Charles Nathan Hatton (M.A. 2007) has had an eventful year. He recently graduate from the University of Waterloo with a Ph.D. in History and is also the author of a brand new book entitled Rugged Game: Community, Culture, and Wrestling at the Lakehead to 1933.

 

Long before John Cena, Hullk Hogan or even "Whipper" Billy Watson, residents at the Lakehead went wild for wrestling. Nearly a century ago, when cable television, pay-per-view and even regular radio broadcasts were still stuff of science fiction, professional wrestling was already an enormously popular sport in the Thunder Bay area.

 

More than just simple entertainment, wrestling was deeply entwined with the culture and values of the region's early residents. Tracing sport's origins from the settlement period in the post-Confederation years to the height of the Great Depression, Rugged Game: Community, Culture and Wrestling at the Lakehead provides an in-depth, never-before-seen look at the earliest days of professional and amateur wrestling in Northwestern Ontario, when stars such as the "Canadian Panther" George Walker, "French Idol" Ernie Arthur and the "Ferocious Finn" Henry Karhunsaari captured the imagination of thousands of fans with their displays of technical wizardry and aggressive cunning on the mat.

Rugged Game is published by the Lakehead University Centre for Northern Studies. An interview by Hatton about the book for radio can be heard by clicking here.