Louis Strebler

For many years, Louis Strebler was listed as Z. B. Strebler. This was a puzzle and he could not be identified and remained the only individual Olympic medalist from the United States for whom the full name was not known. But eventually a distant relative of Strebler’s contacted the OlyMADmen, and we learned his identity.

He was actually Louis Bernard Strebler, with the “Z” in “Z. B.” obviously mistaken for an “L”. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Peter and Amelia Ungerman Strebler. As a student he attended St. Peter and Paul’s School in St. Louis, where he began wrestling. The 1904 Olympic wrestling events also doubled as the United States national championships, which were conducted by the AAU for many years. Strebler represented the South Broadway Athletic Club of St. Louis. At the Olympics he competed in both the 125 lb. class, in which he won his bronze medal, and the 135 lb. class, in which he was unplaced. He never competed in any other national championships in wrestling.

After the Olympics, Strebler decided to become a professional boxer and started training towards that end, but tragedy struck. His great nephew, Vincent Saporita, described it, “In those days, the street cars only stopped for the women. It did not stop for the men. Louis ran to jump on the street car, slipped, fell under the wheels, and lost an arm above the elbow. That was the end of his athletic career.” But it did not stop him from making something of his life. He and his brother opened a moving company, and he worked for many years as a one-armed furniture mover, before dying in St. Louis in 1962.