Editing Nat Pendleton (section)

==Wrestling career==
Pendleton began his [[collegiate wrestling|wrestling]] career at [[Columbia University]], and served as captain of the school's wrestling team.<ref name="LAT"/> He was twice [[Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association]] (EIWA) champion in 1914 and 1915. Chosen to compete on the United States wrestling team at the [[1920 Summer Olympics]] in [[Antwerp]], [[Belgium]], Pendleton lost only one match during the competition and was awarded a [[silver medal]].<ref name="sports-reference">{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/pe/nat-pendleton-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418122429/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/pe/nat-pendleton-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-04-18 |title=Nat Pendleton |access-date=2013-09-01 |work=sports-reference.com}}</ref> Some controversy continues to surround that outcome. Both Pendleton's Olympic coach, George Pinneo, and his teammate, Fred Meyer, insisted that he won his final match and should have been awarded the gold medal. Pinneo later recalled that loss as the "most unpopular of many unsatisfactory decisions," and Meyer stated, "Pendleton was the winner of that contest, no ifs or buts."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pendleton: The Amazing Story of Columbia's Wrestling Olympian and Star of Hollywood|last=Chapman|first=Mike|pages=30}}</ref> 

Returning to the US he became a professional wrestler and teamed up with promoter [[Jack Curley]]. Curley was aggressively promoting Pendleton and issued a series of haughty challenges, among them boasting that Pendleton could beat [[Ed "Strangler" Lewis]] and any other wrestler on the same night. [[John Pesek]] was enlisted to face Pendleton, and in a legitimate contest held on January 25, 1923, Pesek defeated and injured Pendleton.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2006/05/25/pendletons-unparalleled-route-olympics-pros-hollywood/|title = Pendleton's unparalleled route: Olympics, pros, Hollywood|date = 25 May 2006}}</ref><ref name="smumcounty/nat-pendleton">{{cite web |title=Know Your Character Actor – Nat Pendleton |url=https://smumcounty.com/2016/05/21/know-your-character-actor-nat-pendleton/ |website=Smum County |access-date=30 June 2023 |language=en |date=21 May 2016}}</ref><ref name="scientificwrestling/Pesek-Pendleton">{{cite web |last1=Hewitt |first1=Mark |title=BEFORE MMA #3 - The Zenith of Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling - Tigerman John Pesek versus Nat Pendleton |url=https://www.scientificwrestling.com/public/BEFORE-MMA-3-The-Zenith-of-CatchAsCatchCan-Wrestling-Tigerman-John-Pesek-versus-Nat-Pendleton.cfm |website=Scientific Wrestling |access-date=30 June 2023 |language=en |date=2 December 2019}}</ref> Pendleton continued to wrestle professionally into the 1930s.