Wrestling in 1920 Pittsburgh: The Case Of The Russian Cossack

By Thomas Leturgey

One hundred years ago, the professional wrestling scene flourished, and Pittsburgh was no exception for the sport.

Cards were held throughout Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, with newspaper accounts detailing at least some of the bigger events. Joe Stecher was recognized as the “original” World Heavyweight Champion in 1920 and defended that title in Pittsburgh on February 24 against Yussiff Hussane. Stecher retained in a match marked in wrestlingdata.com as going 55 minutes.

The premier venue of the time was Exposition Hall, one of the largest arenas of its type west of New York, according to a Pittsburgh Press story detailing an upcoming car show in January, 1914. The Northside Athletic Club promoted wrestling and boxing events at the popular location, and professional grappling was a common occurrence.

On March 11, 1920 Stanislaus Zbyszko took on Ivan Popoff, the “giant” Russian Cossack. At that time, (and almost 40 years before Bruno Sammartino because the Italian Superman), nearly all professional wrestlers were defined by their authenticity. Zbyszko was repeatedly called “a Pole” or ethnic nick name. All historical relevance aside, “Russian Cossack” basically meant an adventurer from Russia.

According to Florent Gibson in the Pittsburgh Daily Post, The Zbyszko/Popoff match Main Evented a “half-portion” house at Exposition Hall. The event also featured Pittsburgher Charlie Allen against Cleveland’s Charlie Fox. Frequent Pittsburgh site Pete Zilinskas, “The Human Spring” also wrestled to victory against yet another Charles, Charley Brachman, the “burly Finn.”

Zbyszko defeated Popoff in two straight falls (wrestling then was normally two-out-of-three affairs), in just about an hour.

Popoff challenged Joe Stecher for the World title in Cleveland on March 24, 1920, but lost in two straight falls. The match was reported throughout the sporting world, from Arizona to Iowa to Florida to Ottawa and places in between. No pictures of Popoff could be found after an exhaustive search.

Then in May, Popoff returned to take on Zilinskas at The Victoria Theater, an arena known for boxing and wrestling, as well as an in-vogue burlesque emporium. That math ended at a midnight curfew draw.

But then, the veteran “Russian Giant” who took some of the biggest traveling names in the circuit to matches of an hour or more, simply disappeared. Most data bases don’t even record the aforementioned matches.

Did Popoff vanish? Unlike other sports, baseball in particular, professional wrestling’s vast and rich history is not as celebrated and statistics aren’t exact. It would be 28 years before promoters from all over the country would cement an umbrella organization called the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

Ivan Popoff was most likely Janis Linaus, a Latvian-born athlete better known everywhere else in wrestling as Ivan Linow. Linow, wrestled all over, “except” for Pittsburgh, and took on Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Jim Londos, and Champion Joe Stecher. At 6’4” and somewhere between 230-and-250 pounds, Linow was described as a “Giant” and “Russian Cossack.”

A rudimentary search finds that “Popoff” imprecisely means “son of a Priest” and Linow’s names Linaus and Linow have connotations of “lineage.” The Popoff name is reportedly very common in Russia, so that may have been a reason for a change. It’s unclear if/why Ivan’s surname would be changed in Pittsburgh and virtually nowhere else. Other even more scarce results of the time reveal Popoff’s name to be spelled Popaff, as well as Ivan Kotloff (decades before Ivan Koloff and another Ivan Popoff who also wrestled as Man Mountain Dean, Jr.). There were other Ivans at the time, including Ivan Romanoff, who apparently never wrestled in the United States, Ivan Vakturoff didn’t arrive on the scene until the 1930’s, as well as Ivan Michailoff/Orloff. Ivan was billed far more with the Michailoff surname than Orloff, and even though “Orloff” and “Popoff” showed up around the same time, there’s no proof that Michailoff wrestled anywhere in western Pennsylvania. Michailoff, who made more of a name for himself in Canada, appears to be eliminated from this consideration.

All told, there’s enough proof to suggest that Popoff (if he simply didn’t go missing from the sport or any kind of mention) and Linow were the same guy.

Linaus was born November 21, 1888 and died exactly 52 years later. Linaus’ first match was on New Year’s Eve, 1908 in Chicago against “The Mysterious Conductor” (Charles Callender). Ivan used the name Jack Leon then, and would be Jack Linow years later.

In 1920, Linow sometimes dubbed “The Horrible Cossack,” wrestled throughout the Northeast, including Madison Square Garden, a few weeks before Ivan Popoff wrestled in Pittsburgh. Linow is credited with only a handful of matches in wrestlingdata.com for entire year of 1920 and none in Pennsylvania. As a traveling athlete, many shows have to have fallen into the cracks, including perhaps a steel city run as the Giant Russian.

There was an interesting note that could either confirm or the Popoff/Linow theory. A Pittsburgh newspaper paragraph stated that Zbyszko, who had just defeated Popoff, was scheduled to wrestle “Jack Linow” in Chicago the following week. Jack Linow was a name Ivan used in much of the Midwest.

Linow continued to wrestle; however, he was starting to be cast in Hollywood films. Over the next 15 years, Linow had bit-parts in some 40 projects. His co-stars included Lionel Barrymore, Gloria Swanson, Boris Karloff and Tyrone Power.

There’s no link between Popoff and a 1919 musical lyrist from Kansas or a Bulgarian Press Secretary of the same name in 1927.

Jānis Linaus also wrestled as Jack Leon, mainly in the Midwest. According to wrestledata, his last match was a Council Bluffs, Iowa contest victory against Young Sandow in 1933. “Ivan Popoff” never appeared again.