Inducted 1972
Pound for pound, Marshfield's Fred Beell might have been the greatest wrestler of all time. That's how George Barton of the Minneapolis Tribune described the 5-6, 165 pound Beell.
Beell won three world championships at three weights, including heavyweight. He was the only wrestler to ever defeat Frank Gotch, the legendary wrestler of the early 1900s. Beell was described as "quick as a cat on the mat" and "gifted with amazing endurance."
After retiring from the ring in 1919, Beell returned to Marshfield and entered police work. He rose to the position of chief before he was killed in a 1933 shootout during a robbery of the Marshfield Brewery.