Joe Gans

by Colleen Aycock

  Gans Wins Two Brutal Bouts with Old Nemesis Dal Hawkins

  The indisputable fact is that Gans used the time between the Erne fights to avenge losses on his record with definitive wins in return bouts. In his second meeting with Dal Hawkins, Gans was felled by Hawkins’ potent left hook in the first round. Gans barely made the count, and as Fleischer writes, “Never before or since, with the exception of the wild first round of the Dempsey-Firpo fight, has a scene such as this been duplicated with two great fighters taking and giving with no quarters taken and given without a letup.”3

  It was on May 25, 1900, in a torrid two rounds at the Broadway Athletic Club in New York that Gans starched Hawkins, considered at the time the hardest hitter in the lightweight division. New York reporters called it “two rounds of the fastest fighting ever seen in the clubhouse.”4 Immediately after the fighters touched gloves to begin the match, Hawkins landed a powerful left hook on Gans’ chin, sending him to the floor. But Gans came to his feet at the count of nine, and was able to block Hawkins’ punches. While against the ropes, Gans landed a right to Hawkins’ jaw that knocked him down. Hawkins rose on the count of nine and the two fought furiously until the bell. One minute and fifteen seconds into the furious second round, Gans landed the punch that knocked his opponent out.

  Their third match, at the same club on August 31, was the last boxing match fought under the Horton Law in New York. The Horton Law had legalized boxing there since 1896, under the Marquis of Queensberry rules. In their third match, Gans again knocked Hawkins “senseless” in what the papers called “three rounds of the fastest fighting ever seen in New York,” the most “vicious ever fought.”5 Gans’ right hook fell so hard on Hawkins’ jaw that the pug was still unconscious several minutes after he was counted out and carried to his corner. The contest impressed the New York fighting crowd, and Al Herford jumped on the event and tried to strip Frank Erne of his title by boldly claiming the lightweight championship for Gans. Since Erne had “flatly refused” to meet Gans’ title challenges, Herford took the initiative to claim the crown for his fighter. Herford not only claimed the title, he announced he would post $1000 forfeit money to defend the title against all comers.6 Of course, no one in the boxing establishment took Herford’s title transfer seriously.

  On the same day that Gans beat Hawkins, Jim Jeffries was halfheartedly seeking to defend the heavyweight crown, complaining that he needed 30 days to prepare for a fight, but he would be willing to meet either Corbett or Fitzsimmons, only if the winner could take all, announcing that would be the only way he would do business. “As for Corbett’s present standing in pugilism, I believe he can give any man a good fight.... But I do not believe it is in him to get back to the top of the ladder. Last night’s was the first fight he has won in five years. When he fought Sullivan he fought an old man with a big abdomen. The men who forced Sullivan to meet him should have had their own teeth pulled out for it.”7

  In the meantime, Gans remained the top aspirant for the lightweight laurels. While waiting for another battle with Erne, Gans would have only three options for fights. He would have to fight with local boys in new territory, all of them eager to knock off a top star; boxers he had fought previously who wanted a rematch; or ring notables who, once they lost to Gans, became fighters “past their prime.” One of the latter was Australian Albert Griffiths, known as Young Griffo, a man thought to be unbeatable just a few fights earlier. His rematch with Gans went only eight rounds before the referee ended the bout. Blood was streaming from Griffo’s mouth from the punishment he had taken, with the press noting that Griffo was not quite in the same fighting form as before. Unlike the fight earlier Griffo praised Gans’ abilities. There was no talk of a “fix.” Gans had taken his new wife to this fight in New York and was trying to juggle his ring responsibilities with a new marriage. He had rented a cottage at Atlantic City for the summer.

  Two days after the fight with Griffo, Whitey Lester, who had studied Gans’ bout in New York, lost his bid against Gans in Baltimore on a knockout in the fourth. Gans had lost previously to New York’s George “Elbows” McFadden in April of 1899, in a 23-round bout. McFadden was one of the toughest and most aggressive boxers of the time, and Gans happened to be sick during the match. Gans would go on to beat him decisively six times in other tussles, even though two of the bouts would be called draws.

  Gans had opened the year 1901 by winning a $1000 purse against Cornelieus T. Moriarity, aka “Wilmington Jack Daly.” Daly wanted to beat Gans to clear his own record since Gans had one decision over him and they had fought two draws. The 25-round match ended in the fifth stanza when Referee Charles White of New York disqualified Daly for dirty tactics. Gans explained that it was easier for Daly to disqualify himself than take a knockout since he did not appear to be adequately trained for the event.

  Fighters were caught in a trap whenever they landed a bout-ending punch early in a fight. Spectators wanted their money’s worth, which usually meant a long and bloody fight. Such was the case when Gans knocked out Martin Flaherty April 1 before a crowd of 2000 at Ford’s Theater in Baltimore. The crowd yelled “April Fool!” and called the fight a fake.8 Actually, Gans had absorbed many fouls, as he did often in his career. Flaherty started fouling in the second round when the referee, after only two minutes of fighting, sent the men to their corners and announced that “if Flaherty continued to fight foully he would be disqualified.”9 After Gans won by knockout, Herford asked if anyone wanted to come back stage and see the bleary-eyed Flaherty, who said Gans had blinded him with a punch between the eyes in the first round, and that he never fully recovered from it when Gans hit him in the jaw in the fourth. Reports filled the news space with the discovery of a woman spectator disguised as a man. She was arrested as she attempted to flee the event. This created quite a scandal, that a woman had illegally attended an “illegal” boxing match. One of the participants in the 3-round preliminary bouts was a “colored fighter by the name of Buck Washington,” the same fighter who had participated in the barrel fights in 1895. Apparently, he was still trying to make a name for himself in the fight game.10

  At the end of May 1901, Gans had the opportunity to clear his record of the loss to Bobby Dobbs. The bout promised to be interesting. Dobbs had toured Europe and beaten some of the best men overseas, and Gans had a formidable record. Gans won by a knockout in the 7th round. But this fight was considered by many to be a fake, with Dobbs laying down to Gans. The papers noted that both Gans’ wife and her sister attended the Dobbs fight. Unlike at the Flaherty fight, no one in New York seemed to object to women being in attendance.

  In Gans’ day, prior to the modern era’s readily available nutrition from cradle to grave, men were generally much smaller. Gans was called “the closest thing to a superman that the lightweight division ever produced.” His magnificent body, husky in scanty briefs, made his 5'6" lightweight frame look larger. In this picture (assumed to be 1907) his body still looks healthy (Chicago History Museum, Photographer: Chicago Daily News, 1907).

  In July, Gans staked his claim to his top marquis lightweight ranking by calling on any man to beat him in a go at six rounds. In a single evening, July 15, 1901, three men took up the call: Harry Berger of Philadelphia, Jack Donahue of Philadelphia and “Kid” Thomas of New York. Each was paid a $50 appearance fee and a chance to appear at the top of the lightweight division by beating Joe Gans. None were able to do so. Gans “outclassed each of his opponents and had the better of each battle.”11 The second fight was so rough that it was halted by the police after Gans knocked Donahue out of the ropes in the second round. Two days before these fights, the Washington Post printed the following account of a lynching. Such was the psychological landscape in the period when Gans fought. The account read,

  Negro Rapist Hanged: Ed Payne, the negro who attempted to rape Miss Duncan, at Dublin last June, was hanged here to-day. Payne was led on the scaffold by the Rev. Leroy Diggs, who offered prayer for the condemned man. Payne and the
preacher sang a hymn. After singing, Payne talked for eight minutes, the substance of his discourse being that he had been pardoned of his sins, and was on his way to glory. Just as the black cap was being put over his head he asked to be allowed to sing one hymn, which request was granted, at the conclusion of which his hands and feet were tied, the cap put on, the noose adjusted, and, exactly at 10:30, the trap was sprung. In fifteen minutes he was pronounced dead. When the body was taken down it was placed in the coffin, and set just inside the crowd on the outside, there being several hundred present.12

  As Frederick Douglass noted in his autobiography, “to strike a white man is death by Lynch law.”13 Such was the atmosphere, where black men were hanging from ropes, in which Joe Gans would climb through the ropes for the express purpose of beating up white men in front of a white audience.

  In August Gans continued his uphill battle. He fought Steve Crosby in Kentucky for the “Colored Lightweight Championship,” and at the end of 20 rounds the referee declared it a draw. They met again the next month to decide the championship, but Baltimore’s Deputy Marshal Farnan pulled the boxers apart from a clinch in the twelfth round and disqualified Crosby.

  On September 30 when “Joe” Handler challenged the “colored champion,” Gans knocked him down four times before knocking him out 2 minutes and 24 seconds into the first round. In October, Gans toyed with Dan McConnell of Philadelphia until he struck him with a stiff left jab on the forehead in the fourth round and Referee Mantz stopped the bout. Gans concluded the year in Philadelphia with a 6-round bout against Joe Youngs of Buffalo. Youngs quit after 4 rounds. Nat Fleischer writes about this time as “a veritable whirlwind of brilliant feats, tending to show with lucid clearness just what Gans could really do when he was out to win, and had the handcuffs off.”14

  It is a sad fact for posterity that the Gans-McGovern fight of December 1900, featured on many compilations of history’s most controversial boxing matches, is how most people see and remember Gans. Virtually all of his other bouts are described as masterful performances or epic battles. There has been speculation that Gans not only threw the fight against McGovern, but maybe even the first Erne fight, based on promises for an “on the level” future title-shot opportunity. This speculation is consistent with what is known about the boxing world when it was run by gangsters in the middle of the twentieth century. In the movie Raging Bull, this is the same deal presented to Jake Lamotta. To get along, he had to go along.

  A closer look at Gans’ record, however, reveals that despite possible deal making he received both his title shots the old-fashioned way: he earned them. The number of bouts Gans had, against top notch fighters, during the interval between the two attempts at the title is extraordinary. Thirty-four fights, with no losses except against McGovern. Compare this with the formidable comeback of Muhammad Ali, who fought a total of seventeen bouts in the entire ten years between his title-winning efforts.

  Between the years 1900 and 1902, before his second title shot, Gans fought some of the best fighters of the era. He knocked out Joe Youngs, who had only recently lost the welterweight crown, in four rounds. Dal Hawkins, Young Griffo, and Bobby Dobbs, all vicious punchers, were each put to sleep by Gans’ fast mitts within the two-year period.

  In his 34 fights between the two bouts with Frank Erne, Gans fought some of the roughest, best boxers the lightweight division has ever hosted. And the bouts were no mere exhibitions, but rather death struggles for an eventual chance at the ultimate prize, the lightweight title. As Nat Fleischer said, “No fighter had ever faced a tougher field in the journey to the title.”15 At the end of this journey awaited Frank Erne, considered one of the best fighters alive at the time.

  9

  Bringing Home the Bacon

  Having fought longer and harder than any man in history to earn a professional boxing championship, Gans won his title match on May 12, 1902, quicker than anyone in the history of pugilism. By virtue of a 100-second, flash knockout of his 1900 nemesis, Frank Erne, Joe Gans ascended to the lightweight throne. Although it was a quick win, Gans had been on Erne’s trail for over six years.

  Erne Evades Herford

  Gans was able to get a second shot at the Buffalo boy through the persistence of his manager, Al Herford, who went after Erne like a hound chasing a fox. Before the 1900 bout, Herford had waged a long battle that had become all too personal to land his charge a fight with Erne. During that time, Frank Erne was busy making a name for himself and going after the reigning title-holder Kid Lavigne. The last thing Erne had wanted was a tough opponent like Joe Gans ruining his career.

  After Gans’ controversial 1900 match against Erne, Gans felt entitled to a quick rematch. At a time when honoring challenges and re-matches was part of the ethical code of pugilistic conduct, Herford publicly faulted Erne for failing to live up to his word for a re-match. The betrayal had started even earlier, in Herford’s eyes, back in 1896 when Erne bowed out of the fight in New York even though Gans had made the trip despite his wife’s death. Instead of Gans getting a shot at Kid Lavigne, the lightweight champion, it was Erne who would go on to secure a fight and defeat the “Kid” for the lightweight title in Buffalo on July 3, 1899, a title that Herford desperately wanted for Gans.

  After Erne won the title, he was reluctant to defend it. The only fighter other than Gans whose challenge he accepted was that of “New York” Jack O’Brien. The fight with O’Brien ended in a 25-round draw. With Herford’s stubborn tenacity and a little help from Penn Art Athletic Club manager (a Herford associate in the venture) Walter Schlichter, the two were able to go to Buffalo and secure in December of 1899 an agreement with Erne for a title contest to be held February 10, 1900, in Philadelphia. Herford posted money for an appearance forfeiture for Gans, while Erne posted none. When the Gans contingent arrived in Philadelphia they learned that Erne had come to Philadelphia and then left without notifying the club manager. Erne had heard through the grapevine that Gans had figured out how to beat him, and he suspected trickery. With money on the table as proof of a valid challenge, Herford managed to get another shot at Erne on March 23, but Gans lost the bout because of the eye injury.

  Herford pursued Erne from city to city. While Gans was fighting in Denver, he and Herford took two weeks off to travel to Buffalo to try to convince Erne to grant another match. As noted in the discussion of the Gans-McGovern fight, Herford traveled to St. Louis to see Samuel Harris and Terry McGovern to enlist their help in obtaining a rematch. It appeared that Herford and Gans returned empty handed to Denver, where in November Gans knocked out Kid Parker. An entire year went by with Herford offering enormous sums of guarantee to Erne, before Herford secured an agreement for a title fight in Buffalo. When Erne finally granted it, Herford was forced to make major financial concessions, concessions he would not soon forget.1

  For the 1902 bout, Herford gave up much of his fighter’s interest in the Articles of Agreement. When a 65/35 split of the purse was considered common practice, Erne’s arrangement demanded 75 percent for the winner and 25 percent for the loser (so certain he was that Gans would lose). The guaranteed total fighter’s purse was $4000. If the gate receipts exceeded $12,000 then the total purse would increase to $5000. The weight clause stipulated that the fighters would weigh in at 9:00 P.M., and their weight could not exceed 136 pounds, with the forfeiture clause for exceeding the weight limit set at 25 percent of the forfeiting party’s share of the purse.

  Gans’ Scientific Approach for the Rematch

  The press promised “one of the most stubborn and greatest boxing bouts ever witnessed in this country.”2 Because the white boxing establishment in the United States frowned upon matches between the two races, and sentiment still ran high against Gans as a result of the Chicago fiasco, the bout was held across the Niagara River from Buffalo in Fort Erie, Ontario. The threat to white superiority was too great a risk to take stateside after the immense publicity drawn when a Canadian black featherweight, George Dixon, soundly thrashed
a white opponent on the under-card of the famous Sullivan-Corbett fight in New Orleans in 1892. Sportswriters had watched and given menacing notice as a group of brilliant boxers appeared to be conquering the white field in the gay nineties, paving the way for the inflamed calls for “Great White Hopes” in the years to follow.

  Statements about the fighters were in demand from both camps. Each lightweight reported having trained hard for the match. They were in exceptionally good condition and each promised not to blame any defeat on a lack of preparation. Gans was training in Leiperville, Pennsylvania, and all accounts said that he was in the best shape of his career.

  Typical of Gans’ method of preparation, he analyzed with precise measurement his opponent’s weapons, especially those that had been successfully used against him in prior bouts. Nat Fleischer reports on Gans’ strategic study of Erne in Black Dynamite, “Gans had noticed that Erne had a trick of feinting and drawing quickly back about twelve inches, when he would stop short and come in again with a blow. Working out with Harry Lenny in the gymnasium one day, Gans said: ‘Mr. Lenny, you have a left hand like Mr. Erne. Will you keep on trying it with me? I want to sort of study out something.’ The two sparred together for about a week working various left-hand leads. Then Gans said, ‘I think I’ve got the idea now. Let a left come in for all you’re worth.’

  “Lenny obeyed, and quick as a flash Gans nailed him with a counter right cross to the chin. ‘That’s good enough,’ commented Joe, as he pulled off his gloves. ‘I’ve got Mr. Erne’s number now. That lead will beat him.’”3

  And it would, when Gans threw a perfectly timed right cross to the point of Erne’s chin.