Description
McLeod was born one June 14, 1860, likely in Ontario, Canada, as Daniel Stewart McLeod, although he used the aliases of George Little and Chas. W. Andrews later in life. There is a fair bit of uncertainty about his birth location. While somewhere in Ontario seems to be the correct answer, it’s possible he was actually born in Scotland and his family emigrated to America. An outside possibility is that McLeod was born in California, as that’s where he first garnered attention as a wrestler.
The story goes, Dan stumbled upon wrestling when he was coaxed into a match with a co-worker and defeated him easily, according to newspapers he injured him during the bout. From there he would go on to win an amateur Pacific Coast Heavyweight Championship before moving onto the professional ranks, quitting the mines and going on a full tour.
Soon after he was battling with the likes of “Strangler” Evan Lewis, who was in the twilight of his career, but still a very popular wrestler, they drew. McLeod then moved on to Ernest Roeber where he defeated the well respected grappler in 1894. Often he was billed from Scotland, even though he might have only had Scottish heritage. May 1897 saw him lose to Martin ‘Farmer’ Burns, for the following five months a rematch was hyped between the two with claims from McLeod the referee was unfair towards him.
In the rematch on October 25, McLeod beat burns and won the American Catch-as-Catch-Can Championship. For the next four years he remained champion, he held an air of legitimacy about him, but the lack of something to draw the crowds in, failed to make his reign anything special until he entered into an intense feud with Tom Jenkins.
Over the course of the next eighteen months or so the two traded the title back and forth and did good business. The first title change occurred on November 7, 1901 drawing 6,000 people to the Cleveland, Ohio Central Armory. The rematch was not as lucrative drawing only 1,100 in Worcester, Massachusetts on December 25, 1902, I’m sure the day had something to do with that, but the third contest again was up to 6.000 people watching inside the Buffalo, New York Arsenal on April 3, 1903. That was also the last time McLeod saw the title.
McLeod remained relevant on the wrestling scene for the following decade always being someone to call upon when a solid challenger was needed for a champion or a rising start. He even laid claim to the World Light Heavyweight Championship in 1913.
When it came down to it though, no matter how many times he lost he just commanded respect from both the audience and fellow wrestlers, even Frank Gotch was a fan of his. Upon retiring from the mat game McLeod took up training upcoming wrestlers many of which went on to amateur success. After retirement, McLeod worked as a wrestling instructor at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. He died at the age of 98.
…Many thanks to the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
