Oregon Prizefighters by Blalock Barney;

Author:Blalock, Barney;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

SAN FRANCISCO HONEYMOON

Upon arrival in San Francisco, Dempsey soon found that public opinion had experienced one of those California earthquakes, shifting pugilism’s legal status into an unfavorable light. A week or so following their arrival, Dempsey was involved in a prizefight at the Oakland Theater. The event was between Dempsey’s coach and companion Tom Cleary and Australian fighter Martin “Buffalo” Costello. Dempsey, Charlie Taylor, Jim Coyle and Pat Carr were the organizers, as well as acting as principals and seconds. Once the first blood appeared, the theater filled with policemen. All the “ring leaders” were arrested under felony indictments, and even many spectators—including an unnamed U.S. senator—were arrested for the misdemeanor charge of attending a prizefight. All this must have been quite exciting for the Catholic schoolgirl from Portland town.

It seems Dempsey had no immediate plans to move to Portland, to “start a hotel” or any other “legitimate” business. He telegraphed a reply to a query from the New York Sun stating that he planned to return to New York the following month. It may be that he was convinced that Maggie would love New York, but Portland natives are likely to break out in spots from homesickness if they are transplanted too far from the banks of the Willamette.

While among friends in San Francisco, Dempsey set about trying to arrange a fight with the English champion Jack Burke. Burke had been mouthing off to the newspapers about how Dempsey was going to try to weasel out of fighting him. He was a powerfully built, arrogant youth upon whose mouth Dempsey was itching to plant a fist. The match was tentatively set for the September 27 in San Francisco. The permit, however, was not forthcoming. Elections were rolling around in November, and the mayor was adamant that there would be no more of these so-called glove contests (at least not until after the elections). The permit was finally granted, and the fight was set for November 22 at 7:00 p.m. at the San Francisco Pavilion.

Crowds of excited fans began to line up on Larkin Street in front of the Pavilion at four o’clock in the afternoon. By the time the doors opened, there was such a press of people it took a squad of policemen to keep them from rushing the gate. The Pavilion was filled to beyond its capacity, with seven thousand spectators in attendance. The match was not what either fighter expected. It was announced as being Queensberry rules and ten rounds maximum. The two champions slugged away at each other through all ten rounds, giving it all it was worth, but they seemed so evenly matched that neither one had the advantage.

At the end of round ten, time was called by the timekeeper. Burke left the ring, but Dempsey remained seated while the referees scratched their heads and debated the merits of what they had witnessed. Dempsey was ready to fight on, and apparently Captain Douglas of the police was willing to allow it, but Burke refused, saying the agreement was ten rounds.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.