Rugged Game by Nathan Hatton

Description

Long before John Cena, Hulk Hogan or even “Whipper” Billy Watson, residents at the Lakehead went wild for wrestling.  Nearly a century ago, when cable television, pay-per-view and even regular radio broadcasts were still the stuff of science fiction, professional wrestling was already an enormously popular sport in the Thunder Bay area.

More than just simple entertainment, wrestling was deeply entwined with the culture and values of the region’s early residents.  Tracing the sport’s origins from the settlement period in the post-Confederation years to the height of the Great Depression; “Rugged Game: Community, Culture, and Wrestling at the Lakehead” provides an in-depth, never-before-seen look at the earliest days of professional and amateur wrestling in Northwestern Ontario, when stars such as George “Canadian Panther” Walker, Ernie “French Idol” Arthur, and Henry “The Ferocious Finn” Karhunsaari captured the imagination of thousands of fans with their displays of technical wizardry and aggressive cunning on the mat.