Did you know that the U.S. president Abraham Lincoln was also a superb wrestler?
During his 12 years of wrestling, Lincoln lost only one match out of 300 – and has been inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
As reported by All That’s Interesting, Lincoln was a general store employee back in his early 20s.
However, he was also a dedicated autodidact, who focused on learning as much as possible about history and law… And he was also 6 foot and 4 inches tall.
So, Abraham Lincoln was a force to be reckoned with from the very beginning. And has wrestled a lot.
Depiction: young Abraham Lincoln winning a wrestling match
And not only that, but it’s also been said that the young Lincoln had once also “taken care” of a town bully – Jack Armstrong.
Armstrong was the leader of New Salem’s “Clary’s Grove Boys”; a gang that would force any new settler into a barrel, nail it shut, and then roll it down the hill.
So, the townspeople wanted Lincoln to face the Clary’s Grove Boys leader.
The two finally met one day and, with a big crowd watching them, Lincoln was slowly gaining the upper hand.
Then, after Armstrong tried to trip him out of desperation, the to-be-U.S.-president was so enraged by his conduct that he grabbed Armstrong by the neck and “shook him like a rag”.
Armstrong’s gang moved in and forced Lincoln’s back against the wall of the store he was working in. However, Armstrong called them off and declared Lincoln as the winner – even saying that he was “the best feller that ever broke into this settlement” and shook his hand.
The Lincoln Lobby and mural at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame
Abraham Lincoln did lose once during his 12-year wrestling competition lifespan. It was to a man called Hank Thompson, during the Black Hawk War of 1832.
Nevertheless, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame still decided that it was important to induce the U.S. president into its roster of Outstanding Americans.
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