I am proud to announce the republish of Hugh Leonard's 1897 "A Hand-Book of Wrestling. Many thanks to Dan Kanagie of Wolfhound Martial Arts for providing the text for this project.
Blurb:
In 1897, at about the age of 29, Hugh Leonard published this Magnum Opus of Catch as Catch Can Wrestling manuals. An early wrestling prodigy, Leonard became the protegé, after impressing him with his skill, wrestling great William "Billy" Muldoon and his friend, boxing legend, John L. Sullivan. By age 16, Leonard was a professional wrestler and was wrestling against all comers for $100 against any who could throw the boy.
In 1893, Leonard became wrestling instructor at the Buffalo Athletic Club of Buffalo, N.Y. A year after ward, Leonard became the wrestling instructor for the Manhattan Athletic Club. Within a short period thereafter, he was installed as the wrestling instructor for the New York Athletic Club, a post at which he remained until his death from a lighting strike, while at a wrestling Training Camp in 1914.
His wrestling career included bouts against such wrestlers as Plen Shoemaker, Matsada Sorakichi, Martin Muldoon, Tom Cannon, and Evan "The Strangler" Lewis.
Among his other noteworthy accomplishments, Leonard served as a referee in the first ever inter-college Collegiate Wrestling matches. Hosted by Columbia University and attended by challenger Yale on March 21, 1903, Leonard, here too, left his mark on the history of wrestling.
Predating by a year the advent of Japanese Jui Jitsu to the West in 1898, Leonard's "A Hand-Book of Wrestling" details hundreds of grappling and throwing technique, including rare chokes and joint locks. With over 200 photographs, digitally retouched, a print run of only 300 copies, making this one of the most rare and valuable wrestling manuals, and weighting in at well past 250 pages, this manual is an essential part of every Catch as Catch Can wrestler or western martial arts historian's toolbox.
As always the PDF is free to download.
