Gilberto Stough

From The Great Outdoor Fight

Gilberto Stough (October 11th 1910 - June 7th 1944) was the Champion of the 1934 Great Outdoor Fight. Stough was an ardent Democrat who fervently supported Roosevelt and the New Deal that was taking place during the depression. He is noted for his devotion to the party by having "NEW" tattooed on his right arm and "DEAL" on his left, to show his support and advertise the program that employed him and he loved. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he was the son of a steel worker and textile factory worker who lived in urban poverty.

Stough dropped out of high school at 16 to work at the steel mill with his father and to help support his family. The oldest of 4 children, he was favored heavily by his father because of his strength, work ethic, and optimism. His parents were ardent Democrats, and had raised him to be the same.

When the depression hit, the steel mill where he and his father worked closed in 1931. His mother was amazingly able to keep her job, but supporting a family was hard for them. Gilberto decided he should leave the home and allow his parents to have one less mouth to feed and support his younger siblings further.

Gilberto moved out west and supported himself through whatever small jobs he could, as well as temporarily relying on Hoovervilles. He blamed the Republican Party for the depression, and spread the Democratic message wherever he went, whether people wanted to hear it or not.

When news of the New Deal came about, Gilberto was ecstatic. He found his way to Tennesee where he was employed with the Tennesee Valley Authority building the Norris Dam. While working on this project, he heard many fellow workers discussing the Fight, and he learned about the champions and celebrities of the past, and even met one or two men who had fought. Thinking that as a celebrity like this he could do his own work of promoting the good ideas that his man Roosevelt had and the New Deal itself, he decided to find a place to qualify. One of his supervisors turned out to be a regional representative of the Ruling Body, and thought the good-looking, muscular young blonde would do well. He fought as a qualifier a former high ranked fighter, James Sexton, whom he beat easily.

Once in California, he found a tattoo artist in Los Angeles who tattooed in large black letters the words "NEW DEAL" onto his forearms, with "NEW" on the left and "DEAL" on the right. He showed up to the fight with a black tank top with the words FDR painted on the front, and began announcing that any man who had voted Republican would surely be getting a piece of his fists. This garnered attention outside of the gates, both positive and negative.

Once inside, he fought a few men and eliminated them. He was soon absorbed into a wandering army headed by another man who was also a hardcore democrat, as was a lot of the army. Gilberto soon took control of the army after its leader, John Chaneski, was eliminated after finishing his turkey dinner on day two.

The third day had a relatively low number of fighters, with only 42 men left at the beginning. They collapsed into a large scrum with much faster violence than is typically seen on day 3. Stough eliminated 10 men on his own, including the final runner up, Gunter Menschenfreur.

Following the Fight, he went on a tour of the country trying to use his minor celebrity as a way to speak to people about his politics. He even got to meet President Roosevelt himself, whom he had excitedly told friends he'd like to fight and let win. He was extremely disappointed to find Roosevelt in a wheelchair.