Dear Friends,
in the 40s there was a British pro wrestler who performed under the assumed name of "The College Boy", he usually was billed from Cambridge. He reportedly held welter-weight championship at his prime. Any ideas what was his real name?
Thanks in advance to everyone for their feedbacks.
And the fly in the ointment has always been the famous photo in the Pictorial History of Wrestling of tag partners The Wild Man of Borneo with the College Boy, when it is in fact the Society Boy.
Peter Collins brother of Danny was called the College Boy in the 1980's
Ron, SaxonWolf thanks so much. Is there any evidence of him winning the welterweight title in the 40s?
Careful consideration is needed because the first College Boy of Cambridge wrestled until at least 1943.
His name was Tony Pastor ,which he also wrestled under both as from London and Switzerland such is wrestling.
Hi Ruslan, I think this would have been Charlie Law, see below from the A-Z section.
College Boy (Charlie Law)
Known mostly by the name College Boy Charlie Law started out as a lightweight, (he wrestled Harry Rabin for the British lightweight title in1943) moved through the ranks and was still entertaining the fans as a heavyweight on Paul Lincoln shows in the early 1960s. That made a career spanning the best part of some thirty years.
Born in Dulwich, living in Peckham and later Surrey, Law worked mostly in the south, and was especially popular at Wimbledon Palais.In March, 1951 he fought in a knock out tournament for the British Empire Middleweight tournament, which was won by Vic Coleman.
Wrestling Heritage reader Palais Fan remembers, "When we used to walk between South Wimbledon station and the Wimbledon Palais on a Thursday evening, he would tell me what a treat we were in for if The College Boy was on the bill. My dad would say "now he can really wrestle" meaning, like Cappelli, Joyce, Kidd etc., he had all the basic skills and wasn't just a showman. He wrestled in a confident and clever (but not flashy) way, with great counter moves. He always looked 'well groomed' with a distinctive 'smart' (for those days) haircut. "
Whilst the name College Boy may have been used by others (the name resurfaced in the 1980s used by a wrestler otherwise known as Mario Santana) most fans of the golden days consider Charlie to be the College Boy. He died at far too early, aged just 55, in 1969.