Childhood
Blassie's parents, Jacob and Anna (née Sind), immigrated to the United States from Germany prior to the start of World War I, settling in St. Louis. Fred was an only child, which he claimed was because he weighed 15 pounds when he was born and his mother didn't want to go through childbirth again. His father was abusive and an alcoholic, and Fred often had to take refuge with his grandparents whenever Jacob would beat his mother. His parents continually separated, then reunited. At the age of 13, after his father hit his mother again, Fred threatened to attack his father with a baseball bat, but didn't do it and stayed with his aunt for six months until his mother asked him to return home. Throughout his life, Fred didn't touch alcohol after seeing what kind of person it turned his father into.
As a teenager, Blassie went to McKinley High School; after graduating he got a job at a meatpacking plant, which his family hoped he would turn into a lucrative meat cutting job with the local trade union. However, he started boxing at Seward Community Center and won the heavyweight championship. He was more interested in wrestling, though, and would sneak into the matches whenever he could. He would often go to matches at Harry Cook's Gym to watch the hookers of the day lock up. As they began to recognize him, the wrestlers would teach him a hold here and there. His first wrestling match was actually a shoot fight which he accepted in order to impress a girl he brought to the show. Later, he began to get regular work wrestling at local carnivals. His cousin John Frank Holaus would often referee his matches.
Read more about this topic: Freddie Blassie
Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“Sadism is not an infectious disease that strikes a person all of a sudden. It has a long prehistory in childhood and always originates in the desperate fantasies of a child who is searching for a way out of a hopeless situation.”
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