Farmer Burns Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Farmer Burns Tribute Video

Posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2022 by John Wood

A salute to the great Martin “Farmer” Burns featuring many rare images, posters, articles, newspaper clippings and other ephemera from the deep archives of wrestling history.

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Just a Couple Farm Boys From Iowa

Posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2021 by John Wood

Just a couple farm boys from Iowa: Martin “Farmer” Burns and Frank Gotch pose for a picture, circa 1905. You’ll find many books and courses authored by these two gents posted in The Iron League. And if you happen to want a Farmer Burns or Frank Gotch t-shirt to sport for your next workout, those are available HERE.

Farmer Burns School of Wrestling Advertisement

Posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021 by John Wood

Farmer Burns established his school of wrestling in Omaha, Nebraska in 1911 but for those who could not make the trip and study in person, he also had his mail-order training course. (Which, by the way, we are in the process of posting The Iron League.) This outstanding advertisement for Farmer Burns’ School is from 1924. By the way, when actor in inflation, $15 in 1924 equals over $229 in today’s money so an Iron League membership is a steal.

Frank Gotch

Posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2019 by John Wood

Frank Gotch defeated George Hackenschmidt twice, and the likes of Tom Jenkins, Benjamin Roller, and Stanislaus Zbyszko on his way to holding the Heavyweight Championship longer than any man before or since. It was Gotch’s technique that made him a Champion (Gotch’s feared step-over-toe-hold was nearly impossible to defend) but it was his training that made him a Legend.

There have been few wrestlers since then who trained more seriously than Gotch… and he trained just like a wrestler should. Calisthenics, road work, and sparing gave Gotch a killer’s heart and an advantage in every single match. The “Old Farmer” Farmer Burns understood the game of wrestling better than anyone and trained his student to be the best.

Farmer Burns: The Hangman’s Drop

Posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2018 by John Wood

Farmer Burns built his neck strength to such an advanced level that he could literally “hang” himself with a noose, including the drop, — and live (all the while whilst whistling Yankee Doodle!) That’s pretty intense as this rare photograph shows (DO NOT try this at home.) His theory was simple — one of the most important physical training goals of any combat athlete is to build the neck to the point that no one can choke you out. The “Old Farmer” built up his neck strength with his favorite exercise: The Wrestler’s Bridge.

Martin “Farmer” Burns

Posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2018 by John Wood

Iowa-born Martin “Farmer” Burns was a champion wrestler and America’s premier grappler at the turn of the last century. The “Old Farmer” trained hard, and that made him hard to beat. Plenty of wrestler’s bridges gave him a 20″ neck at a bodyweight of only 165 pounds and his level of conditioning was legendary, regularly tiring out much larger and stronger opponents until they could easily be pinned. Burns wrestled over 6000 matches, lost only 7 and held the World’s Championship on two separate occasions. Once his competitive career came to an end, the “Old Farmer” as he was known, focused on managing and training other wrestlers and athletes. His most famous pupil was Frank Gotch, who, thanks in large part to Farmer Burns’ coaching, became arguably the greatest wrestler of all time.

Carl Busch

Posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2018 by John Wood

Carl Busch was a great strongman and wrestler who was active in the early 20th century. After winning the 1901 German national title, he toured Europe performing feats of strength and wrestling all comers. He even wrestled the great Frank Gotch to a draw under Greco-Roman rules. Busch also wrestled the likes of George Hackenschmidt, Professor Roller, Heinrich Weber, Yousef Holusane, Fred Beell, and even Farmer Burns. As far as feats of strength, Busch could bent press 250 pounds at a bodyweight of only 175 pounds. In 1891, Busch started his own circus which is actually still going strong today if you can believe it.

Wrestling for Boxers

Posted on Thursday, December 28th, 2017 by John Wood

How do you train when you want to be in the meanest and toughest possible shape? The answer is “Like a wrestler” which is exactly what boxing champ Jim Jeffries used to do in his training camps. There’s nothing better for buiding strength of mind AND strength of body. Jeffries’ wrestling coach? None other than Farmer Burns.

Dr. Benjamin Roller

Posted on Wednesday, November 1st, 2017 by John Wood

Dr. Benjamin Franklin “B.F.” Roller was an early catch wrestler who sparred with the likes of Frank Gotch, George Hackenschmidt, The Great Gama, and Stanislaus Zbyszko. Aside from wrestling, Roller was a great athlete in other sports, captaining the football and track teams at DePauw University where he attended in the late 1800’s. Roller briefly held the world record in the discus.

Roller was actually a legitimate Doctor having graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Roller played a bit of professional football to pay the bills after that but eventually accepted a professorship at the University of Washington. Shortly after, in a rather interesting twist, he instead chose to chase fame and fortune — mostly fortune — as a professional wrestler.. Roller’s first professional match was against Jack Carkeek whom he defeated in two falls after 17 minutes and for which he received $1600 which was a rather princely sum in the early 20th century.

Roller was a very good (but not great) wrestler although he did win his fair share of matches, and held the American Heavyweight title on three occasions. Roller wrestled the likes of Farmer Burns, Fred Beell, Raymond Cazeaux, Hjalmar Lundin, Raoul Le Boucher, George Lurich, Jim Londos, Ed Lewis, and Joe Stecher (among others.) Eventually he became a training partner for George Hackenschmidt during the time Hack famously tussled with Frank Gotch.

In the years after, Roller wrote a syndicated column for newspapers around the country on health and physical culture topics and even came up with his own training system dubbed “Rollerism.”

The Farmer Burns School of Wrestling and Physical Culture

Posted on Monday, January 30th, 2017 by John Wood

It had to be quite an experience to train at the Farmer Burns School of Wrestling and Physical Culture. Farmer Burns believed that every athlete should train like a wrestler – and I agree.

The bulk of the training was, I’m sure wrestling — holds, take-downs, blocks, breaks and plenty of sparring. Of course, the “Old Farmer” knew that wrestling was only “part” of what made a good wrestler — physical training was important too. He had his students throw the medicine ball around, hit the speed bag, jump rope, use light dumbbells, develop their chests with breathing exercises, use traveling rings, swing indian clubs, climb ropes, and do enough calisthenics in order to make them stronger, tougher and more conditioned than any man willing to step in the ring with them. The advertisement above is from 1920.