6. “Notable Year for Pugilism: Fight Followers are Likely to Remember 1900 for Several Reasons; Crookedness Charged, Record-Breaking Number of Suspicious Bouts Causes Prohibitory Laws,” Chicago Tribune, January 1, 1901.
7. Various rumors of “fix” accompanied fighters of the day. For the McCoy-Corbett story, see Armond Fields, 126 and the Chicago Tribune, “Notable Year.”
8. Fields, 126.
9. Arthur Ashe, Hard Road to Glory, 9. A vitriolic editorial about Gans and Walcott, “Tale of Two Fighting Fakirs,” by H.N. Pillsbury would be published in the San Antonio Sunday Light, April 29, 1906.
10. “Notable Year,” Chicago Tribune, January 1, 1901.
11. The name of the secret Chinese society translated into “righteous harmony hand,” mistakenly translated as “righteous harmony fist,” or shortened to “boxers.”
12. American servicemen, not to be out-trained elsewhere in the art of self-defense, were required to take classes in the ‘manly’ sport. In 1892 Tom Sharkey joined the U.S. Navy and served on the USS Philadelphia, where he took boxing instruction and fought gloved events with other sailors. On May 17, 1893, the British Navy sent its champion, Jim Gardner, to Honolulu, Hawaii, to fight Sharkey. “Sailor Tom” KO’d the heavier and more experienced fighter in 4 rounds. James B. Roberts and Alexander G. Skutt, eds., The Boxing Register, 216. “Smokers” continued on U.S. ships well into the twentieth century.
13. J.J. Johnston, Chicago Boxing, 19.
14. The newspapers were filled with reports of the Chicago fight, the arrests the next day, statements from the participants, and editorials. Chicago Tribune, Chicago Times Herald, Baltimore Sun, and the New York World, December 17, 1900.
15. “Gans Knocked Out,” Baltimore Sun, December 14, 1900.
16. Ibid.
17. Chicago Times Herald, December 14, 1900, for the details of the colorful pageantry.
18. “Gans Knocked Out,” Baltimore Sun, December 14, 1900.
19. “M’Govern Wins a ‘Fake’ Fight,” Chicago Times Herald, December 14, 1900.
20. “Lynched Negro Testified for another Negro,” New Orleans Times Democrat, March 24, 1900.
21. Ralph Ginzburg, One Hundred Years of Lynchings, 31–46.
22. Ibid., 49 and 68, respectively.
23. “Words of Warning to the Negro,” Chicago Broadax, December 1, 1900.
24. “Attempted Suicide to Avoid Lynching,” Phoenix Anaconda Standard, November 24, 1900.
25. Ginzburg, 145.
26. Mohammad Ali, The Greatest: My Own Story, 324.
27. Joyce Carol Oates, On Boxing, 95.
28. “Gans Knocked Out,” Baltimore Sun, December 14, 1900.
29. Ibid.
30. “Loser on Fight Attempts Suicide,” Chicago Tribune, December 14, 1900.
31. “Howl Over the Fight: Manager Herford Defends Gans and Himself, But Many Persons Cry ‘fake,’” Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1900.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. “Howl Over the Fight: Siler’s View of It,” Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1900.
35. Ibid.
36. “Herford in Baltimore,” Baltimore Sun, December 17, 1900.
37. “Gans Knocked Out: How Baltimore Took It,” Baltimore Sun, December 14, 1900.
38. “Howl Over the Fight: What Marias Thinks,” Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1900.
39. “Howl Over the Fight: Denver Doesn’t Want Gans,” Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1900.
40. “Herford in Baltimore: Talk of Written Agreement,” Baltimore Sun, December 17, 1900.
41. “Straight Hitting Gets Boxers Plums: Styles of Other Fighters,” New York Times, February 2, 1908.
42. “Herford and Gans to Go to Chicago,” Baltimore Sun, October 22, 1900.
43. “No Fights in Chicago if the Mayor Signs Resolution Passed by Council: Alderman Patterson Angry,” Baltimore Sun (special dispatch from Chicago, December 17, 1900), December 18, 1900.
44. “McGovern’s Earning Powers,” Baltimore Sun, December 18, 1900. Six years later the New York Evening World investigated his earnings and reported that during McGovern’s eleven years of fighting, he had gone through $203,000 of fight earnings. “Money M’Govern Made,” Baltimore Sun, January 15, 1907. With his family penniless in 1907, McGovern would be the beneficiary of a charity boxing exhibition at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1907. “With the Boxers: Many to Box at McGovern Benefit,” Baltimore Sun, January 18, 1907.
45. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite: The Story of the Negro in Boxing, 144.
46. Ibid.
47. Arthur Ashe, Hard Road to Glory, 11.
48. Nat Fleischer, 171.
49. Chicago Tribune, December 20, 1900. “That Wonderful Little Fighter Terry McGovern,” The New York World, December, 1900.
Chapter 8
1. One of Kelly’s rare ring appearances as referee during the next four years was the fight between Jim Corbett and Tom Sharkey. Baltimore Sun, May 5, 2000.
2. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, Ch. 11: “Joe Gans, ‘The Old Master,’” 136.
3. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, Ch. 11, 142.
4. “A Jig Time Prizefight: And the Hottest Ever Seen at the Broadway Club,” Baltimore Sun (dispatch from New York, May 25), May 26, 1900.
5. “Gans in Third Round: The Fight which Knocked Dal Hawkins Senseless Last Under the Horton Law,” Baltimore Sun, September 1, 1900.
6. Ibid. Jimmy Britt would be more successful in years to come when he assumed Gans’ title in a similar move by his manager and brother, Willus Britt.
7. “How Jeffries Stands,” Baltimore Sun (from Richmond, Va., Aug. 31), September 1, 1900.
8. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, Ch. 12, “Strays from Narrow Path,” 143.
9. “Flaherty is Beaten: Joseph Gans Takes Four Rounds to Undo the Lowell Man,” Baltimore Sun, April 2, 1901.
10. Ibid.
11. “Gans Doesn’t Do It: He Outclasses Them Easily,” Baltimore Sun, July 16, 1901.
12. “Negro Rapist Hanged,” Washington Post, July 13, 1901.
13. Michael McCurdy, ed. Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words, 47.
14. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, 143.
15. Ibid., 155.
Chapter 9
1. “Now for Big Fight: Joe Gans and Frank Erne to Contest for Championship,” Baltimore Sun, May 11, 1902. Various other attempts made by Herford to get a rematch for Gans with Frank Erne are reported in the Baltimore Sun. See “Herford and Gans Go to Chicago,” October 22, 1900; “Herford’s Hot Reply,” February 13, 1902; and “Now Erne Must Fight: Herford for Gans Accepts Every Condition Offered,” March 7, 1902.
2. “Now for Big Fight,” Baltimore Sun, May 11, 1902.
3. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, Ch. 13, “Wins Lightweight Crown,” 155.
4. “Now for Big Fight,” Baltimore Sun, May 11, 1902.
5. “Gans in Quick Time: Baltimore Lightweight Now the World’s Champion, Frank Erne Downed in 1.40,” Baltimore Sun, May 15, 1902.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. “The New Champion” Baltimore Sun (special dispatch from Al Herford, Buffalo), May 15, 1902.
10. “Gans and Rockefeller,” Baltimore Sun, May 15, 1902.
11. “Joe Gans Wins,” Baltimore Sun, September 4, 1906. The famous telegram from Gans’ mother in Baltimore read at ringside, “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.”
12. “Gans and the Corpses,” Baltimore Sun, May 15, 1902.
Chapter 10
1. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, Ch. 13, “Wins Lightweight Crown,” 155.
2. Ibid.
3. “Wasn’t Hurt and Could Have Fought Twenty Rounds More,” San Francisco Examiner, October 1, 1904.
4. Bill Moran, “The Greatest Fighter Who Ever Lived? This Writer Lauds Joe Gans, Old
Master,” Nevada State Journal, September 27, 1942.
5. “George McFadden Makes No Effort to Win Against Lightweight Champion Joe Gans,” San Francisco Examiner, June 28, 1902.
6. “Exhibition May Be a Good One, But Public Fears Tactics of Baltimore Boxer,” San Francisco Examiner, June 27, 1902.
7. “George McFadden Makes No Effort to Win Against Lightweight Champion Joe Gans,” San Francisco Examiner, June 28, 1902.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10.Ibid.
11. David W. Maurer, The Big Con: Story of the Confidence Man, New York: Anchor Books/Random House, 1940.
12. “Not in Gans’ Class,” Baltimore Sun, September 18, 1902.
13. “Chicago Club Bars Gans: Public is Against Champion Because of McGovern Fiasco,” Baltimore Sun (special dispatch from Chicago), September 24, 1902.
14. “Ring Patrons Say Fitzgerald Has a Royal Chance to Win; Cite Gans’ Fights with Erne and McFadden,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 28, 1903.
15. “Many Willing to Pay Four to Win Ten,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 29, 1903.
16. Willie Fitzgerald, “Gans Won an Honest Victory,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 30, 1903.
17. “King No Match for Joe Gans: Lightweight Champion Had Him at His Mercy at Any Stage of the Game,” Butte Miner, July 5, 1903.
18. Ibid.
19. “Walcott-Lafontise Go is the Next,” Butte Miner, July 3, 1903. Walcott’s quick defeat of Mose La Fontise in the third round, Friday evening on July 3, with Jack Johnson present as his second, was incorrectly cited as July 4 by Geoffrey Ward, Unforgiveable Blackness, 62. Gans’ title defense was the more highly anticipated fight and was held on July 4.
20. “King No Match for Joe Gans,” Butte Miner, July 5, 1903.
21. Nat Fleischer, 50 Years at Ringside, 281–282, lists Jack Johnson as the number one heavyweight, Barbados Joe Walcott as the top welterweight, Joe Gans as number one lightweight, and Gans’ contemporaries Terry McGovern as the top featherweight and George Dixon as best bantomweight.
22. “King No Match for Gans,” Butte Miner, July 5, 1903.
23. “Are Titles in Danger? Gans to Show His Worth,” Baltimore Sun, January 10, 1904.
24. Left Hook, New York Morning Telegraph, quoted in Baltimore Sun, “Is Gans in Danger?” January 11, 1904.
Chapter 11
1. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, 259.
2. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite: The Story of the Negro in the Prize Ring from 1782 to 1938, Vol. 5, Sockers and Sepia: A Continuation of the Drama of the Negro in Pugilistic Competition, 7.
3. Nat Fleischer and Sam Andre, A Pictorial History of Boxing, 300.
4. James B. Roberts and Alexander G. Skutt, eds., The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book, 4th ed., 124–125.
5. Monte Cox, “Joe Gans Championship Years: Setting the Record Straight,” IBRO Journal, No. 82, Summer 2004. This seminal research can be read online at coxscorner.tripod.com/ganschamp.html.
6. Bert Randolph Sugar, Boxing’s Greatest Champions, 47.
7. Geoffrey C. Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 161.
8. “Charges Local Boxer Deceived his Friends: Baltimorean Thinks Britt’s Reputation Will Suffer When Truth Comes Out,” San Francisco Examiner, February 18, 1906.
9. Charles Samuels, The Magnificent Rube: The Life and Gaudy Times of Tex Rickard, 107.
10. “Britt and Gans Ready,” Baltimore Sun, October 31, 1904.
11. “The Runners at Pimlico: Over 900 Thoroughbreds Await Opening on Saturday,” Baltimore Sun, November 1, 1904.
12. “Arrow is in $100,000 Event: Airship of Captain Baldwin of Oakland Qualifies for Contest for Big Prize by Second Flight at the World’s Fair,” San Francisco Examiner, November 1, 1904.
13. “Britt and Gans Ready,” Baltimore Sun, October 31, 1904.
14. Ibid.
15. “Britt, Greatest Fighter of His Weight, Loses on Foul and Battles with Referee,” San Francisco Examiner, November 1, 1904.
16. “Triumph Turned to Bitter Loss: Negro Hasn’t One Chance in Million When the White Man Loses His Head,” San Francisco Examiner, November 1, 1904.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. “Gans Wins on a Foul,” Baltimore Sun, November 1, 1904.
20. “Gans in Distress Welcomes the Illegal Blow,” San Francisco Examiner, November 1, 1904.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Jimmy Britt, “Sorry He Couldn’t Put Check on Self,” San Francisco Examiner, November 1, 1904.
25. “McGovern Says Now that He is Very Anxious for a Fight with Britt,” San Francisco Examiner (dispatch from New York, Oct. 31), November 1, 1904.
26. “Joe Gans Believes He Can Whip Britt: Sorry He Won on a Foul, but Says He Will Never Train Down Again to 133 Pounds Ring-side, as He is Too Old,” San Francisco Examiner, November 1, 1904.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. “britt: Britt is Strictly a 133 Pound Pugilist: Says He’s a Lightweight, and Will Refuse to Fight Outside His Class,” San Francisco Examiner, November 8, 1904.
30. “ladies, Fair Sex Entertained at the Olympic Club: Britt Monologues at the Club Olympic,” San Francisco Examiner, January 20, 1905.
31. W.W. Naughton, “Lightweight Laurels Belong to Boxer James Edward Britt,” San Francisco Examiner, January 10, 1905.
32. Ibid.
33. “Crowd Hisses Fighters Clinched for 6 Rounds; McGovern and Nelson Displease Big Attendance at Bout; Champion is the Stronger; Spurred by the Taunts of the Spectators, the Dane Used Brooklyn Boy Severely in last Two Rounds,” New York Times, March 15, 1906.
34. “Joe Gans Beaten: Referee O’Hara Calls It a Draw: The Crowd Lets Up a Howl,” Baltimore Sun, September 16, 1905. (The Sun must have failed to note the dispatch sent from Philadelphia where it reported Gans’ fight with Rufe Turner “Turner Better than Gans: Defeats the Champion, But Does Not Let Himself Out,” March 28, 1905.)
35. “Charges Local Boxer Deceived His Friends: Baltimorean Thinks Britt’s Reputation Will Suffer When Truth Comes Out,” San Francisco Examiner, February 18, 1906. Britt’s headline reply below Gans’: “Britt Says Gans is Fool or Ill Advised.”
36. Joe Gans, untitled, “From now on I shall fight on the level....” San Francisco Examiner, January 22, 1906.
37. Gunboat Smith, quoted by Peter Heller, In This Corner, 40–41.
38. Willie Ritchie, quoted by Peter Heller, In This Corner, 21.
Chapter 12
1. “Billy the Kid’s Exploit,” National Police Gazette, May 21, 1881; “Billy LeRoy, the Bandit,” National Police Gazette, June 18, 1881; Thomas F. Daggett, The Life and Deeds of Billy LeRoy alias The Kid, King of America Highwaymen, published in 1881 by Richard K. Fox. See: J.C. Dykes, Billy the Kid: The Bibliography of a Legend, 11–12.
2. Stories are legion about managers who left their boxers destitute. Even after Jack Dempsey had beaten Jess Willard to win the heavyweight title and had taken a purse of $27,000, he was still broke. As his manager Doc Kearns explained, he had needed money to move around with, pay bets, and money to entertain the writers with. Roger Kahn, A Flame of Pure Fire, 100–104.
3. F. Daniel Somrack, Images of Sports: Boxing in San Francisco, 83. That Gans went west to avenge his first loss in the ring in October of 1896 is reported in the Baltimore Sun, November 4, 1898.
4. “Gans Wins in a One-Sided Match: Rochette, the Local Boxer, Completely Outclassed by the Baltimorean,” San Francisco Examiner, December 15, 1896.
5. Herbert Ashbury, The Barbary Coast—An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld (rpt. of Benjamin Estelle Lloyd, Lights and Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco, 1876), 101.
6. Ibid.
7. Earp’s side of the Sharkey-Fitzsimmons story, San Francisco Examiner, December 10, 1896.
8. “Gans and M’Fadden Draw: But the Baltimore Negro Had the Best of It,” Baltimore Sun, Octo
ber 3, 1900.
9. Armond Fields, James J. Corbett: A Biography of the Heavyweight Boxing Champion and Popular Theater Headliner, 67.
10. The play appeared in New York City on September 29, 1911, as The Birth Mark and in Minneapolis on July 15, 1911, as Her Brother’s Clothes. Jack London Stories of Boxing, James Bankes, ed., 14.
11. T. Allston Brown, A History of New York Stage: From the First Performance in 1732–1901, 650–652.
12. Armond Fields, 85.
13. “Kid M’Coy Married Again: Divorced from Former Wife Thrice. New One an Actress,” Baltimore Sun, January 19, 1904.
14. Felicia Feaster, “The Wizard of Oz (1925),” Turner Classic Movies, articles online. www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=138086&mainArticleId=138084, accessed February 18, 2008.
15. “McFadden’s Claim on Gans” Baltimore Sun (from letter sent to the sporting editor of the Sun, dated September 29, 1902), October 1, 1902.
Chapter 13
1. “Decision over Gans: Sam Langford Gets It in a Fifteen-Round Bout,” Baltimore Sun (special dispatch from Boston), December 9, 1903.
2. ESPN survey online, ESPN.com, accessed June 15, 2007.
3. Gans had been ill for the Langford match in early December. See “Decision Over Gans,” Baltimore Sun, December 9, 1903. Gans missed a match with Blackburn scheduled December 21 due to illness. See “Boxing and Wrestling,” Baltimore Sun, January 6, 1904. Temperatures on the East Coast, falling below the zero-degree mark, were responsible for many deaths, including that of Terry McGovern’s two-year-old daughter who died of pneumonia.
4. Charles A. Dana, quoted by Arthur Ashe, Hard Road to Glory, 11.
5. Rex Lardner writes about Walcott in The Legendary Champions, 170.
6. “Says That Gans Had Skill, But Walcott Was Aggressor,” San Francisco Examiner, October 1, 1904.
7. “Wasn’t Hurt and Could Have Fought Twenty Rounds More,” San Francisco Examiner, October 1, 1904.
8. Barbados Negro Declares He Fought with Broken Left Arm,” San Francisco Examiner, October 1, 1904.
9. “Gans Outpoints Walcott, But Referee Calls It Draw: Ruling Makes Crowd Frown,” San Francisco Examiner, October 1, 1904.
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