Abe Coleman, who died Wednesday at 101, was a nationally known wrestler fighting in an era when casual anti-Semitism made his religion part of his mystique.

Speculation on wrestling fan Web sites yesterday was that “the Jewish Tarzan,” as he was called from the 1930s, was the oldest wrestler in the world.

Standing perhaps 5 feet 3 inches under a full moon — some called him “Mr. Five by Five” — Coleman nevertheless weighed in at 200 pounds and fought as a heavyweight against such luminaries as Jim Londos, George Temple (brother of Shirley), and Man Mountain Dean. Dean reputedly weighed 465 pounds when Coleman lifted him over his head during a match. The story goes that the ring gave way and both fighters fell to the auditorium floor.

Although never a champion, Coleman was known for being tough. His trademark was a maneuver called the kangaroo kick, which he told reporters he developed after watching marsupials fight during a tour of Australia. The kangaroo kick later developed into the drop kick, according to a 1936 article in the Washington Post, which compared it to a “missed flying scissors.” Although illegal in New York and Pennsylvania, the Post article said, the drop kick would be used in the nation’s capital “for the edification of D.C. fans.”

Coleman began his pro career in 1928, when he was discovered working out in a New York gym by a local promoter who offered him $25 for a fight that Coleman won. Soon he was fighting regularly against the likes of Wildcat Steele, Pat O’Shocker, and Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Nicknames abounded in that era; Coleman’s included “the Hebrew Hercules,” “the Jewish Flash,” and “the Ape Man.”

Everett Marshall had no nickname when he beat Coleman in a 1931 fight in Los Angeles, after Coleman was disqualified for a low flying tackle, but not before “the Jewish boy stretched Everett out like a doormat.” Unlike today, major newspapers reported on pro wrestling in the sports section. The Los Angeles Times henceforth labeled Coleman “the tackling fool.”

“Coleman liked to leap up and put his feet in his opponent’s face and did it frequently,” the wrestler Paul Boesch wrote in his autobiography, “Hey, Boy! Where’d You Get Them Ears?” (2001). “But Abie never learned to use it with the explosive power needed to become a winning weapon.”

Coleman was born Abba Kelmer on September 20, 1905, in Poland and made his way to America via Canada in the early 1920s. He toured constantly from the late 1920s and worked steadily through the Depression. He said he met his wife in 1936, when he was thrown from the ring at Madison Square Garden and landed in her lap. They were wed in 1939 and lived in style in a Times Square hotel, socializing with stars such as George Raft and Mickey Rooney. They moved to Queens in the early 1940s.

Coleman wrestled until his mid-50s, and then turned to refereeing matches. A Queens resident and former pro wrestler, Tom “Crusher” Townsend, who describes himself as Coleman’s protégé, said the two sparred when Coleman was in his 50s. “I couldn’t beat him,” Mr. Townsend said.

Coleman got a day job as a license plate inspector at the Department of Motor Vehicles and spent his spare time playing poker and placing bets on the races. For decades, he was a familiar sight on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, walking his tiny dog to the local OTB or the T-Bone Diner, puffing on an ever-present cigar. Despite the abuse his body received — he had cauliflower ears from years of headlocks — he was still strong enough to fight off a pair of muggers when he was in his 80s. According to one account (his own) he knocked them both cold.

He leaves no survivors.