Anyone who knows our family well, knows that there is a long love of wrestling. As kids, our Grandpa Joe always grabbed us and put an 'arm drag' on us as soon as we walked in the door (any excuse for a hug, I think). For him, any kind of wrestling was OK - at his fire station the only thing I ever remember on the TV was 'profesional wrestling'.
The picture is of the 1929 Eastview High Wrestling team. In the center of the picture are Ernie Stout, Joe Hoffman, and Foy Stout. The coach of this team was G.S.Sanders, they called him 'Doc Sanders', obviously in the jacket and vest. Amazingly he attended the 50th class reunion of these boys, I believe it was in 1982. According to my notes, there are two other relatives in the picture. Otis Beasley is sitting on the floor in front of Ernie (Ernie is the muscular wrestler in front of the coach). Terrill Beasley is the small boy standing in front of the fireplace on the right side of the picture. These two boys were our Grandpa Joe's cousins (they were the sons of our Uncle Jim Beasley, the brother of Lillie Beasley). I haven't been able to find out much about how good this 'team' was. We do know that the two Stout brothers were future nation champions, and I don't think there were too many 165 pounders tougher than Joe Hoffman in 1929, so my guess is they did pretty good as a team.
There is a funny story that may fit well here. When the rumors began about Joe and Versie spending time together, Jim Beasley told James Stout that he shouldn't let his daughter "go with Joe Hoffman, he's no good". When James Stout asked why he thought Joe was no good, he said "Joe runs with my boys, and my boys are no good, so Joe must be no good"!
These were probably the sentiments of a frustrated father of teenagers, because as far as we know all of these kids turned out to be fine men.
In a later blog I will have more details concerning the wrestling careers of the Stout brothers, but I think the next few posts will concern my Mother's side of the family.
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