Joe Gans

by Colleen Aycock

  10. The Joe Louis Story, 1953.

  11. “English Fighter Beaten by Gans,” New York Times, May 28, 1904. “Like the Gans of Old: He Never Gave Jewey Cooke the Slightest Chance,” Baltimore Sun, May 28, 1904.

  12. W.W. Naughton, “And Now Gans is the Idol of Boxing Patrons,” San Francisco Examiner, January 23, 1906.

  13. Alexander Johnson, Ten And Out, 300–301.

  14. David L. Hudson, Jr., and Mike H. Fitzgerald, Jr., Boxing’s Most Wanted, 209.

  15. “McCoy Gets into a Street Brawl,” Chicago Tribune, December 29, 1900.

  16. Charles Convis, True Tales from the Old West, Vol. 9, 56.

  17. “Wasn’t Hurt,” San Francisco Examiner, October 1, 1904.

  18. “Novel Challenge,” Philadelphia Enquirer, January 31, 1903.

  19. Charles E. Van Loan, “One Thirty Three Ringside,” Paul D. Staudohar, ed., Boxing’s Best Short Stories, 237.

  Chapter 14

  1. Charles Samuels, The Magnificent Rube: The Life and Gaudy Times of Tex Rickard, 96.

  2. Ibid., 66.

  3. George Graham Rice, My Adventures with Your Money, 99.

  4. Samuels, 98.

  5. Ibid., 102.

  6. Ibid., 98.

  7. Tracy Callis, “Battling Nelson: Always Battered, Seldom Beaten,” wail! The CBZ Journal, February 2006.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Samuels, 109–110.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid., 101.

  12. Ibid., 103.

  13. Ibid., 103–104.

  14. Rice, 114.

  15. “Today’s Big Fight: Crowds Flock to Goldfield to Take Their Places Beside the Ring,” Baltimore Sun, September 3, 1906.

  16. Rice, 116.

  17. Ibid., 104.

  18. “Today’s Big Fight,” Baltimore Sun, September 3, 1906.

  19. John D. McCallum, The Encyclopedia of World Boxing Champions, 230.

  20. “Today’s Big Fight,” Baltimore Sun, September 3, 1906.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Ibid.

  23. “Joe Gans Wins,” Baltimore Sun, September 4, 1906.

  24. Every major paper covering the fight quoted this telegram from Gans’ mother in their sporting pages the next day, September 4, 1906.

  25. “Joe Gans Wins,” Baltimore Sun, September 4, 1906.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Arthur Ashe, Hard Road to Glory, 13.

  30. Samuels, 129.

  31. Ibid., 103.

  32. Rice, 131.

  Chapter 15

  1. Geoffrey Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 6.

  2. “Consumption Can be Cured,” Albuquerque Morning Journal, July 3, 1910.

  3. “To Fight White Death,” Baltimore Sun, September 19, 1902. The first complete study of tuberculosis in Baltimore was done by a third year medical student from Johns Hopkins University who visited the homes and workplaces of 190 consumptives, everyone who had visited the hospital’s dispensary. Her visits were recorded in the American Journal of Nursing in 1902. During her visits she instructed the residents in methods of disinfecting the home, concerns regarding expectoration and matters of personal health.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. “To Check ‘White Death,’” Baltimore Sun, March 11, 1903.

  8. “Figure on White Death: Exposition at M’Coy Hall,” Baltimore Sun, January 14, 1904.

  9. Ibid.

  10. “Smallpox Case,” Baltimore Sun, January 9, 1904.

  11. “Open-Air Cure: Sleeping Out in a Tent in Zero Weather,” Baltimore Sun, January 9, 1904.

  12. “Turner Better than Gans,” Baltimore Sun (special dispatch from Philadelphia), March 28, 1905.

  13. “Joe Gans Beaten,” Baltimore Sun, September 16, 1905.

  14. “Divorce Denied to Gans: Pugilist Fails to Make Out a Case at Baltimore,” Washington Post, February 7, 1906.

  15. W.W. Naughton, “If Gans Triumphs He’ll Hold Two Championships,” San Francisco Examiner, January 16, 1906.

  16. Diane Yancey, Tuberculosis, Twenty-First Century Medical Library, 59–60. See also: Jean and Rene Dubos, The White Plague, 1952; Katherine Ott, Fevered Lives: Tuberculosis in American Culture Since 1870, 1999; and Frank Ryan, The Forgotten Plague, 1993.

  17. “To Neglect a Cold,” Albuquerque Morning Journal, July 31, 1910.

  18. “El Reposo Sanitorium, Ranch and Health Resort Sierra Madre, Calif.,” Albuquerque Morning Journal, July 31, 1910.

  Chapter 16

  1. Harry C. Carr, “Study in Pathos,” Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1907.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Charles A. Dana, “The Negro Domination in the Field of Fistic Sport,” New York Sun, 1895.

  5. Nat Fleischer, Black Dynamite, Vol. 3, 22.

  6. Jack London, “Jeffries-Johnson Fight,” Jack London Stories of Boxing, James Bankes, ed., 187.

  7. Ibid.

  8. London, 183.

  9. “Put up a Poorer Fight than Herman,” San Francisco Examiner, September 10, 1907.

  10. H.L. Mencken, Heathen Days, 96–97.

  Chapter 17

  1. “Graney Declares Gans Was Offered $25,000 to Fake with Battling Nelson: Well-known Referee Says a Friend of the Champion Advised Him to Take the Money and Double-Cross the Sure-Thing Gamblers, But Gans Refused,” and “Gans Admits He was Offered $25,000 to Lose to Nelson,” San Francisco Examiner, September 7, 1906.

  2. It was reported that Battling Nelson showed up at the Goldfield Hotel in what seemed to be their first meeting after the fight. Apparently, Nelson had been told by his manager that Gans was going to “lay down.” Nelson asked Gans why he didn’t take the dive, explaining that they could have fought again later and it would have saved them both from the protracted ring battle. Elton C. Fax, “Incident at the Goldfield,” Maryland, Vol. 12, 34–37.

  3. Jim Jeffries was to receive $1500 to referee the fight. However, he had called the Burns-O’Brien bout a draw and received such criticism that he decided against serving as a referee for any future boxing matches. “Today’s Big Ring Fight: Now Joe Gans and Herman Will Clash at Tonopha: The Crowds are Pouring In,” Baltimore Sun, January 1, 1907.

  4. Ibid.

  5. “Gans Sends Mother $6000: She Wires Back to Pugilist, ‘Thanks; Keep Stepping, Joe,’” New York Times, January 1, 1907.

  6. “Gans, Only Gans: The Fight at Tonopah is His All the Way Through,” Baltimore Sun, January 2, 1907.

  7. “Gans is Well Received: Tells New York that He Will Whip Jimmy Britt Quickly,” Baltimore Sun, January 16, 1907.

  8. Ibid.

  9. “Another Fight Scandal on Coast,” New York Times (from Los Angeles, Aug. 9), August 10, 1907.

  10. “Today’s Big Ring Fight,” Baltimore Sun, January 1, 1907.

  11. W.W. Naughton, “Britt Sure He is Stronger than Gans and Will Thus Win: Native Son Has New Stunt in Training,” San Francisco Examiner, September 5, 1907.

  12. C.E. Van Loan, “Britt Only Lands Two Dangerous Blows and These in First Round,” San Francisco Examiner, September 10, 1907.

  13. C.E. Van Loan, “At All Times Outclassed and At the Mercy of the Baltimorean,” San Francisco Examiner, September 10, 1907. There was no question that Gans had been the rightful titleholder.

  14. “Joe Gans Wins,” Baltimore Sun, September 10, 1907.

  15. C.E. Van Loan, “Local Fighter a Beaten Man after Second Round,” San Francisco Examiner, September 10, 1907.

  16. Ibid.

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

  18. Ibid.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ibid.

  21. “Miller’s Big Benefit: Many Star Boxers Perform for the Old Fighter: Gans Gets Great Ovation,” Baltimore Sun, January 4, 1908.

  22. “Gans Still Champion,” Baltimore Sun, May 15, 1908.

  23. Film footage of the 17th round. History of Box
ing: 1906–1955. (The film incorrectly identifies this fight as the Goldfield fight.)

  24. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, 8.

  25. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2, line 359–360.

  26. “Joe Gans Knocked Out: Down at Joe’s Hotel,” Baltimore Sun, July 5, 1908.

  27. Ellison, 278.

  28. “Gans Knocked Out: Battling Nelson Finishes Him in Twenty-First Round, Never Had Chance to Win,” Baltimore Sun, September 10, 1908.

  29. “Gans, After a Merciless Beating: Nelson Again Batters Down the ‘Old Master,’” San Francisco Examiner, September 10, 1908.

  30. “Gans Puzzles Sports: Former Negro Champion Wins from Jabez White on Points,” Baltimore Sun, March 13, 1909.

  31. Ibid.

  32. “Joe Gans in Poor Health,” New York Times (from Denver, March 29), March 30, 1909.

  33. “Cross and Stone in Tame Bout,” New York Times (from Baltimore, Oct. 28), October 29, 1909.

  34. “Joe Gans Will Be Great Asset to Jack Johnson,” Washington Post, December 26, 1909.

  35. Florence B. Yount, M.D., “A Century of Medicine,” Echoes of the Past: Tales of Old Yavapai, Vol. 2, 89.

  36. Katherine J. Gernand Nicolay, “Tuberculars Have Positive Cultural Effect on Prescott,” Days Past, Prescott, Ariz.: Sharlot Hall Museum, January 15, 2006.

  37. Ryan Flahive, “Prescott’s Pugilistic Production: The Sullivan-Kilrain Exhibition of 1909,” Days Past, Prescott, Ariz.: Sharlot Hall Museum, April 17, 2005.

  38. Ibid.

  39. “Joe Gans Slowly Sinking,” New York Times (from Baltimore, Aug. 6), August 7, 1910.

  40. Gans arrived in Prescott on June 9, 1910. There were three reports in the local paper regarding his stay in Prescott: Prescott Journal-Miner, June 10, June 18, and August 2, 1910 (courtesy Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Ariz.).

  41. “Joe Gans Going Home to Die,” Albuquerque Journal, August 2, 1910.

  42. “Gans on Last Lap Home,” Washington Post, August 5, 1910.

  43. “Joe Gans Slowly Sinking,” New York Times, August 7, 1910.

  44. “No Change in Gans’ Condition,” New York Times, August 8, 1910.

  45. “Joe Gans,” obituary. Baltimore Afro American, August 13, 1910.

  46. Ibid.

  Chapter 18

  1. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2.

  2. “‘Swinging Doors’ Recalled on Last Visit to Goldfield,” Baltimore Sun, December 6, 1960.

  Chapter 19

  1. “Joseph Gans,” obituary. Baltimore Sun, August 11, 1910.

  2. Quotes from the boxing greats who knew Gans are taken from the research of Monte Cox, “Joe Gans, The Old Master: Was He the Greatest of Them All?” online publication by the IBRO, Journal No. 83, September 2004. Twin Sullivan’s statement comes from a letter he wrote to the San Francisco Examiner, January 22, 1906.

  3. Monte Cox, “Joe Gans, The Old Master: Was He the Greatest of Them All?” and Cox’s Corner Profiles, “Joe Gans, The Old Master....’ He Could Lick Them All on Their Best Day!’” www.coxscorner.tripod.com/gans.html.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid.

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

  9. Mike Casey, “Joe Gans: Secrets of the Old Master,” February 11, 2007. www.boxingscene.com, accessed February 11, 2008.

  10. Herb Boyd, Pound For Pound: A Biography of Sugar Ray Robinson, 89. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins, 2005.

  11. Monte Cox, “Joe Gans, The Old Master: Was He the Greatest of Them All?”

  12. Robert Sylvester, The Joe Louis Story, Robert Gordon, dir., Miracle Pictures, 1953.

  13. Bill Moran, quoting Tad Dorgan in “The Greatest Fighter Who Ever Lived? This Writer Lauds Joe Gans, Old Master,” Nevada State Journal, September 27, 1942.

  14. Ibid.

  15. International News Service, New York, September 30, 1919.

  16. Referee Siler is quoted by Francis J. Grimke in his sermon, “The Atlanta Riot: A Discourse Published by Request.” Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 1906.

  17. H.L. Mencken, “A Master of Gladiators,” 104.

  18. Gerald Suster, Lightning Strikes, 27.

  19. Nat Fleischer, Leonard the Magnificent, 2.

  Chapter 20

  1. San Francisco Examiner, “What Will be the End of the Dead-Earnest, Menacing Uprising of Atlanta to Crush Out with Guns, Ropes and Dogs, the Fearful Epidemic of Negro Crime Against Her Women?” September 20, 1906.

  2. “‘Swinging Doors’ Recalled on Last Visit to Goldfield,” Baltimore Sun, December 6, 1960.

  3. Arthur Ashe, Hard Road to Glory, 12.

  4. Ibid., 25.

  Epilogue

  1. Champions Forever, 2000.

  2. Charles Willeford, Cockfighter, 29.

  3. Ibid.

  4. “Deaths in the Ring: Statistician Gets in His Work on Finished Pugilists,” Baltimore Sun, November 3, 1905. The “statistician,” whose work appears to be the first of its kind reported in America, was Prof. Edwin G. Dexter of the University of Illinois. The list of deaths goes back to 1758.

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