Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing
Posted: 10 Jun 2010, 12:36
by kikibalt
KRIKORIAN: Beyrooty still on duty after all these years
By Doug Krikorian, Sports Columnist
6/10/2010
In the wacky world of boxing, endemically laden with characters of every imaginable stripe, John Beyrooty is a classically perfect fit for the sport.
Indeed, Beyrooty, a 1968 Warren High graduate who will be inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame on June 26 at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, might be the most unlikely person to be anointed such an honor in light of a background not exactly steeped in fistic knowledge.
"The first fight I ever covered for the old Los Angeles Herald Examiner on March 15, 1979 between Alberto Sandoval and Eddie Logan at the Olympic Auditorium was the first fight I ever saw," says Beyrooty, who would cover the sport for the paper for 10 years until its closing in 1989, and then became public relations director of Forum Boxing for another eight. "But that was typical of my life. I also didn't know anything about journalism - and wound up becoming a sportswriter."
Before reaching that exalted station, John Beyrooty, whom I long ago nicknamed Honest John for reasons that later will be explained, earned his wages as a copy boy at the Herald Examiner, as well as a parking lot attendant for events at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena.
"I might hold the distinction of having the longest copy boy tenure in newspaper history - almost five years," says Beyrooty with his typical self-deprecatory humor.
Beyrooty also holds another distinction that never will be matched, and easily could
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be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records.
"On a couple of occasions, I'd work the Sports Arena parking lot before a big fight card," he relates. "And then I'd go inside, take off the red and white circus-style shirt I'd have to wear, and go down to my ringside seat and cover the fights for the Herald Examiner."
John Beyrooty wasn't making much money in those long ago days from his newspaper labors - he says he earned about 75 bucks a week as a copy boy - and admits he made more from his parking lot endeavors where he, blessedly, would have the final count of the gate receipts.
Of course, John Beyrooty, was a paragon of rectitude. Never would he dare fudge on the numbers, which inspired my giving him his Honest John handle.
Beyrooty wound up at the Herald Examiner because he happened to be a Downey neighbor of its sports editor, Bud Furillo, and was friends with Furillo's children.
"I remember Andy Furillo telling me one day, `Come and work at the paper... it's a lot of fun,"' relates Beyrooty. "And so I did, since I wasn't doing much else but goofing around at the time.
"When I interviewed with one of the Herald Examiner's editors, Robert Epstein, he asked me, `What experience do you have?' I told him as a junior in high school I worked on the school newspaper, `The Warren High Justice.' He laughed and hired me."
But, as Beyrooty cut copy off the old Western Union telex machines and as the years elapsed, he had endeared himself to a gentleman named Allan Malamud, a gourmand who would succeed Furillo as sports editor.
"I became the king of food runs," says Beyrooty, who actually also was a member of the Press-Telegram's sports department for a year and a half after Forum Boxing faded and has been employed by the Brener-Zwikel PR firm since 1999, handling Showtime boxing and MMA events.
"You name all the good downtown L.A. spots - Philippe's, the Pantry, Johnnie's Shrimp Boat, Little Joe's, the Gala, The Case, Paul's Kitchen's, Langer's-and I knew them well. And I became quite skilled at food runs. Mud (Allan Malamud) loved it.
"I've always thought to this day that I was promoted from copy boy to being a sportswriter by Mud because he knew I was going to soon leave the paper because I was getting tired of cutting copy. He wanted to keep me around for those food runs."
Beyrooty worked the desk and covered high school sports his first couple of years as a reporter-"I was the first L.A. sportswriter to do a story on a Granada Hills High quarterback named John Elway" - before Malamud gave him the boxing beat.
"No one else wanted it," he says.
But Beyrooty quickly made a name for himself in the sport, especially for his lengthy Saturday column that became imperative reading for the boxing fraternity and that brimmed with agate notes and hilarious nicknames. Malamud, now deceased, and I read it loyally, oftentimes calling each other on Saturday mornings to describe its funniest, if not campiest highlights.
It was Beyrooty who hung Golden Boy on Oscar De La Hoya, and who came up with the name McDonnell-Douglas for a certain radio show.
While at the Herald Examiner, Beyrooty also was involved with his brother Paul Beyrooty in a Downey fast food eatery called Beyrooty's Burger Bar.
And, on one memorable occasion at a Mike Tyson press conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Beyrooty supplied the media food, inspiring Tyson's promoter, the notoriously hyperbolic Don King, to give a hilarious 15-minute dissertation on the greatness of the Beyrooty Burger.
"The Beyrooty Burger gives you food for thought and no culinary concoction since the dawn of mankind can match it in flavor, substance, quality and good old American virtues," said King, injecting his usual madcap mixture of metaphors and non-sequiturs.
Alas, Beyrooty's Burger Bar wasn't fated to become another In-N-Out - it soon went out of business - but John Beyrooty wound up covering many of the marquee boxing attractions during his sportswriting days, including ones involving Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Salvador Sanchez, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, etc.
He has traveled throughout the United States and also overseas during his incumbency with Brener-Zwikel - he's been to England, Denmark and China - although his five days in Beijing turned out to be unneeded since the scheduled Evander Holyfield-John Ruiz fight he was set to work was canceled.
The 60-year-old father of two daughters, Nichole, 27, and Brianna, 21, still resides in Downey and still marvels at his bizarre career arc.
"I knew absolutely nothing about the newspaper business - and was in it for almost 18 years," he says. "And I knew absolutely nothing about the public relations business - and have been in it for almost 20 years.
"I'm living proof that you can succeed in any field in this world without knowing anything about it."
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing
Posted: 11 Jun 2010, 17:03
by kikibalt
The History of THE DOME
1921-1950--Steve Strelich and his Stadium
by Gilbert Gia
Late in 1940 when heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey drove over to Strelich Sports Arena on V Street in Bakersfield he said it was the best little stadium he'd ever seen. Henry Eissler built it, but the place got its name from Eissler's promoter, a 37-year-old professional wrestler named Steve Strelich. In 1941, both men's careers were in change.
Eissler was born in 1878 in Evansville, Indiana. He studied law before moving to San Francisco, but an earthquake pointed Eissler to the building business. When he was 26 he returned to Evansville and married Mary Sargent, and by 1909 the couple was in Kern County, and Eissler was putting up derricks for Fred Gribble Construction on the Kern River oil field. In 1911 Eissler was vice-president of Bakersfield Mutual Building and Loan Association, and by 1915 he'd started his own construction firm.
Documents at the Kern County Hall of Records show Eissler's name in more than 700 transactions. Over a 25-year period he constructed several Bakersfield and Kern County schools and built hundreds of homes. In 1926 when Charles Bigger designed the Bakersfield Californian Building on Eye Street, Henry Eissler was selected as the contractor. A year later he built the masonry bandstand at Jastro Park.
Steve Strelich was born in Colorado on November 27, 1903, but before he was 10 he returned to his parents' Croatian homeland. Eighteen years later on September 30, 1921, a young immigrant named Stipan Strili-- arrived at New York on Ship Aquitania, which carried about 200 residents of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The ship manifest described Stipan Strili-- as a five-foot six-inch, fair-haired, blue-eyed, "Yougoslave, Croatian" from "Zagrelb." Strili--'s ship and rail passage was to Utah, said the ship's manifest, and his transportation had been paid by his parents who lived at Bingham Canyon, Utah.
The manifest noted that Strili-- had never been in the US and that he intended to become a permanent resident. However, the last column said that Stipan Strili-- was born in "Bingham, USA." Bingham is near Midvale, Utah, and in the 1990s, Steve Strelich's sisters, Mary and Annie, lived there. Eighteen-year-old Stipan was Steve Strelich. The family name Strili-- had been anglicized to "Strelich," which resembles its pronunciation in Croatian, although during Strelich's career his surname was occasionally spelled "Strilich."
Strelich said that when he was 18 he wrestled at county fairs. Wrestling in the early 1900s was a legitimate sport, but promoters found themselves in competition with boxing and baseball for ticket sales, and engineered matches gradually made wrestling less than a pure sporting contest. No single match marks wrestling's metamorphosis, but there are early examples of the change.
Between 1905 and 1908, Iowa giant Frank Gotch had been a frequent winner, so frequent in fact that his promoters "arranged" some matches so Gotch would lose. In 1906, the 28-year-old wrestler "staged a work" against Fred Beall, and when Gotch "lost," ticket sales improved. Another example was in October 1909 when New York wrestlers Jack Carroll and others were accused of acting, and by then wrestling was well on its way to being a different game.
In addition to rigging winners and losers, promoters kept audiences interested by speeding up matches that formerly lasted hours and introducing new faces, but after World War I the public wore a crooked smile when talk came up about wrestling. In the mid-Twenties, Steve Strelich went into professional boxing, and he entered the theatrical world of professional wrestling.
In 1928 Strelich boxed as lightweight in Salt Lake City, but according to wrestling historian J. Michael Kenyon, Strelich by then was also a recognized wrestling name in California. At Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium on January 24, 1930, 185-lb Steve the "Terrible Swede" Strelich wrestled A.D. Hermann in front of 10,000 ticket holders, but as the Depression deepened Strelich continued as a boxer.
In May 1930 he returned to Salt Lake City to face a six-foot-six, 240-lb Italian boxer named Primo Carnera, called the "Ambling Alp." Weeks earlier, New York Athletic Commissioners had suspended Carnera from boxing competition, which might explain why the match at Salt Lake was billed as an exhibition. Strelich was KO'd in round one, according to the record.
By 1933 Strelich and Carnera had climbed to the top of their respective sports. Carnera was World Heavyweight boxing champion, and "Cyclone Steve" Strelich held the California Light Heavyweight wrestling belt. That year also brought a second Strelich name into Southland arenas when Steve's brother Mike entered the wrestling game, and he was followed a few years later by their brother Johnny. Mike's career continued until about 1940, commented historian Kenyon, "And during that span he traveled coast-to-coast and had an extended run in the major mat centers of the Midwest, East and South. John Strelich, sometimes known as Jack, youngest of the lot, saw action at the Olympic a few times in 1936-37, and spent a season, 1937-38, working for the light heavyweight booking office in Tulsa, Oklahoma."
In 1931 the public got a look at what went on behind the game when the New York State Athletic Commission barred promoters from advertising wrestling as contests. Nevertheless, wrestling's popularity grew, and bythe end of 1933, promoters owned stables of wrestlers and had a coast-to-coast consortium that spell-out winners and losers in advance.
Wrestling insider Jack Pfeffer found himself elbowed out of the consortium, and in January 1934, he revealed to reporters that back in August 1929 wrestling managers had "staged a work" between Dick Shikat and Jim Londos so that Londos would win the world title. Of course by 1934 Pfeffer was merely telling people what most already knew about the game, but the way he told it hurt, that those who followed wrestling were bumpkins, and so were the reporters.
That was followed in October when General John J. Phelan of the New York State Athletic Commission "exposed" wrestling as a fraud. The Los Angeles Times noted sarcastically that Phelan was once again ordering "a relentless investigation" of wrestling, and this must signal the official start of the "annual fall silly season."
The Times reminded readers that the State's 1931 ruling required professional wrestling matches to be billed as "exhibitions," which proved that "in the eyes of the law wrestling was nothing but the old Phonous-Bolonous-Malarkey-Malloy; that bouts were to be taken no more seriously than puppet shows and other items manipulated by the pulling of strings." The article came when New York wrestling promoters already were experiencing a drop in ticket sales, but in the rest of the country, and particularly in Los Angeles, wrestling was bringing in large, appreciative crowds.On November 21, 1934, all 11,000 of Olympic Auditorium's tickets were sold.
Steve Strelich was a regular at Santa Monica Muscle Beach, and in 1927 his name showed up in stories about long-distance swimming and marathon dancing. Strelich's physique, good looks and engaging personality then landed him stunt work in movies, and in 1936 and 1938 he had bit parts in three Hollywood films. On November 17, 1936, movie star James Cagney and the cast of Tough Guy showed up at the Eastside Arena in Los Angeles to support Steve Strelich who had been working on the movie with them. That night the featured main event had Strelich wrestling Louie Miller, and further down the evening's card were Steve's brothers Mike and John.
George Strelich, Steve's brother, told this author that Steve had been a bodyguard for actress Mae West. Her catch line "Why don't you come up and see me sometime" and her 5-5, 120-lb, 36-26-36 dimensions meant she probably needed a bodyguard. But maybe not. Time Magazine wrote on Oct. 16, 1933, "In vaudeville, Mae West developed her figure with an acrobatic act in which she lifted a 500-lb. weight, supported by three 150-lb. male assistants." The Strelich-West connection came up again in 1966 when Bakersfield welterweight boxer Don Crider (1961-1962) helped Steve Strelich remove personal items from Strelich Stadium. Crider told this author that he remembered carrying out a Mae West movie placard.
On December 10, 1935, disgruntled promoter Jack Ganson threatened to hand over the dope on wrestling to the California State Athletic Commission. True to Ganson's promoter's instinct, newspapers said he demanded that the Commission subpoena him first and force him to testify under oath, but the Commissioners weren't impressed. Sacramento wrestling promoter Pete Visser had been making similar noises, and had been "blowing hot and cold so far," said the Commissioners, and they didn't expect much more from Ganson, either.
Talk about staged wrestling bouts had no affect on ticket sales. Jack Miley of the Detroit Free Press explained the apparent phenomenon on April 27, 1936 when he quoted New York wrestling promoter Jack Curley, " 'I am merely a purveyor of entertainment,' the bland, inscrutable Curley replies when somebody asks if his dodge is on the square. In all the years I've known him, I've never heard him say his pitch was a phony, nor have I heard him claim it was the McCoy. Probably half the folk who attend the Curley carnivals are hep to them. The other 50 per cent of the spectators - the foreign-born, the confirmed rassling addicts and such - are equally certain they are witnessing the genuine article. That has been the secret of Curley's success. He satisfies the scoffers and the believers, too. He has made rassling a state of mind. It is everybody to his own opinion, and nobody gets hurt - including the athletes."
During the Depression, the Streliches traveled for work. Steve wrestled in the Southland, Ventura, Fresno, and in Utah and Colorado. Wrote Kenyon, "All three Strelich brothers -- at least they billed themselves as such -- worked, from time to time, in the Pacific Northwest (i.e., Oregon, Washington and British Columbia)." Wrestling statistics show that between 1934 and 1937 Steve, but more so his brother Mike, performed frequently in Victoria and Vancouver.
Kenyon said Steve Strelich was usually a mid-card wrestler, but "He still had enough pulling power to be featured regularly in main events. And his skills on the mat, despite his advancing years, enabled him to hold down occasional feature bouts at the Hollywood Legion Stadium, including at least one against world light heavyweight champion LeRoy McGuirk. Steve also conducted at least one, fairly lengthy, tour of the Arizona-New Mexico-West Texas territory in the late '30s."
Continued Kenyon, "Along the way, I suspect, Strelich earned the friendship of Ed 'Strangler' Lewis because in the waning days of Strelich's pro-grappling career he always seemed to have a place on the undercard when Lewis worked the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. There are at least 15 such occasions in the record." [Note: From the late 1910s through the 1920s, Ed "Strangler" Lewis was the biggest name in wrestling, but in the mid-Thirties he stopped wrestling and was managing.] The last wrestling match I saw Steve Strelich in, at least according to my sketchy records, was at Fresno in early 1941 at Ryan's Auditorium. The wrestling careers of all the Strelich clan seemed to evaporate just prior to World War II."
The Bakersfield Californian said Steve Strelich first wrestled here in 1931. One of the earliest local articles about Strelich appeared March 10, 1932 in the Blue and White, Kern County Union High School's student newspaper. A few days earlier, Steve the "Terrible Swede" Strelich demonstrated some of his wrestling moves to the High School's wrestling team, and class member Chet Wenton, said the Blue and White, had "taken the punishment." Strelich told the boys he was interested in starting a professional San Joaquin Valley football club of local players. The paper also noted that Steve's brother Mike had enrolled at Bakersfield Junior College, which was then on the KCUHS campus.
In November 1936, Steve and Mike Strelich appeared in shows at an old sports barn at 19th and V Streets that had been used as a sports venue as early as1920 when the name "Bakersfield Athletic Club Stadium" first appeared in the Bakersfield City Directory, but without an address. In 1928 was listed at "1920 V Street, at 20th."
On April 20, 1938 Steve Strelich promoted his first wrestling show there to an audience that Bakersfield Californian columnist Jax Smith said "filled the shaky gladiators' shed from the ringside to the back row of the gallery." The second match of the evening became noteworthy only when the referee disqualified wrestler Bob Montgomery. "Bobby was plenty mad at the referee's decision," wrote Smith, "And sank his molars into the ropes just to show it." Smith devoted most of his article to the main event, described as a "battle royal" and a "six-man rumpus that started out like a guerrilla war." One of the "boys" after another, wrote Smith, was pinned, leaving wrestler Pat O'Brien the last man standing and champion. As if these male melodramatists of the square ring were not action enough for Bakersfield audiences, in April 1939 Strelich brought in women's wrestling.
George Strelich said that his brother Johnny had been working in Los Angeles when Steve and Johnny decided to move to Bakersfield. In 1939, "Strelich Bros. Conditioning Club (Steve and John Strelich)" was at 1708 K Street. The location attracted walk-in customers from the tree-shaded entrance of the fashionable Hotel El Tejon across the street, and the club was around the corner from the six-story Haberfelde office building. In July, Bakersfield's Dante Alighieri Lodge held their annual picnic at El Tejon Park, and while Charles "The Barbecue King" Castro cooked the beeves and Don's Melody Boys tuned up, Steve Strelich and Pat O'Brien walked across the street and gave a wrestling demonstration for the Italian-American club.
Although Steve Strelich ran a health club and promoted boxing and wrestling, he still wrestled. In October 1938, Strelich mixed it up with Abe Goldberg at Hollywood Legion Stadium, and in March 1940 he met Johnny Demchuk at Los Angeles Coliseum. But as Strelich fed Bakersfield's cravings for boxing and wrestling, the tin walls of the Athletic Club Stadium seemed colder in winter, hotter in summer, and the old wooden-plank benches more out of date.
California fans of professional wrestling didn't have to go far for a show. In 1939 the California State Athletic Commission had existing licenses for eight venues in Los Angeles, five in San Francisco, two each in Oakland, Sacramento, and Fresno, and one each in San Diego, Santa Barbara, Visalia, Modesto, Stockton, Chico, San Jose, Vallejo, and Redwood City. In 1940, applications for new permits were on file for Eureka, Ukiah, Redding, Petaluma, Grass Valley, Hanford, and Bakersfield. To explain why Bakersfield was on the list for a new permit, one first has to know about George Haberfelde.
German-born George Karl Haberfelde was then 68 and had been living in Bakersfield for 43 years. From his beginnings as a door-to-door salesman for Singer Sewing Machine, Haberfelde, by 1940, had owned a furniture store, a rooming house, a Ford dealership, a ranch on Highway 65, the six-story Haberfelde office building, probably the Hotel El Tejon, had been Mayor of Bakersfield, and then was living on a two-acre estate on prestigious Oleander Street.
On Feb 3, 1940 Haberfelde took out a $35,000 building permit for a new ice skating rink at 425 Golden State Avenue. Strelich, who'd envisioned a professional football team in 1932, now saw a professional ice hockey team in Bakersfield's future. Since the Strelich club was across the street from the Hotel El Tejon and around the corner from the Haberfelde Building, Strelich was well located to broach his hockey team idea to Haberfelde.
While the ice rink was going up, on April 18, 1940 Henry Eissler and his son Sargent formed the firm Henry Eissler & Son, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Eissler flew to Mexico to explore Mayan ruins before moving on to Havana and Miami. Upon their return, Eissler learned that Strelich's hope for a hockey team was out, and Haberfelde enclosed ice skating rink at the bend of Highway 99 just east of Garces Circle was well underway. Maybe the years and differences between Haberfelde and the Slavic newcomer were just too great.
E.L.Solomon owned a glass shop on 19th Street and belonged to Strelich Brothers Conditioning Club. He'd talked with Strelich about a new stadium and introduced Steve Strelich to Henry Eissler. The result was Eissler would build the stadium, and Strelich would manage it.
Wrestling's popularity in California probably convinced Eissler that a new stadium could be a moneymaker, but exactly why he partnered with Strelich is today only a guess. Of course Strelich was already successfully promoting here, but much of Eissler's trust must have come from what Solomon told him about the character of Steve Strelich. Over subsequent years, Eissler and Strelich remained trusted friends. Back in 1917 Eissler was Master of the Bakersfield Masonic Lodge, and he later attained the 33rd Degree of the Scottish Rite. In February 1955 when Strelich applied for membership in the Bakersfield Lodge, his sponsors were George C. Poloynis and Henry Eissler.
In October 1940 the Daily Report showed that Eissler had taken out a $20,000 building permit for a new sports center at 2201 V Street. Perhaps construction on the new stadium started quickly because two blocks north of the old stadium at V and 20th Eissler owned a vacant property, which, coincidentally, was a stone's throw from Haberfelde's skating rink then nearing completion. While Eissler built the new arena, Strelich continued to promote shows at the old stadium, bringing in matches like LeRoy McGuirk, "the world junior heavy-weight title holder" who hit the mat with locally known wrestler Billie Weidner.
The new stadium was a reinforced concrete, circular shell topped with a domed roof. Its architect is unknown today, but the dome's laminated roof trusses, called Arch-Rib," were supplied by the Bakersfield materials company of Francis W. Kimble, Civil Engineer. Eissler's arena probably resembled the domed Calexico Club, a sport venue in the Imperial Valley that was built in 1928-29 and demolished in the mid 1960s. Today, Eissler's arena is called The Dome, and it is probably the last existing small stadium of its kind.
Haberfelde's Skate Palace Ice Arena was twelve months in the building, Eissler's reinforced concrete, 106-foot, domed Sports Arena two months. Nearly every day of the week before its opening the Californian ran some new story about it, noting one day that Steve Strelich "was running around like a big blond bear in a mobile trance." The paper predicted that fans "will find a card of grunt-and-grimace aces that has never before been equaled," and indeed after its opening on January 8, 1941, the domed structure soon became known as one of the finest little athletic arenas in the State, just as Jack Dempsey said.
At 8:30 that night, with a howling wind outside, the little bowl took on the appearance of a Hollywood premiere. Master of Ceremonies and veteran motion picture comedian Slim Summerville strolled to the center of the mat, welcomed the audience and made the introductions. Ringside were owner and builder Henry Eissler, State Athletic Commissioner Harry Saunders, Roy Rogers the singing cowboy (who later borrowed a banjo and sang), and Jack Earle of Texas, the world's tallest man, with a 7-foot 6-1/2 inch frame that barely fit his ring-side seat. Announcer Bill Powers was ready in the press box above, and the rest of the bowl was filled to capacity with 2,000 spectators who paid $1.10 ringside, $.75 balcony, and $.50 gallery.To the surprise of all, wrote columnist Jim Day, Summerville pulled off his coat, removed his tie, and "in the mannerisms of the professional brethren of the bruise" started wrestling with the beaming Steve Strelich.
Matches on the bottom card were Gus Johnson vs. Ace Freeman, and Dave Lavine, former heavyweight champion, vs. Gene Blacky. Strelich's "Four Main Events," in order, were Whitey Wahlberg of Minnesota vs. Jesse "The Greek Adonis" James; followed by red-headed wrestlers Wild Red Berry of Kansas vs. Red Lyons of Texas; then "Bakersfield's own" Dick Raines vs. Rowdy Rudy "The Villainous Hungarian" LaDitzi; and a four-cornered team event, which the Californian called "always a great comedy attraction," made up of partners Dude Chick and Danny Savage vs. Mike Nazarian and Tiger "The Bad Boy Bulgarian" Taskoff.
That night Strelich's friend Ed "Strangler" Lewis refereed one bout, but probably only a handful of those present knew that Lewis was fighting his own personal battle with blindness. When the matches were over, and the crowd gone, Strelich sent all the congratulatory flowers he'd received to local hospitals.
A week after Strelich opened the doors, he switched to a "quadruple main event" of four-round amateur boxing. Twenty-year-old Eddie Sierras, Strelich's California Golden Gloves protégée from here, was a fighter on his way up. According to Jim Day, Sierras, under Strelich's banner, had "battered his way to the California Golden Gloves lightweight championship in Hollywood and had gone on to win the Pacific Coast Golden Gloves." That night Sierras went up against Al Robinson, a tough black boxer from Fresno, who'd drove down with five other fighters from the northern Valley.
Other bouts were Jimmy Kidd of Fresno vs. Julio Franco of Bakersfield, and Franco also had been an entrant in California Golden Gloves; Ray Chavez of Fresno vs. Rito Barajas, holder of the San Joaquin Valley amateur bantamweight crown; Johnny Mendoza of Visalia vs. George Dosier of Bakersfield; Rubber Rowan of Wasco vs. Sam Nagel of Fresno; Dusty Rhoads of Old River vs. Marion Roberts of Fresno; and Johnny Rodriques against Sandy Mendoza, both fighters from Bakersfield.
Strelich returned to the wrestling a week later and brought back most of the first night's wrestler with their "hundreds of pounds of grunting and grimacing beef on the hoof," as Jim Day phrased it. To keep crowds enthralled, Strelich pitted Danny Savage against Silent Rattah, who the paper identified as a "deaf and dumb rasseler." After that, Bakersfield fans had no doubt where to go for serious boxing and professional wrestling.
Strelich's Sports Arena soon crept into Bakersfield's language and its collective memory. In the mid to late-1940s, a high school boy might say about an athletic-looking girl, "She's Strelich material," or "She goes to the Strelich School of Charm." As for Bakersfield's feeling about the arena, Larry Press wrote about Strelich and the stadium, "My acquaintance with the good-hearted character dates only to 1953, when I came to Bakersfield and -- would you believe -- I actually covered the weekly "rassling" matches at Strelich Stadium, that most perfect, virtually art deco example of sports theater in the round. The blend of odors of beer, popcorn, hotdogs, onions, etc., is difficult to forget."
In 1949, Johnny E. Loustalot, Kern County Sheriff and speaker for the Lamont Lions' Club presented Steve Strelich the club's humanitarian award. Loustalot motioned to Strelich and said, "He is a man who could have been very wealthy, but has always elected to help his fellow man. Steve is a swell guy and a real asset to our community. I am deeply grateful for the privilege of being allowed to help honor so fine a person." Everyone present knew what Loustalot was talking about, because just eleven months after Eissler opened the new stadium, America entered World War II. Steve Strelich's contribution to the war effort was nothing short of amazing.
Steve's brothers had entered the armed services, and here at home Steve held boxing and wrestling shows at the arena to promote the sale of war bonds. Four shows together sold $4,000,000, equivalent to about $60,000,000 in 2005 dollars. In 1970, Californian writer Cec Wilder wrote, "The price of a seat was a $1,000 war bond. I remember once S.L. Camp coughed up $50,000 for a pair of ringside seats. Bakersfield people were always quick to respond." Kern County opened its wallet so many times and handed over so much money that in 1944 LA Times Sports Editor Braven Dyer challenged Los Angeles promoters to match what Steve Strelich was doing in Bakersfield.
Bakersfield people were resolutely patriotic, but it was Strelich's promotions that brought them to the stadium. During seven weeks in February and March of 1942, Strelich's Wednesday night wresting cards featured Kenny Ackles, Paul Bozzel, Wes Crothers, George Dusette, Yukon Jake, Sammy Kohen, Charley Laye, Mike London, Jimmy Lott, Danny McShain, Milt Olson, Prince Omar, Gorilla Ramos, George Saleem, Billy Varga, George Wagner, and Billy Weidner, and some of the shows were outlandish.
"Max Mayhem" a Californian sports writer who almost certainly was Jim Day having a little fun, described a match held on March 26, 1942. "For downright action, underhanded buffoonery and athletic promenading, there is nothing like a tag-team match…There was no wrestling to it but a great deal of shenanigans in the corners and a complete disregard for decorum or referee Allen's authority. Sergeant Bob Kenniston won both falls of the main event over Wild Red Berry in less than 15 minutes, due to the careful deliberation and almost as deliberate myopia of Mr. Allen. The crowd stood on the benches and howled for nearly 30 minutes about it but Steve Strelich, the genial and heartwarming promoter, promised to protest to the State Commission and thus mollified them somewhat."
After the war Strelich continued to raise funds, this time for March of Dimes. One night at a wrestling show for handicapped youngsters he auctioned off a ham for $640 and sold turkeys for as high as $150. Strelich also was a supporter of Golden Gloves, and he sent boxing and wresting supplies to war-torn Yugoslavia. The man received the Americanism Award from the American Legion, the Humanitarian Award from Lamont Lions, Outstanding Sportsman trophy from Kern Wildlife Federation, and in 1971 he was elected to the Bob Elias Hall of Fame.
Wrestling historian J. Michael Kenyon told how he met Strelich, "We became close when he came down to ask me to put on a few boxing shows at his arena. What a character! Steve, in his prime, had often boxed in one bout and wrestled in another on the same show! And he did a great improv of old actor Will Rogers, hair-over-one-eye and all. I really liked the man, he was honest, generous, and could have been mayor in Bakersfield as he was very popular."
In late September 1962, Steve and Loretta Strelich sold the stadium for a reported $100,000 to William J. Griffiths, Jerry Hill, and Jules Strongbow, who'd had a 38-year association with Olympic Auditorium as a wrestler, announcer, and matchmaker. Strongbow and associates continued to run the stadium as a sports arena.
Steve Strelich, who'd been a boxer, wrestler, swimmer, movie actor, promoter, fund raiser, who'd tried bullfighter, sky diver, race car driver, and who played Santa Claus for McKinley School's handicapped youngsters, died Saturday morning June 26, 1971. Monsignor Patrick Leddy recited the Rosary, and Mayor Don Hart delivered the eulogy.
Larry Press wrote, "One of Steve's special gifts was the ability to meet people and establish an informal rapport in moments, ranging from government and business leaders to the 'common folk.' Steve didn't ask any sympathy. When he realized his condition, he kept telling his friends that he had lived a long, full, interesting and exciting life. That he certainly did. But when a good man goes, it always seems too short. And a good man has gone. This story and buildingnow comes full circle and is now recognized as The Bakersfield Dome. The history and vision of one man is now able to be carried out by us the ones who love to entertain the community The Bakersfield Dome....... A Historical Landmark
