In 1931, The Vancouver Sun featured an anonymous sportswriter who brought a unique, humorous style to wrestling coverage. A classic article from July 13, 1931, headlined “Roly Poly Bulgarian to Agitate Abie This Week,” with the kicker “Plenty of Squirm Room in Ball Park,” described an upcoming match between Dan Koloff and Abie Kaplan.
Colorful Slang for Wrestlers
The opening paragraph read: “Two of the roly-polyist pachyderms in all the land will struggle on the Klankian mat next Thursday night.” In 1930s sportswriter-speak, a “pachyderm” was a wrestler, and a “squirmer” also referred to a wrestler. The “Klankian mat” referred to promoter Emil Klank. The article continued: “The two big babies who will bruise and berate each other on one-half of the double five round bill there will be Dan Koloff and Abie Kaplan, the large man with the mobile features and the rubber chest.”
The Venue: Athletic Park
The ballpark mentioned was Athletic Park at 5th and Hemlock, built for baseball in 1913 but used for various sports. It was demolished after Capilano Stadium (now Nat Bailey) was built in 1951. The July 17 story on the actual match noted: “Twelve hundred pounds of performing pachydermy tossed, squirmed, and groaned beneath the moth attractors at Athletic Park last night.”
Moth Attractors and Night Baseball
The “moth attractors” were the lights at Athletic Park, which had hosted Canada’s first night baseball game two weeks earlier, on July 3, 1931. The Sun humorously suggested that referees at future outdoor night shows should be equipped with “Flit guns” to dispense insecticide. The July 17 story added: “There’s nothing in the rules allowing referees sweeping away tired moths so that the boys can have a clean place to fall. Besides, what moth ever deserved such a death as being ironed out by a ponderous pachyderm.”
The Wrestlers and Promoter
Dan Koloff, known as “the Bulgarian Lion,” was described as “the original absent-minded professor of grappleology,” and his error cost him a victory over Abie Kaplan, “the parading peacock from New York.” Promoter Emil Klank, born in 1876 in Chicago, started as a wrestler and managed world heavyweight champion Frank Gotch between 1908 and 1913. He moved to Winnipeg in 1922 to manage Canadian champion Jack Taylor, and by the early 1930s settled in Vancouver, staging weekly bouts at the Denman Arena.
