Gus Pappas was a well-known middleweight wrestler from Greece in the 1910s and '20s. According to the Los Angeles Times, his birth name was Constantinos Pappaniou, but he was listed as August Pappas in the California Death Index. For some of his appearances, he wrestled as "Gust Pappas." During that time period, there were other wrestlers with the last name "Pappas" to include Jimmy Pappas and a lightweight named John Pappas. As early as 1915, Pappas was billed as a claimant to the Greek Middleweight championship. In November 1915, he wrestled Tony Ajax in Los Angeles. One report had him claiming the Middleweight championship of Canada as early as 1912, but that may be someone else. His championship reign ended on April 29, 1921 in Salt Lake City when he was defeated by Ira Dern at the Salt Lake Theatre in what the newspaper called a "great match." Although he lost in two-straight, Pappas forced Dern to go over 90-minutes to secure both falls. Pappas was married to Edna and lived in the Los Angeles area for many years. He passed away on January 19, 1963, although the Los Angeles Times reported that he died on January 20th. If anyone has any additional information, please drop me a message. Research by Tim Hornbaker December 21, 2010 |
Gus Pappas Wrestling History |