Hitters, Dancers and Ring Magicians This page intentionally left blank Hitters, Dancers and Ring Magicians Seven Boxers of the Golden Age and Their Challengers K R N ELLY ICHARD ICHOLSON Foreword by DAN CUOCO McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA Nicholson, Kelly Richard. Hitters, dancers and ring magicians : seven boxers of the golden age and their challengers / Kelly Richard Nicholson ; foreword by Dan Cuoco. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-4990-3 softcover : 50# alkaline paper 1. Boxer (Sports)—Biography. 2. Boxing—History— 19th century. 3. Boxing—History—20th century. I. Title. GV1131.N525 2011 796.830922—dc22 [B] 2010039582 British Library cataloguing data are available © 2011 Kelly Richard Nicholson. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover: The amazing George “Kid” Lavigne, circa 1896 Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com A special shout-out to Frank and the gang— Jess, Taylor, Christopher, Beacher, Suzy, and Liz— at Franky and Johnny’s Island Park on Rte. 46 in New Jersey. Thanks for good times, hospitality, and encouragement in a place where good friends did meet. This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This book deals with athletes who thrived in what some have called a golden age, an age when American boxing came to maturity in a setting that still had in it some grit and taste of the old frontier. It is devoted to several men—founding fathers, one might say, of a modern sporting nation—who provide flesh examples of the age and its spirit. In completing a project of this size, one becomes indebted to a fair number of folk; the present instance is no exception. As was the case with my first boxing book A Man Among Men, there are several individuals who deserve special mention for their generosity. Thus again I give thanks to Tracy Callis, an eminent boxing historian and an admirer of the early fighters, who in recent years has rekindled my interest in that era. Tracy is one of the most discerning individuals on the sporting scene, not to mention a text reader and a researcher of fact whose attention to detail is unmatched. Once more, as well, I am indebted to Harry Shaffer of Antiquities of the Prize Ring for his priceless store of materials on the game at the turn of the century, and for his painstaking helpfulness on more than one occasion. I wish to thank also Clay Moyle, owner of the greatest boxing library that I have seen, and a man helpful in the extreme when it came to obtaining rare and difficult source material. From Clay I obtained plentiful informa- tion, much of it from the marvelous Fight Storiesmagazines of the prewar era. From Monte Cox, another historian with the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO), I obtained a number of items regarding the career and fighting merits of Joe Gans, about whom Monte has written with keen-eyed admiration. David Jack and Tom Scharf provided little-known facts respectively about Bob Fitzsimmons and Terry McGovern. Christine Lewis, in recent months, has gone the extra mile to obtain for me details regarding George LaBlanche. Finally is the contribution of Dan Cuoco, cur- rent director of the IBRO, who has penned a foreword to this book, and vii viii Acknowledgments who ranks as one of the game’s premier sources of integrity and informa- tion. Integrity? How often do we hear that boxing needs it? Corruption, long rife in the sport’s bloodstream, abounds to this day. Yet were boxing, I submit, in the hands of men and women like these, the situation would be different. In the ranks of the IBRO are some of the best individuals whom I have met, in the sport or out of it, and whose friendship does me an honor. So, in short, I say thanks to these individuals for help, intelligence, and plain “old school” courtesy, and for insight in many cases that I would oth- erwise lack. Whatever merit this book has owes something to each. And whatever the problems of the sport, however much character it may lack, I declare that integrity, too, presently lives in this great and bittersweet sci- ence. Table of Contents Acknowledgments vii Foreword by Dan Cuoco 1 Introduction 3 I The New Game 9 II The Saginaw Kid: George “Kid” Lavigne 22 III The Fighting Blacksmith: Bob Fitzsimmons 43 IV A Demon from the Barbados: Joe Walcott 82 V The Old Master: Joe Gans 96 VI The Brooklyn Terror: Terry McGovern 115 VII The Boston Tar Baby: Sam Langford 134 VIII The Michigan Assassin: Stanley Ketchel 155 Afterword 178 Chapter Notes 189 Bibliography 201 Index 211 ix