Joe Gans

by Colleen Aycock

  7. “Gans’ Mother Tells Him to ‘Bring Home Bacon,’” San Francisco Examiner, September 4, 1906. “Joe: the eyes of the world are on you. Everybody says you ought to win. Peter Jackson will tell me the news and you bring back the bacon.”

  8. Muhammad Ali, The Greatest: My Own Story, 322.

  9. H.L. Mencken, “A Master of Gladiators (1907)” Heathen Days, 96.

  10. “If you have ever boxed at all, you will remember that the simplest act, holding your gloves up in proper position, tires your arms within three rounds.” Roger Kahn, A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring ’20s, 77. One can imagine the training needed to endure 42 rounds in a championship fight. To train for a 15-round fight, Jack Dempsey recommended a daily regimen of a “six mile run” and fifteen rounds or “fifteen three-minute intervals, of sparring, shadow-boxing, hitting bags, and skipping rope.”

  11. The New York Times reported that not a “dissenting voice” had been heard since the decision was awarded for Gans (with the exception of those in the Nelson party). “Even losers in betting make no complaint, and numbers of them called on Gans after the fight and congratulated him.” New York Times, “$25,000 to Throw Fight,” September 5, 1906.

  Chapter 2

  1. Jack London used Jack Johnson’s gold-toothed smile as an organizing metaphor for his journalistic reports of the Johnson fights, particularly the “Burns-Johnson Fight (Sydney)” and the “Jeffries-Johnson Fight (Reno, July 4).” Jack London, Jack London Stories of Boxing, James Bankes, ed., 145–187.

  2. Harry C. Carr, “Study in Pathos is Face of Joe Gans,” Los Angeles Daily Times, September 25, 1907.

  3. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, 21.

  4. Ibid., 22.

  5. Geoffrey C. Ward, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, 24.

  6. Ibid., 26.

  7. Ibid., 24.

  8. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3: Three Colored Aces, 128–131. It has been variously reported that fight manager Al Herford either discovered Gans at a battle royal or placed him in these events after seeing him perform on the streets of Baltimore. Reports consistently place Gans’ early battles at the Monumental Theater or Opera House, Fallsway and Baltimore streets.

  9. “Something about Gans,” Baltimore Sun, November 17, 1898.

  10. Ibid.

  11. “Our Yesterdays,” Baltimore Evening Sun, January 6, 1955, with details reprinted from his obituary in the Evening Sun in 1930. The “old-time boxing promoter” died at the age of 63 and was “credited with discovering, and for years managed, Joe Gans.” After boxing was legislated out of public life and into private clubs, “Al and his brother Maurice organized the Eureka Athletic Club; sold ‘memberships’ at the gate, and hired a bum to read ‘minutes of the previous meeting’ at the start of weekly proceedings.”

  12. H.L. Mencken, “A Master of Gladiators,” Heathen Days, 100.

  13. Buck Washington fought as a stand-in for Kid Washington’s opponent, who quit in the first round in the preliminary bout for the Joe Gans–Jewey Cooke fight, May 27, 1904. Baltimore Sun, “Like the Gans of Old,” May 28, 1904.

  14. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, 131.

  15. Mencken, 105.

  16. The name Joe Gans may have been adopted by more fighters than any other. Geoffrey Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 15, lists: “Allentown Joe Gans,” “Baby Joe Gans,” “Cyclone Joe Gans,” “Dago Joe Gans,” “Italian Joe Gans,” “Michigan Joe Gans,” “Panama Joe Gans,” and four other “Young Joe Gans.” Thomas McGowan, a Scottish fighter in the thirties hailing from Lanarkshire (the same hometown as the legendary freedom fighter William Wallace) and father and trainer to world title holder Walter McGowan, permanently adopted the name Joe Gans. www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/asportingnation/0083/print.shtml.

  17. Mencken, 100.

  Chapter 3

  1. In 1850 the population of New York City was 516,000 and Baltimore City was 169,000. Boston was the third largest city. www.demographia.com/db-uscityr1850.html.

  2. Stanton Tierman, “Baltimore’s Old Slave Markets,” http://www.nathanielturner.com/baltimoreslavemarkets.htm.

  3. Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, 24.

  4. Armond Fields, James J. Corbett: A Biography of the Heavyweight Boxing Champion and Popular Theater Headliner, 2.

  5. James B. Roberts and Alexander G. Skutt, The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book, 37. Tom Molineaux’s birthplace is generally considered to be Georgetown, Md., although he was raised on a plantation in Virginia owned by Algernon Molineaux. He died touring Ireland in a boxing show at the age of 34, possibly of tuberculosis.

  6. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite: The Story of the Negro in Boxing, 35.

  7. Glenn O. Phillips, “Gans, Joseph ‘Baby Joe’ (1874–1900),” www.mdoe.org/gansjoe.html, 2004–2005. While there was some question surrounding his date of birth, Gans consistently acknowledged the year as 1874. Gans’ death certificate noted his date of birth as September 1, 1874; however, in the hand of his wife Martha, his age at death is listed as 35 years, 9 months and 10 days. Maryland State Archives, cache of http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/sc5600/sc5604/html/images/joe_gans_death_cert.tif, accessed January 11, 2008.

  8. Roger Simon and Angie Cannon, “An Amazing Journey: The Mirror of the Census Reveals the Character of a Nation, U.S. News and World Report, August 6, 2001, 8.

  9. Francis F. Beirne, The Amiable Baltimoreans, 142–156.

  10. Fells Point, Out of Time, a film documentary produced and directed by Jacqueline Greff, Baltimore, Md., 2004.

  11. Baltimore’s canned oysters were considered luxuries at America’s early tables. Eastern aristocrat turned soldier’s wife Martha Summerhayes, in her memoir Vanished Arizona, remembers bringing canned oysters from Baltimore to the army’s wilderness outposts in the Arizona territory in the 1870s.

  12. James B. Roberts and Alexander G. Skutt, eds., Boxing Register, 12.

  13. Ibid., 44.

  14. Eight world champions came from Baltimore. Thomas Scharf, Images of Sports: Baltimore’s Boxing Legacy 1893–2003, 7.

  15. Robert Lipsyte and Peter Levine, Idols of the Game, 24–30.

  16. Christopher T. George, Monumentally Speaking: John Quincy Adams and “The Monumental City,” n.d. www.baltimoremd.com/monuments/adams.html, accessed February 16, 2008.

  Chapter 4

  1. Alex Wade, It’s a Knockout: Take a Ringside Seat for the Best View of New York, June 26, 2005, www.travel.independent.co.uk/americas/article, accessed July 17, 2007.

  2. Mahonri Mackintosh Young’s Joe Gans was sculpted during the 1930s. Young (1877–1957) was known for realistic portraiture of ordinary working people. In 1941 Life magazine called Young the “George Bellows of sculpture.” Both artists admired the boxing master Joe Gans. Grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young, Mahonri Young was born and raised in Salt Lake City. In 1950 he sculpted the figure of his venerable grandfather for the state of Utah’s contribution to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.

  3. Geoffrey Ward, Unforgiveable Blackness, 429.

  4. “This Was Joe Gans,” Boxing Illustrated/Wrestling News, August, 1960.

  5. “Gans and the Corpses,” Baltimore Sun, May 15, 1902.

  6. Ibid.

  7. John L. Sullivan (reported from San Francisco), “Stands Up for Boxing,” Baltimore Sun, March 3, 1896.

  8. “Fitz’s Trouble with a Conductor;” “Pugilist Convicted of Manslaughter;” “Bunco O’Brien’s Life Sentence;” Baltimore Sun, March 16, 1896.

  9. George Bellows’ Both Members of This Club, 1909 is located in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The black contestant is identified as “Joe Gans, lightweight champion for eight years.” Painting is framed (52 3/8 × 70 5/16), Chester Dale Collection, one of six Bellows oil paintings of boxing subjects.

  10. “Eureka Athletic Club,” Baltimore Sun, March 7, 1895. Management of Herford’s Athletic Club in
cluded Hugo C. Bernstein, Lewis S. Cleveland, Edward Herford, Lewis Mandelbaum, Larry Etherich and William Eichberg.

  Chapter 5

  1. New York Times, “Straight Hitting Gets Boxers Plums: Champion Joe Gans Tells Why He Has Lasted So Long in the Prize Ring,” February 2, 1908. “I owe my present position in the ring to my ability to hit straight more than to anything else.” This is the definitive article where Gans assesses his own style.

  2. A list of his early fights appeared in the Baltimore Sun, March 12, 1896. In an interview two years later, Gans stated that his first battle with David Armstrong was held on Bond Street for a purse of $2.80 in which he took home $1.40. His next battle was with D. Coates near the Lexington market. For that he was paid $8.00. “Something About Gans: The Self-Taught Colored Boxer who Defeated McPartland Last Friday Wants the Champion’s Title; Gained His Skill Largely from Observation of Others,” Baltimore Sun, November 17, 1898.

  3. Bill Gray, Boxing’s Top 100, 108.

  4. “Gans Whips English,” Baltimore Sun, March 7, 1895.

  5. “Ruby Robert” Fitzsimmons, born in England in 1863, worked as a youth as a blacksmith after his family moved to New Zealand. His early professional fights took place in Australia, but he came to America when opportunities declined in his home country. He routinely fought heavier men over a career that spanned 27 years. James B. Roberts and Alexander G. Skutt, eds., The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book, 120–121.

  6. Charles L. Convis, True Tales of the Old West, Vol. 9, 51.

  7. “Straight Hitting,” New York Times, February 2, 1908.

  8. “Gans and Wilson Draw,” Baltimore Sun, March 19, 1895. Gans would give Wilson his greatest exposure in their battle at the end of 1902 after Gans became world champion.

  9. A committee called the “Maryland Game Protection Association” was formed in Ellicott City in Howard County, Md. “Protection of Game in Howard,” Baltimore Sun, March 19, 1895.

  10. “Gans Whips the Rosebud,” Baltimore Sun, April 26, 1895.

  11. “Elliott Knocked Out: Joseph Gans, the Clever Colored Man, Does it by a Strange Blow,” Baltimore Sun, October 22, 1895.

  12. “Death of Griffo,” Time, December 19, 1927, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,731305,00.html.

  13. “Straight Hitting,” New York Times, February 2, 1908.

  14. “An Imitation Fight,” Baltimore Sun, November 19, 1895.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Nat Fleischer, Ch. 11: “Joe Gans, ‘The Old Master’ (1874–1910),” Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, 134.

  17. “Gans Knocks Out Siddons: The Dangerous New Orleans Lad Stays Nearly Seven Rounds,” Baltimore Sun, November 29, 1895.

  18. Ibid.

  19. “Baltimore Boxers in Demand,” Baltimore Sun, January 30, 1896.

  20. “No More Sparring,” Baltimore Sun, January 29, 1896.

  21. Ibid.

  22. “With the Boxers,” Baltimore Sun, January 11, 1896, and “Another Victory for Gans,” Baltimore Sun, January 13, 1896.

  23. “Joseph Gans Won,” Baltimore Sun, February 24, 1896.

  24. “Gans in Quick Time,” Baltimore Sun, May 13, 1902.

  25. “Gans-Erne Fizzle: Buffalo Boy Backed Out and Herford is After a Match at $1000,” Baltimore Sun, March 14, 1896.

  26. “The Boxers: Gans Whips Watson,” Baltimore Sun, June 9, 1896.

  27. “The Boxers: Gans Whips Tommy Butler;” “Fitz Ready for Sharkey;” and “Where May Corbett and Sharkey Fight?” Baltimore Sun, June 30, 1896.

  28. “The Boxers: Williams Still After Gans,” Baltimore Sun, August 22, 1896.

  29. “The Boxers: Both Clever Pugilists, but the Baltimorean Outpoints his Man,” Baltimore Sun, September 1, 1896.

  30. “Gans Lost to Hawkins: Battle at Bohemian Club Decided against the Baltimorean,” Baltimore Sun, October 7, 1896.

  31. “Jerry Marshall, Colored, of Australia, Challenges Gans for $500 a Side—Gans Accepts—Fitzsimmons May Fight Sharkey—Other Sporting News,” Baltimore Sun, October 20, 1896, and “Another Victory for Gans,” Baltimore Sun, November 13, 1896.

  32. “Gans Whips Wilson,” Baltimore Sun, April 5, 1897.

  33. “Gans in Five Rounds: Puts Out the Game Isadore Strauss at the Eureka Athletic Club,” Baltimore Sun, August 31, 1897.

  34. “The Boxers: Gans and Griffo Draw,” Baltimore Sun, September 22, 1897.

  35. “Herford and Gans Angry,” Baltimore Sun, September 29, 1897.

  36. “Gans Whips Abbott,” Baltimore Sun, November 30, 1897.

  37. “Gans Whips Garrard,” Baltimore Sun, January 18, 1898.

  38. “Gans Defeats McPartland,” New York Times, November 5, 1898.

  39. Bill Moran, quoting Tad Dorgan in “The Greatest Fighter Who Ever Lived?” Reno Nevada State Journal, September 27, 1942.

  40. “Strait Hitting Gets Boxers Plums: Styles of Other Fighters,” New York Times, February 2, 1908.

  41. George Bellows, Both Members of This Club, 1909, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., East Building, Ground Gallery.

  42. “Gans Knocks Ball Out,” Baltimore Sun (special dispatch from Philadelphia), September 29, 1896.

  Chapter 6

  1. “Gans in Quick Time: The Match that Failed,” Baltimore Sun, May 13, 1902.

  2. Erne beat Dixon on November 27, 1896, in a 20-round bout at the Broadway Athletic Club in New York, although many thought the bout should have been a draw (they had fought to a draw the previous year). “The referee, Sam Austin, evidently considered that Erne had out-pointed his dusky opponent with a good deal to spare.” San Francisco Examiner, November 28, 1896.

  3. Nat Fleischer says that Gans was close to getting a championship match with Kid Lavigne, and would have, had he not lost to McFadden in 1899. Ch. 12: “Strays from Narrow Path,” Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, 145.

  4. Evelyn Nesbit, Prodigal Days, 1934.

  5. Melissa Haley, “Storm of Blows,” Vol. 3, No. 2, “The Death of Andy Bowen,” Common-place, sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society and Florida State University Department of History, January 2003. www.common-place.org, accessed January 36, 2008.

  6. “Gans and Erne,” Baltimore Sun, March 23, 1900.

  7. At that time there were only six world boxing titles: bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, and heavyweight. By the 1920s there were eight categories, adding flyweight and light heavyweight.

  8. Melissa Haley, “Storm of Blows,” Vol. 3.

  9. “Gans and Erne,” Baltimore Sun, March 23, 1900.

  10. The phrase “the Real McCoy” appeared in a San Francisco headline, “Choynski is Beaten by the Real McCoy,” distinguishing from “a lesser boxer named Peter McCoy, who had fought in San Francisco days earlier.” James B. Roberts and Alexander G. Skutt, eds., The Boxing Register, 182.

  11. “Gans and Erne,” Baltimore Sun, March 23, 1900.

  12. Nat Fleischer, 151.

  13. “Spear—barbed spear or iron hook for heavy fish or metal spur for a gamecock, slang to stand the gaff, something difficult to bear,” Dictionary by Webster, 1936, s.v. “Gaff.”

  14. The “yellowstreak” was commonly reported in the newspapers of the time. An article in the Washington Post focused on the yellowstreak of a number of black boxers of the era. “Negro Pugilists Accused of Having Yellow Streak,” Washington Post, June 13, 1909.

  15. Comments made to author Mark Scott in gyms when he fought as an amateur.

  16. Sam Langford, considered one of the ten greatest athletes of the first half-century, died penniless and blind in a Boston nursing home in 1956. The description of the photo in the boxing gym in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, 334, probably refers to Sam Langford. Battling Nelson, Gans’ opponent in the first Great Fight of the Century “in later years worked for the Chicago Post Office, but when his eyes began to fail he was forced to live on a small pension aid from the Veteran Boxers Association.” See J.J. Johnston and Sean Curtin, Imag
es of Sport: Chicago Boxing, 24. Walcott Langford, a black fighter with no relation to Sam Langford or Barbados Joe Walcott, also went blind and broke, Chicago Boxing, 44.

  17. “Gans is Whipped,” Baltimore Sun, March 24, 1900.

  18. Nat Fleischer, 151–152.

  19. Nat Fleischer, 152.

  20. “Gans is Whipped,” Baltimore Sun, March 24, 1900.

  21. “The New Champion: What He Told Harry Lyons,” Baltimore Sun, May 14, 1902.

  22. “Joe Gans is Married,” Decatur (Ill.) Review, April 11, 1900.

  23. www.streetswing.com/dancehistoryarchives, accessed January 10, 2008.

  24. Evelyn Nesbit, Tragic Beauty: The Lost 1914 Memoirs of Evelyn Nesbit, ed. by Deborah Dorian Paul, 98.

  Chapter 7

  1. A description of the living conditions of 1900 Chicago can be found at www.chipublib.org/004/chicago/1900.

  2. Chicago Tribune, December 14, 1900. When the clergy “grew eloquent upon the possibility of young minds being corrupted by the sight of the pounding [Mayor Harrison] informed them that the fight was better calculated to develop morality than the Maze ever had been.”

  3. Ibid.

  4. Lawyer Paul Harris and three other business owners in Chicago founded a club in 1905 that a century later had grown into a network of thousands of city clubs worldwide called Rotary International. In forming the original club as a reaction to the unethical business practices that existed at the turn of the century, Harris and his friends selected members who would honor ethical business practices and the motto “Service Above Self.” Rotarians would eventually help draft the charter for and sit at the table of the United Nations. Women would become members of the club in 1987.

  5. American Experience: Chicago, City of the Century; People and Events: World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893: The Midway. PBS Online, 1999–2003. www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/e_midway.html, accessed January 27, 2008.