At age 20 Ike reached his highest daily tally of shearing 150 sheep at Te Mata Station, which went to 200 a year later, then to 300 the following year. Before leaving Te Mata, he got to 343 in one day.
He would leave Te Mata Station to travel around the central North Island to work for other shearing contractors – and while at Mangaohane Station he reached his highest shearing tally ever of 358 sheep over eight hours and 20 minutes.
Shearing competitions held at the Hawke's Bay A&P show were entered regularly by Ike and one year he took out seven first places, three seconds and a third.
Around the mid-1910s he formed his own shearing contracting business and operated in Taihape, Hawke's Bay and Wellington areas. As Ike was very religious, he made sure his workers behaved accordingly to his standards, but good clean fun of singing and music was enjoyed by the shearing gangs after a hard day's work.
At the peak of his business he employed 100 men and gave jobs to many Māori who were homeless or without a job.
His shearing gangs were in high demand, and the friendly and approachable Ike was widely liked by the sheep stations he worked for – although on one occasion in 1919 matters got a bit tense when manager of Mangaohane Station, Charles Ensor, refused to allow Ike to use the gang's own cook.
The result ‒ the food reportedly "was as bad as it could be". At the next station, Ngamatea, they were allowed their own cook and Ike could report there was "the best of food". His gang shore 41,000 sheep at Mangaohane and 13,000 at Ngamatea.
He was a natural sportsman and was described as an "exponent of all athletic games". In addition to athletic sports, he was captain of the Hastings rugby team.
At the Caledonian Games in Napier (his mother Riripeti Te Auē Roberts was of Scottish and Ngati Kahungunu descent) he was a regular competitor during the 1900s and won almost all the field events he entered. One year he won the shot-put, hammer throw, caber toss, high jump – and for what he would become famous – he also was wrestling champion. He received £26 for his wins – a substantial amount then.
He was Māori wrestling champion of New Zealand in 1919, which was then a fledgling sport here.
In May 1924 at the Napier Municipal Theatre, he took on M A Sunni for the New Zealand heavyweight championship. It would be an easy victory for Ike which he completed within 15 minutes.
An outdoor wrestling match in October 1925 occurred against world middle weight champion American Walter Miller at Nelson Park, Hastings, for the Australasian heavyweight championship.
This was the earliest event of its kind in New Zealand and attended by 12,000 people, including Governor-General Sir Charles Fergusson. Ike won and collected £500 – a small fortune.
He would fight in Australia several times.
The Polish ex-world champion, heavyweight wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko, en route to Melbourne aboard the Niagara telegrammed the New Zealand Wrestling Association that he would be arriving in Auckland on June 21, 1926 and sought an opponent to wrestle in Auckland – which would be Ike. Such was the interest, 1500 people seeking admission to the bout were turned away.
Ike Robin would lose on points to Zbyszko (then 45 years old) in six, six-minute rounds – although lighter at 15 stone 9Ib (99.3kg) to Ike's 18 stone 7Ib (117.5kg).
Zbyszko announced to the packed crowd in the Auckland Town Hall after the fight that Ike was the strongest man he had ever met and with a couple of months training "would be a world-beater".
In order to compete as a professional, due to a lack of opponents in New Zealand, Ike would have had to travel overseas. He decided not to do this and retired. Stanislaus Zbyszko had offered £1000 for expenses for Ike to travel to America to wrestle competitively, but he turned this down, preferring to stay nearer his whānau.
Before retiring he defeated Clarence Weber in Melbourne in 1926 to become Australasian heavyweight champion. His popularity was such that a patented wire strainer for fencing was named the "Ike Grip" in his honour.
He did come out of retirement in 1930 briefly, and then resumed full training in 1932 to compete against Finnish wrestler Peter Limutkin in Wellington, which he won.
American Abe Kaplin was next at the Hastings Municipal Theatre in September 1932, which was a draw. In Napier the following year – his final year of wrestling - he fought another American, Harry Mamos, which resulted in a draw. He had another bout after this, but by then he had enough.
Ike served in the Anglican church as a lay preacher for nearly six decades. He practised Christian charity and regularly donated fruit and vegetables to the Māori Anglican Church.
As an accomplished orator, he would conduct many a successful hui.
He was influenced by Apirana Ngata, and a close friend of his was Bishop F A Bennett, who he would often accompany around New Zealand in support of his ministry. Another close friend was Sir Turi Carroll, also born in Wairoa, a Ngāti Kahungunu leader and successful farmer.
He was a founding member of the Heretaunga Māori Choir and would tour with them throughout the North Island. When the Trapp singers ‒ who were the inspiration for the musical of The Sound of Music - came to Hastings, he entertained them at Kohupātiki.
Ike would recall one of the proudest moments of his life was when his granddaughter Maisie (Mei Irihapiti) Robin was chosen as the model for the statute of Pānia on Napier's Marine Parade.
In the 1950 New Year Honours he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for social services to Māori.
Such was his reputation in the wrestling world, long after he had retired, overseas wrestlers would visit him at Kohupātiki.
Ike Robin's life can today be an inspiration for many in the making of right choices and selfless service.
In many ways my friend Henare O'Keefe reminds me of Ike Robin – who Henare knew. And if Ike were alive today, I am sure, amongst many other people, he would be very proud of Henare.
He first wife Mata Kato passed away in 1917. He remarried in 1918 to Mei Pere (Mei also had shearing gangs).
One of Ngati Kahungunu's favourite sons and elders, Ike Robin passed away aged 81 in 1968 and was laid to rest at Kohupātiki.
Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory
