Abe Kelmer / Abba Kelmer (September 20, 1905 – March 28, 2007) was a Polish

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

, promoter and referee, known by the

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projectin ...

s Abe Coleman, Hebrew Hercules, and Jewish Tarzan. At the time of his death, Coleman was believed to be the oldest professional wrestler in the world, and the only known wrestler to live past the age of 100 years.

Early life

Kelmer was born to a Jewish family in

Żychlin Żychlin (other rarely used names include ''Zechlin'' and ''Zichlin'') is a town in Kutno County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, about 50 north of Łódź and west of Warsaw. It has 7,964 inhabitants (2020). History The village of Żychlin ex ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

in 1905. His father was a coal-seller. Kelmer had 15 older brothers and sisters, some of whom were murdered in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. In 1923, he emigrated to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

, Canada, and later moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Professional wrestling career

According to the

Canadian Online Explorer Canoe.com is an English-language Canadian portal site and website network, and is a subsidiary of Postmedia Network. The phrase Canadian Online Explorer appears in the header; the name is also evidently a play on words on canoe (or ''canoë'' i ...

's Greg Oliver, there is debate regarding Kelmer's debut in professional wrestling. In 1929, local promoter Rudy Miller offered Coleman $25 () to wrestle after seeing him work out in a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

gym. Despite this, an "Abe Coleman" wrestled to a draw with George Deslonchamps on March 19, 1928, at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsyl ...

, but it is unknown if it was Kelmer or another wrestler with the same ring name. Credited for inventing the dropkick, Coleman claims his inspiration to create the move came from

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

s he observed while on a tour of Australia in 1930. Coleman was never a champion but regarded as a solid mid-card standby. In the 1930s, Coleman defeated

Jim Londos Christos Theofilou ( el, Χρήστος Θεοφίλου; January 2, 1894 – August 19, 1975), better known as "The Golden Greek" Jim Londos (Greek: Τζίμ Λόντος), was a Greek American professional wrestler. Londos was one of the most p ...

in a match in a

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...

bullring in front of 60,000 spectators. During a 1936 match against Man Mountain Dean in front of 36,000 people, Coleman slammed Dean to the ground, breaking the ring mat and dropping the pair down to the arena floor. Following his retirement from active in-ring competition, Coleman became a professional wrestling referee. He also promoted several wrestling shows with Bill Johnston.

After wrestling

Following his retirement from wrestling, Kelmer inspected license plates for the

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a U.S. state, state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the List of U.S. ...

Department of Motor Vehicles.

Personal life

Kelmer met June Miller in 1936, stating he met her in Madison Square Garden when he landed in her lap after being thrown from the ring. They married three years later in 1939. The couple had no children and Miller died in 1987. Kelmer lived in

Forest Hills, New York Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southea ...

. It was in Forest Hills that Kelmer subdued two attempted muggers when he was in his 80s. Outside of wrestling, Kelmer's interests included

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

and horse racing. In his final years, Kelmer, primarily using a wheelchair, lived at the Meadow Park Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in

Flushing, New York Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the i ...

. Kelmer died on March 28, 2007, in a nursing home in Queens, New York, of kidney failure.

Championships and accomplishments

Cauliflower Alley Club The Cauliflower Alley Club is a non-profit fraternal organization, which includes a newsletter and website, comprising both retired and active professional wrestlers and boxers in North America. Established in 1965 by Mike Mazurki and Art Abra ...

**Other honoree (

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

) * Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum **Class of 2012 (Pioneer category)

References

External links

Small bio from friendsofmicronesia.com
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070311051756/http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=13931873 Queens Chronicle article on Abe Coleman's 99th birthdaybr>Queens Chronicle article on Abe Coleman's 100th birthday
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Abe 1905 births 2007 deaths 20th-century professional wrestlers People associated with physical culture People from Kutno County Polish centenarians Men centenarians 20th-century Polish Jews Polish professional wrestlers Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum Professional wrestling promoters Professional wrestling referees Sportspeople from Łódź Voivodeship Polish emigrants to Canada Canadian emigrants to the United States