporting events all
focus on athletics as “a means of
preserving (Greek immigrant)
group identity and providing pleasure
while they were away from
home.” They have totally missed the
point.
All those photographs one sees
today – of men in sporting uniforms
with medals on their chests and trophies next to them – had a distinct
meaning for those men. These immigrants
from afar had conquered
their oppressors by training and
mastering themselves. They
achieved on the level field of sports,
then, what they could not achieve as
waiters, shoeshine boys or as “dirty
Greeks” on the sidewalks of New
York. This is social history and politics
in their widest sense.
But let’s return to the claim that
Greek athletes were among the
most notable of their day.
To underscore this claim, we
need only cite that it is from the
memories of no less a figure than
Eugene Sandow (1867-1925) that
we hear about the GAAC of New
York. Often referred to as the “Father
of Modern Bodybuilding,”
Sandow was an internationally recognized
pioneering bodybuilder of
the Victorian Era. A great admirer
of Greek and Roman statues,
Sandow sought nothing less than
the Grecian Ideal as his formula for
the perfect physique.
Sandow was the first performing
strongman, according to contemporary
understanding of that concept.
While Sandow first took the stage as
part of Ziegfeld’s Follies, it was his
later activities which separated him
from other mere strongmen. Aside
from his public performances,
Sandow also wrote books on physical
culture and nutrition; invented exercise machines; and opened various
gyms to teach his methods.
Sandow was also the first strongman
on film, as none other than Thomas
Edison himself issued one of the
very first films ever made on
Sandow flexing his muscles and performing
feats of strength. Moreover,
much like Arnold Swarzenegger,
Sandow was an extremely erudite
businessman.
It is in the writings of “Sandow
the Magnificent,” as he was then
known, that we hear of the GAAC.
Sometime after 1917, Sandow’s
brother Joseph, who was also a recognized
athlete, trained for a time
“at the Greek Athletic Club in New
York, he established a left-arm barbell
press record of 301 pounds.
This is considered by some authorities
as the world’s record in the left
arm press. It was here, at the Greek
Athletic Club, that I met, for the
first time, Tofalos, the world-famed
champion strong man of Greece. In
weightlifting, he is best known for
the records he established with the
weights in one of the Olympic
meets, held many years ago. I saw
him workout with a barbell that
weighed considerably over 200
pounds. He lifted the weight about
ten times in succession with his two
arms. His style of lifting a barbell is
the last word in this science which,
coupled with his great strength,
made him a world’s champion.”
That such attention and praise
came from Sandow may escape
many modern readers. Sandow’s
public stature, at the time he made
these remarks, was such that these
comments were nothing short of endorsements
of the first order.
Yet here again, we enter murky
historical waters. Demetrios Tofalos
(1880-1966) is generally understood
to have traveled to North
America around 1908. According to
published accounts, the first time
Tofalos professionally wrestled in
New York City was in the early part
of November 1915. At the moment,
we have no specific date or document
attesting to when Tofalos
helped co-establish the Hermes
Athletic Club, or if he ever did. In
typical Greek fashion, the only photograph
ever offered of Demetrios
Tofalos with other Greek immigrant
athletes in New York shows
him in a group photograph with the
background banner, “Greek American
Athletic Club NY
(www.hoc.gr/en/info/periodika7o/4.as
p).” This article nonetheless attests
that Tofalos “was one of the cofounders
of the Hermes Greek
American association in New
York.”
We also know that, by 1932, the
GAAC was meeting in the basement
of Evangelismos (Annunciation)
Church in Manhattan. By at
least 6 November 1933, “the Greek American Hermes AC” members
were competing with other amateur
athletes.
The interactions of Sandow and
Tofalos aside, many members of the
GAAC were outstanding athletes.
In 1932-33, two members of the
GAAC participated in the 1932
Olympic Games in Los Angeles:
Nikolaos Mastrorides (boxing) and
Ioannis Moralis (50-kilometer
walk).
Another elusive question is the
September 3, 1912 track and field
competition between J. Bredemus
of Princeton, New Jersey and the
legendary Jim Thorpe (1887-1953)
during the Amateur Athletic
Union’s all-around championship at
Celtic Park on Long Island. Thorpe
was awarded the overall title which
Bredemus had won in 1908. While
Thorpe carried the day, Bredemus
was always a close competitor. Bredemus
beat Thorpe in the pole
vault, 880-yard walk, and throwing
the 16-pound ball – not a bad performance
against the man many
contend was the greatest natural
athlete who ever lived. But in the
end, we still face the question, was
Bredemus really a Greek immigrant
as many in the community still contend?
More research clearly needs to
be undertaken before we can begin
piecing this historical puzzle together.
Fortunately the Greek Museum
of New York City has already begun
collecting invaluable documentation
on this aspect of our common
historical experience.
I urge anyone who has more detailed
information on Greek amateur
athletes to contact the Greek
Museum of New York: P.O. Box
#1863, Grand Central Station, New
York, NY 10163 (or visit the web at
www.greek-museum.org or e-mail
heritage@greek-museum.org).
No one can, or will, provide this
information but you. If you think
someone is going to come to your
house to collect this treasure, outside
of the Greek Museum volunteers,
you are sorely mistaken. No
one cares for our history. No academic
will lift a finger to help you.
As in any family, neighborhood or
village, we Greeks must preserve
our own history for those who will
follow us. No one else will ever be
Greek for us. Only by understanding
our true past can we build upon
the actions and achievements of
those disciplined early Hellenes, to
whom we all claim allegiance.