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Born in Linz, Austria on 16th May, 1908, Felix Kerschitz (Felix Kerscic in Germany and Austria) worked on the continent from the 1930s onwards. In 1937 we find him wrestling in Paris, a tournament in his hometown of Linz and a month long tournament in Hanover, German. In 1938 we found him wrestling in Paris again, one of his opponents the American Dick Shikat.
Felix made the first of many visits to Britain in 1950, and returned frequently until 1960 Our earliest discovery was Felix Kerschitz wrestling Bernard Coward (Spike O’Reilly) in Chelmsford on 7th February, 1950. Felix, billed as Czechoslovakian, was credited with the European heavyweight title – said to have won it in an open tournament in Vienna in 1949.
His visits to Britain tended to be lengthy affairs of ten to twelve weeks, sometimes longer, though he may well have made side visits back to the Continent. He was here in the spring of 1951, 1952, almost all of 1953 and 1954, and back again in the springs of 1958, 1959, and 1960. Most matches were in the north of England. He wrestled all the top heavyweights of the 1950s, beating most of them, but often ending up on the wrong end of a disqualification decision.
Heritage member Berard Hughes has first hand memories of Felix, “One night, Norman Walsh came to pick me up from my house to go to the wrestling at St James Hall. I invited him in. He said that he had Flo (his wife) and Felix in the car, ‘ You should have seen my mother’s face when she saw this huge man filling the doorway. Felix Kerschitz came in and spoke to my mother very gently. Surprising for such a big man. This was before the superheavy boys were around and he was a natural 17 stone then.“
Bernard saw Ernie Baldwin (billed as the British Heavyweight Champion) wrestle Felix for the European Title at Newcastle on 28 February, 1953. It was a two fall fight and the final score on that night was 1-0 to Felix, thereby retaining the title. In a non title fight on 28th March, 1953 Felix won 2-1.
On 24th March, 1953, promoter George DeRelwyskow elevated Felix to World heavyweight champion. He defended this lesser known variant of the title against Yorkshireman Ernest Baldwin. Over two thousand Dundee fans fans witnessed Baldwin submit twice to lose two to one in the seventh round.
Bernard remembers that Felix Kerschitz was not a particularly inspiring wrestler, very hard working, strong but not full of holds. Baldwin, after the first fight said that Kerschitz was the strongest man that he had fought. We read a report of Felix demonstrating his enormous strength one night in New Brighton when, with one arm, he lifted three fully grown men (a total of 38 stones) and carried them twice around the ring.
As well as wrestling Felix Kerschitz promoted tournaments in Austria and Germany.
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