Dan Koloff (Doncho Kolev)
1892-1940
(wrestling - catch)
An young,but strong boy on age of 17, arrives in the States.It was 1911.He works on railroad constructions, docks, plants.
After few years of hard earned pay, he manages to enter into the world of wrestling. The name of the game was "Catch as catch can."
After two years he becomes a big master of this game, due to his power,will and tenacity.He has a dramatic love afair with a girl named Jane. He has big troubles with the managers,but anyway he stays on the top. He fights untill 1938, all over the world and since 1927, he has no loss.
fully hand-drawn ad that was ever used for a wrestling show at Maple Leaf Gardens on January 26, 1933 featured the Utica Panther and the Balkan Lion - Dan Koloff!
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The most famous victories are:
in New York with latvian Rudy Dusek - 1919
in Tokyo with Jiki Higen -"The Strangler" - 1921
in Paris with Henri Deglan -1933 and many more.
But he is losing the only love he had. His privat life is antithetical to his glorious sport career. In 1935 he comes back in his homeland - Bulgaria, to see his mother and his friends from childhood. To help all the poor people and students with his money. He organizes big fights in Sofia and all incomes he gives to charity. He buys a plane for National mail.
Unfortunately in 1939,he is catched by dangerous disease-tuberculosis and soon dies in his birthplace, a village called Sennik, near Sevlievo. It was March 27th 1940. He was 47 years old.
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