Douglas M. Carpenter ’55

1 Week Ago

The Princeton Champ Who Took On ‘Strangler’ Lewis

In the Greatest Athletes, you missed Charles Colcock Jones Carpenter, Class of 1921. I am his son. He was Eastern Intercollegiate heavyweight wrestling champ his senior year and is listed in many places, including in the 1928 Who’s Who in American Sports. Below is an announcement of his bout in 1921 with “Strangler” Lewis, who was known as  the world heavyweight wrestling champion. The wrestling coach at Princeton claimed there was a student at Princeton who could beat Strangler, and a match was arranged. Since the Princeton coach, Gus Schoenlien (who had been the light-heavyweight champion) thought Princeton would be opposed to a student wrestling a professional wrestler, Dad was billed before the match as “Unknown” and won by decision.

My Dad had just won all of his meets during his senior year, pinning his last opponent in a Yale match against McCray in a minute and 20 seconds. 

From 1938 to ’68, Dad was the Episcopal Bishop of Alabama.

Image
wrestling poster from the 1920s

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