Abe Coleman, 101; Professional Wrestler Had 25-Year Career

Mr. Coleman, who later spelled his name Colman, also inspected license plates for the New York Department of Motor Vehicles.

Abba Kelmer was born Sept. 20, 1905, in Zychlin, Poland, where his father sold coal for household heating. He was among the youngest of 15 children, and much of his extended family died during the Holocaust.

He moved to Winnipeg in 1923 before settling in New York, all the while working odd jobs and working out whenever possible.

He had admired wrestling since he was a child and got a chance to try it professionally when a promoter named Rudy Miller spotted him at a Brooklyn gym.

As he later told the New York Times: "He said, 'Hey, boy, want to make $25 tonight?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Bring your tights to Ridgewood Grove,' " an arena in Brooklyn.

He often repeated the story of beating up two teenage thugs who tried to mug him in Forest Hills, a neighborhood in Queens. He was 80 at the time.

The Cauliflower Alley Club, an association of retired wrestlers, honored him in 1995.

He spent much of his retirement playing poker and gambling at Off-Track Betting. His wife and only immediate family member, June Miller Coleman, died in 1984.

He claimed to have met her in 1936 while on the job.

"I was thrown out of the ring and landed right in her lap," he said.