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William Muldoon (May 25, 1852 – June 3, 1933) "Bill Muldoon Dies in Sleep at 88". New York Times, June 4 1933. was an American Greco-Roman Wrestling champion, a physical culture, and the first chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission. He once wrestled a match that lasted over seven hours.
Nicknamed "The Solid Man,""The Solid Man" nickname was referenced from a popular song of the time, "Muldoon, the Solid Man" by Edward Harrigan. The moniker may have also been a nod to the "Solid Muldoon", a P.T. Barnum exhibit claimed to be the petrified remains of an ancestral missing link between man and ape, later revealed as a hoax. Muldoon established himself as champion in Greco-Roman wrestling in the 1880s and over the years gained a remarkable measure of public influence that would continue through his days as a health farm proprietor in Westchester County and his service on NYSAC. Muldoon was a mainstay in New York sports for over 50 years.
Muldoon journeyed to Paris to serve as a volunteer in the French Army in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, where he met publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr., who told Muldoon he had the potential to be the best Greco-Roman wrestler in the world if he concentrated on it.According to Ring Magazine publisher Nat Fleischer in his volume, "From Milo to Londos" (The Ring Athletic Library, Book No. 13, 1936)
By 1876, Muldoon was living in New York City, where he accepted appointment to the New York Police Department at the behest of Senator John Morrissey, former bare-knuckle boxing champion. At the time of his resignation in 1881, Muldoon was a detective.
Following the celebrated match with Whistler, Muldoon assembled an athletic combination and toured the country promoting athletic events and defending his title against all comers. Muldoon became involved in theater around this time, stemming from his fame in athletics. In 1883 he shared the bill with Maurice Barrymore, a boxer turned actor, in Helena Modjeska production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Barrymore played Orlando and Muldoon was Charles the Wrestler. In 1887, he appeared on Broadway theatre as "The Fighting Gaul" in Spartacus.
Muldoon was one of a party of gentlemen entertained by Robert Emmet Odlum, brother of women's rights activist Charlotte Odlum Smith, on the morning of May 19, 1885, the day he jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge and was killed. Muldoon assisted in unsuccessful resuscitation efforts and summoned an ambulance, which arrived too late to save Odlum.
In 1889 Muldoon trained John L. Sullivan for his famous 75-round fight against Jake Kilrain for the world heavyweight bare-knuckle boxing championship. He had done so on a friendly wager and offered to absorb expenses if Sullivan lost. Sullivan won and Muldoon gained national notice for restoring the boxing champion to fighting form. Muldoon's methods for accomplishing Sullivan's rejuvenation drew much public interest.
On May 28, Muldoon and Sullivan would have an exhibition wrestling bout contested under London Prize Ring Rules that ended on a 5–5 draw. The two would later have a three-round bout where Muldoon would win two of three bouts
Muldoon was never defeated for his Greco-Roman Championship. He wrestled in his final championship match in 1890, defeating Evan Lewis in Philadelphia. Despite being implored by promoters and challengers to come out of retirement, Muldoon never wrestled another finish match or claimed any active championship. He symbolically passed his World Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship to protégé Ernest Roeber (whom Lewis later defeated). Muldoon would make his final public appearance as a wrestler in a charity exhibition match against Roeber at Madison Square Garden in 1894.
That same year Muldoon moved his health farm from Belfast, New York, to White Plains. As he tapered off direct involvement in professional athletics, he devoted more time to devising his system on restoring one's health. Muldoon continued to train boxers and wrestlers until boxing was banned in New York at the turn of the century.
In the spring of 1909 Muldoon made a final return to the stage in a theatrical tour organized in benefit of The Lambs. Muldoon dedicated a Civil War monument to the town of Belfast, New York, listing the names of local veterans in 1915, including that of his older brother John.[2] www.usgennet.org.
In 1921 Muldoon was personally tapped by Governor Nathan Lewis Miller as the inaugural Chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, when Walker Law. While on NYSAC, Muldoon's czarish decrees characterized his inflexible sense of integrity to the press and sporting public. He was dubbed in the papers "the Iron Duke."
In 1927 Muldoon was profiled by The New Yorker magazine and in 1929 by The Saturday Evening Post. A biography was published in 1928, with a foreword by Jack Dempsey.Van Every, Edward (1928). Muldoon – The Solid Man of Sport. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company.
William Muldoon died at age 81 in Westchester County, New York, and was interred in a grandiose private mausoleum at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. Sometime after the end of his wrestling career and before the turn of the century, Muldoon had claimed for years that he was born in 1845, and seven years older than his age verified in the Muldoon Family Bible, which documents his real birth year.
In 1996, Muldoon was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
In 2004, he was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum under the "Pioneer Era" category.
Muldoon was a strong advocate of compulsory military service, equestrianism, physical culture and the Boy Scouts of America, citing the latter as the only organization left devoted to leadership-building for young men.
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