Killer Kowalski Takes the Mat

by Don Eron

When in elementary school a P.E. teacher showed Biggie Bluestone the single leg takedown, it was love at first sight. From that moment, Biggie has gradually morphed into the running, lifting, perpetually training fiend that he is today at seventeen, a contender for the 1971 Illinois High School Wrestling Championship. All Biggie wants is to keep the world at arm’s length until the state tournament in February, when he’ll beat the legendary Rick Berkenmeier, whose photo from the newspaper Biggie has taped to the freezer door.

But the world intrudes. He falls in love with a mysterious girl after her car slides through a stop sign and hits Biggie on his nightly six mile run. His sister, Giselle, is involved in an accident that kills her best friend. The kids at school have ostracized Giselle, and he must find a way to lend her some of the cachet he has garnered as a star athlete. To sharpen his focus, Biggie adopts an alter-ego – Killer Kowalski, a fifties-era professional wrestler with a penchant for throat stomping, though off the mat, reputedly, a genuinely nice guy.

The massiveness of Biggie’s consciousness, accumulated throughout the novel, measures up to the drama of the state tournament, where internal and external forces collide. The result is a novel rich in themes of loss, love, friendship, and dedication—but above all, honor.

378 pages, Paperback

Published November 4, 2025

About the author

Don Eron lives in Boulder, Colorado, and is the author of And Go to Innisfree, Presner the Remarkable, and Killer Kowalski Takes the Mat. He’s a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and has twice won creative fellowships from the Colorado Council on the Arts. An academic labor activist, his writing on academic freedom has been cited in petitions before the US Supreme Court, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, and the National Labor Relations Board. He is the publisher of Contingency Street Press, a literary micro press.

Reviews

[Ngnadig]

This is why I purchase books when I travel. Books from an indie bookstore with a "local authors" shelf. (Thanks Boulder Bookstore.) I never would have found Killer Kowalski Takes the Mat in my local bookstore and what a loss that would have been. Dan "Biggie" Bluestone pulled me in early and I was utterly engrossed in his path through senior year of high school, and his final season of wrestling before I knew what hit me. Such an engaging character, with a vivid voice. I thoroughly enjoyed the time period in which the book was set, 1970-71, a reminder of time before cellphones and internet, when you ran out to purchase a newspaper to read the latest sports results. This book was a delight from beginning to end.

[Tanya]

He is a rising star in wrestling and life is looking good until his sister is in a car accident. Her best friend is killed in the crash and no one wants to know her anymore. He will try to help his sister recover so see how it all goes
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and a powerful read

[Edna Hull]

3.5 star read , I actually really was suprised by this book as it wouldn’t usually be something I’d pick up but surprisingly I actually enjoyed, I really liked Biggie he was a really great character, overall a great coming of age story imo.