George Yoerger was born in Manhattan in May 1867 and grew up on his family’s farm in East Norwalk, Connecticut. Around the age of 10, his life changed dramatically when a muscular stranger with a handlebar mustache walked onto the farm and asked about renting the family’s barn.
“I’m John L. Sullivan,” the man said, introducing himself. “I’m champion of the world.” Sullivan, known as The Boston Strong Boy, was the first heavyweight champion, and he spent several months training on the Yoerger farm. Young George soon knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
Inside the ring, Yoerger proved to be a tough fighter. But his true calling was outside the ropes, where he became a respected boxing and self-defense instructor. At the turn of the century, he moved to Brooklyn and opened a gymnasium at Broadway and Myrtle Avenue, which quickly became a success. Branding himself as “Professor Yoerger,” he attracted customers with a bold promise: “Six lessons free if you hit me on the nose!”
Yoerger’s name later made headlines in connection with a bizarre scam. Two men who frequented his gym offered him a pawn ticket for a blue diamond in exchange for $5, claiming it was worth at least $50. They promised to compensate him if it wasn’t. When Yoerger tried to redeem the ticket, the diamond was worth far less. When he confronted them, the men refused to make good on their deal and instead returned to the gym with accomplices, intending to rough him up.
They failed to consider the flaw in that plan. After Yoerger soundly defeated them, he called the police, who arrested the group and discovered cocaine in their possession. A brief but colorful trial followed, and the men were sent to jail.
Later in life, Yoerger met and fell in love with Florence Lott, a much younger woman whose family was among the earliest residents of Woodhaven. Many of her relatives are still buried in the Colonial-era Wyckoff-Snedicker Family Cemetery on 96th Street. The couple moved into the Lott family home on Lott Avenue (now 76th Street), just south of Jamaica Avenue, where the house stood until only a few years ago.
Yoerger eventually closed his Brooklyn gym and semi-retired, though he built a small private gym in his Woodhaven backyard. Still drawn to training, he embarked on a second career: dog training. He began with his own dog, Trixie, who performed paid exhibitions.
Trixie’s most popular trick was sitting at a table, opening a menu, selecting a meal, mimicking eating and then wiping her face with her paw. She could even imitate a boxer, throwing paw punches at a miniature heavy bag. Marketed as the dog “with the mind of a child,” Trixie’s fame grew, and Yoerger’s dog-training business flourished.
Professor Yoerger wrote newspaper articles offering advice to dog owners and was invited to participate in a dog show at Jamaica Arena to raise funds for the Helen Keller Free Clinic. Helen Keller herself attended, petting many of the children and their dogs. She told a reporter that if granted a single split-second of sight, she would choose to see “a child and its dog.”
In his later years, Yoerger added fencing, trick pistol shooting and diamond appraising to his repertoire, and even founded the Long Island Society of Magicians. In 1949, well into his 80s, Professor Yoerger appeared on television, providing commentary for live boxing broadcasts from Ridgewood Grove.
George Yoerger passed away in 1951, shortly after his 84th birthday. His wife Florence outlived him by more than 20 years, passing away in late 1973. Yoerger led a long, colorful life, made even more remarkable by the fact that he was deaf from birth. Professor George Yoerger remains one of the most fascinating figures in Woodhaven’s history.
