By Wesley Harris
Claiborne Parish Library Historian
Imagine Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson coming to Claiborne Parish to compete in well-publicized wrestling matches. Farfetched?
No more implausible than the nation’s top wrestlers visiting Homer time after time in the 1920s. For a time, Homer served as a center point in the wrestling world as the sport’s best routinely visited for matches.
Why Homer? The first Claiborne Parish oil boom was underway in the early 1920s, meaning thousands of men flocked to the area for jobs. After a hard day in the oil field, those workers wanted entertainment. By 1900, pro wrestling’s popularity rivaled boxing and baseball. It grew into an immensely popular social event.
A Guardian-Journal article in 1922 announced the return of wrestling to Homer after a hiatus, but it is unclear when matches had been held previously in the town. The Guardian-Journal does not mention wrestling in the decades prior to 1922.
The first matches of 1922 were held in the Woodbine Theater under the auspices of the American Legion post. Before long, the Legion was hosting the matches in its first building on West Main Street north of the square. Wrestlers who competed in Homer would appear in Houston, Memphis, Seattle, or Minneapolis just days later.
“Farmer” Burns, a former wrestling champion, refereed many bouts in Homer. One of the greatest wrestlers of his time, Burns traveled the country, taking on the best in the sport, while also beating all comers at carnivals. Between 1890 and 1893, he never lost a single fall. Though Burns weighed just 165 pounds, he regularly defeated men who outweighed him by as much as 50-100 pounds. At the time, professional “catch-as-catch-can” (freestyle) wrestling often used no time limit, and a match was usually decided when a wrestler “threw” his opponent to the ground.
However, Burns perfected the pitfall, mastering the art of trapping his opponents’ shoulders to the mat while contriving maneuvers like the full and half-nelson, hammerlock, double-wrist lock, chicken wing, and a variety of submission toe holds.
Farmer Burns’ greatest contribution to wrestling’s evolution may be as a trainer. He served as a teacher to a myriad of grapplers who transformed the sport in the early 1900s, including future world champions. In 1914, Burns published a 96-page mail-order course entitled “The Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture,” which included breathing techniques, calisthenics, stamina exercises, and martial arts principles. It became the ultimate guidebook for all aspiring wrestlers during the early 1900s.
Wrestler Henry Karhunsaari, known as the “Ferocious Finn,” visited Homer several times in the 1920s. The Tacoma News-Tribune called Karhunsaari a “veteran Finnish middleweight, declared to be one of the greatest wrestlers ever to invade America.” For a time he was Middleweight Champion of the World.
One of the premier matches in Homer pitted Karhunsaari against another Finn, Gus Kallio. Kallio’s wrestling career debuted in 1916, competing as a welterweight, a class with a weight limit of 155 pounds. Kallio’s conditioning earned him the nickname “the Finnish strong boy.” On October 3, 1921, Kallio defeated Jack Reynolds to win the National Wrestling Association’s World Welterweight Championship.
Kallio retained the title through at least 1923, earning the nickname “the Welterweight King.” He wrestled for Homer audiences many times. Kallio adopted north Louisiana as his home base for his travels around America, even moving to the area. Newspaper articles hinted that he lived in Homer and Shreveport for a time but established a more permanent residence in Arcadia. Later he would move to Monroe.
During the 1920s Kallio traveled the United States facing regional champions. On August 7, 1928, Kallio became the top Middleweight in the world, defeating Charlie Fisher to become the World Middleweight Champion in two and a half hour long match. Kallio later proved his incredible conditioning when he wrestled Henry Jones in a three-hour match before winning the bout.
In 1930, Kallio defeated two top Middleweights in the United States to again become recognized as the World Middleweight Champ. With his second reign as Middleweight champion he proved himself “King of the Middleweights.” In 1932 he lost, then regained the title making him a three-time world champion. In 1933, Kallio’s mother and a niece emigrated from their native Finland to join him on the Arcadia farm.
By the late 1930s, Kallio was enjoying his fifth reign as Middleweight champion, but interest in the lower weight classes had waned in the United States. Action in the Middleweight division moved mostly to Mexico, which led Kallio to tour Mexico with the title. In 1938 or 1939 Mexican promoter Salvador Lutteroth created a Mexican version of the World Middleweight Championship and awarded the title to Kallio.
Kallio remained an active wrestler as late as the early 1950s. After his wrestling career, Gus Kallio remained in Louisiana, running a wrestling/boxing arena promoting regular shows in Monroe for twenty years. Kallio operated a roller skate rink and Finnish-style sauna in Monroe. He sold his business interests after suffering a stroke in 1959. Gus Kallio died of self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 2, 1962, at his home in Monroe.
As the Claiborne oil boom of the 1920s ran its course, the big-time wrestling matches faded away. The American Legion post in Haynesville hosted wrestling matches in the 1930s, but the competitors were usually regional men who lacked the fame or caliber of the 1920s Homer wrestlers.