Evening Star Newspaper, August 9, 1926, Page 18

1R s PORTS, THE EVENING STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY. AUGUST 9, 1926. SPORTS. Dempsey Refutes Tales of Poor Condition : Tunney Has Hunch He Will Win Title GENE HAS CHERISHED EOND AMBITION FOR FIVE YEARS Challenger NowsHas Filled Out So That He Matches IN SHAPE TO FIGHT NOW, HE ASSERTS Declares That He Will Never Lose His Title for Lack of Fitness. BY JACK DEMPSEY. three y heled a “pliysical wreck, “fistic has been™ and a iew things of the same sort, the chance comes to me to prove that I'm in better condition today and a better ringimay than at any time in my fighting lietime And, after three long vears of training and training and training, just to keep in shape and to hold close to tip-top fighting form, I'm training at last with a fight ahead as reward for the monotonous and tought routine. 1 knew that some time or other, I'd Ret the opportunity to fight. And I also knew the folly of not keeping in shape. I remembered what hap- pened to Willard, Johnson, Jeff, Sullivan and the others. I alway. had the idea that lack of condition, more than anything else, whipped them. And I resolved that no matter when my time came to have “ex"” written before my name, it never would be followed by the alibi of “lack of condition. T fought to keep in shape to jump Into a ring on 48 hours’ notice. I could do it right now, despite the hundred and one wild and inaccurate stories that have been written ahout me. I'm not, at this moment, tuned up to what's callad “concert pitch.” That can’t come withont & month of the strenuous grind that I'm mapping out for myself. But I guess that if 1 were called upon to defend my title today, 1 could climb into a ring and step along for 15 rounds just about as fast as any man in the world could Carry me, ever Much Overwelght. It now is three years since I've battled in defense of my title, but never once, despite ali the wild tales that have bheen printed, have I been more than seven pounds from my fighting best. 1've read. through those vears, a variety of stories that con- cerned by poundage. One writer had be bulking around less than a vear ago. Others put my poundage batween 210 and 220. And then, just to vary the facts a bit, the boys swung in the other di raction. Three months ago [ was rather surprised to read that I weigh- ed only 185. Two weeks after that some of the boys chopped me right down to 175, while a few took the guess that I was scaling “no more than 170" and was losing pounds and more pounds by the minute. Cites the Real Facts. The real facts are these: In 1928, when I fought my last battle —against Luis Firpo—I weighed ex- exactly then have 1 welghed even as much am an ounce less. And the most 1 have ever weighed in the time since that battle was 205 pounds with my clothes on. My togs welgh at least four pounds, su that my greatest | weight since 1923 has bee And that 201 was fmmediatsly after an ocean trip, duving which ‘I had little chance for a workout. My aver- uge weight through the years since the Firpo fight has been 19T% - Just iy, ;napn nature to be against the champion. I worked on that theory always. that the titleholder is ducking a man and you've got him on the run. Of course, since that time Dempsey has learned 31, pounds beyond what I weighed when at the peak. Jess Willard, after three years of fnactivity as champlon, was about 40 . pounds overwelght: Jack Johnson was about 35 pounds too heavy, and Jim Jeffries was mnearly 60 pounds too bulky, while John L. Sullivan had to train off about 40 or so for Jim Cor- bert's fight in 1892, How Jack Dopes it Out. The contention on the part of many experts is that inactivity so far as actual defense of the title is con- cerned lost the fights for that quartet. | 1 decided long ago that it wasn't ex actly inactivity. 1 came to conclude that they left their titles in the gym- nastum; that their wild efforts to shear | off the mighty rolls of fat they had accumulated took the energy and the real strength from them and that when they climbed into the ring they had nothing left. So I concluded that whenever I was idle 1'd never let myself get very far away from perfection in a physical way. Whenever | climbed up around the 200 mark 14 go in for training and keep at it il 1 was cluse to my Firpo fight p hen 1'd give my bedy a little chunce 1o relax unly 1o get busy seuin when weight begun to get buck on my frame To Develop Marksmanship. almost ‘he result is that toduy at fighting weight. M supple and s full of zip as of old. won't need to burh up any energy fighting off weight, nor in transform ing flabby muscles into condition. All thet I will need to do is to develop my marksmanship a bit more, acquire a littie more spead, get my legs in shape -and then I'm ready Many champions have bean bheaten My old Kid “Out of Condition” —but Jack Dempsey, no matter how long he helds the title. never will be whipped by that enems [Camnent CAPITAL SWIMMERS SCORE IN BALTIMOR “BALTIMORE August 9. Washington swimmers took three first places as well as accounting for 12 points on seconds and third here vesterday Th the Bay Shore Swimming 1926 — AR Md., Cluh’s open meet Florence Skadding of Capitol Ath- letfe Club and Raphael Edmonston of QGeorge Washington TUniversity re peated their feats of Saturday by fin a the fields in the 100 stroke events Clifford Sauford of Central High beat out Al Lvman of the host club and . 1. Hunter, an unattached en try from the Capital, in the fancy dive for men Miss Skadding placed second in the fancy dive for women: lone Whaler finished runner-up in the 60 and 200 ward free style events, Alma ‘Whaler ot third in the 100-vard breast stroke and Belmar Shepley was third in the ishing ahe: vard breast ® yvard free style. A protest registered by Maryland ®wimming Club over the decision cen in the men's relay event leaves the winner of the meet undecided. 4 RESPOND TO MATTY PLAN. Ring lardner. who has recently ac cepted the chairmanship of the pub- lieity committee of the Christy Ma thewson Memorial Foundation. #n nounces from New York headquarters that the managere of teams, Who are being asked to eo-operate in building memerials to the great pitcher, are respending with enthusiasm. v s of being| 194 pounds. At no time since | Relentless Ridicule, Favorite, Lasts One Round Against | ARTIC | BY JACK | match. | and if they were not I soon world began. | had Willard galloping. questionnaires were sent on from I and returned to the coast. a while. 1 had been pounding Willard <o hard in an effort to smoke him out that he began to make threats. | That was the temper I wanted in him. When you get the champion | cat scratching you've got him on the run every time and Willard was no different than all those who had gone hefore him. He was bitter in his_denunciations of me. “Dempsey was all O.K.” but that fellow Kearns—well he was “no good.” That was the way Jess sum- med it up. I had got on Willard’s nerves so much that he announced t he was coming out to fight the real contender, I'red lFulton. Oh ho! So that was it. Going to side track my man, eh? Well there's one way {0 break up side-tracking and that lis to whip the man the champion |names as hLis next opponent. 1 must beat Willard to 1 got on the job with a hundred different iangles working. We must get Fulton land knock him off. 1f Willard had { honored him by naming him as the | official challenger then it was enough {for us to smack him down. lHoco. Chuck Dempse [licked when he scemed to he right u title * |had any fears about the outcome an imatch | States, but each time he was balked | Willard might get “hep” to our plot |to beat him to Fulton. He had made‘ | his choice and that was the big thing. | [Tt was Fulton and 1 was more de- termined than ever that Fulton would | be_our meat. | "What was the best fdidn’t ponder long. |train 1o New York. We landed and the hallvhoo st ed over again. | 1 went to Tawrence Weber and ] thing to do. 1 took the next | ! Curley 2nd they were interested v off the reel. They'd get ahe | tihey said, If Fulion was agr ! Fred fell like a ton of brick. He didn’t | know what he had picked up in his travels. I had my way of whipping !that bird. 1 knew Dempsey would | | knock him off. i | Another of Kearn's Tricks. | Weber und Curley got ulton sign- |ed. We went to Long Branch. N and established training quarte: | Any place by the water. Another cret of making the other fellows see | {things. | had made it & plan always | ito send Dempsey into the ring as | sun-burned and brown as it is possi- ! ble for a man to get. It hax a strange effect on the other fellow when he | sees his man all browned up. |1 don’t know what it is but there is a mental and physical fear of « man who is tanned and sun-tinted. I'll} jeave that to any one who has seen | Dempsey stripped for action. You'd | | hesitate about tackling a man of the |<ea or a cowboy. wouldn't you? You | know you would. DPon’t' know what it i& but T know it scared Willard. | | Carpentier, ~ Brennanm, Firpo and |Miske. The tanned champion had| THE FIGHT GAME FROM THE INSIDE Kearns Dofs ‘Willard for Dempsey Fight—Willard, Sore at Kearns’ Prepares to Fight Willard and Dempsey Fights Fulton in New Jersey—Fulton That would be duck soup. known to a few iriends and they tapped their skulis in with that big cgg. torn the heads off of a lot of good oncs. 1 had my way of whipping Fuiton. 1 felt that I was wasting time and | 1| His arms were Fulton—Kearns Out narts to-1 Dempsey. XXIT KEARNS. E went down through the Southwest, knocking out any number of fellows and all the time | was shouting for the Willard Everywhere I went the people seemed to be with us ballyhooed Dempsey into favor. It's It's been that way since the Create the impression 1 what it means to be hounded by challengers. | I didn't let a minute go by that | before the public and keeping t ! work and no play. | Our travels brought us back to Chicago and while there our draft | ) wasn't devoted to keeping Dempsey he \ml‘l)'hoo up. It took work. It was all T isco. Dempsey's was signed in Chicago | We heard nothing more on that subject for | FRED FULTON. 1 made my plans 1 was gone plain I must be mad. Fulton had Why chance getting Dempsey there ready for a shot at Willard's I'll come to that later. 1 never we set out in carnest to hook the Col. Miller of the 101 Ranch tried to promote the match in several by some governor. hands. That's oniy ane of the tricks of the game 1 taught Dempsey. Weber and Curley put the bout on at the ball park-in Harrison, J., and it couldn’t have been staged in a better setting so far as Dempsev and his tanned body w: concerned. almo: biack, and where his little bathing suit upper had covered his body, the skin was more or less white. Fulton Is Scared Stiff. The optical illusion of those sun burned arms and shoulde ched to his white torsy almost made Fulton fwint when he saw Dempsey’s robe full carelessly from his body. \We had Fulton licked before he started. He sctuully walked around Dempsey get ting an eveful from every angle. He | was frightened Stiff. The contrasts be- | tween the browned shoulders and arms us against the white body that had Leen protected by his bathing suft was too much for Fred. One thing more remained to be done. I must make Dempsey fight harder and fast- er than he had ever done in all his lite. T had drummed that into him at the camp. When I saw Fulton's tail curling 1 told Jack to have a look for himself. He's cooked now. He's washed and ready to go. You just what you gave Morris at faster and harder. A feint a to the jaw with the left over in'a punch.” Dempsey ap ve him alo only d a_hook It will be didn’t have to be told twice. He was a bird | at following the cue. Give it to him and you could sit tight on his going through with it. On the day of the ight every writer them buffaloed before he put up his picked Fuiton to win. Bat Masterson, The challenger, pletured above at the left, is shown acquiring speed with his es at his camp near Sara- toga Springs, N. Y., while the cham- pion is depicted practicing his wal- lops on a sandbag at the Henderson- ville, N. C., quarters, where he spent several weeks of training this Spring for the battle in defense of his crown, which is scheduled to be staged at the Yankee Stadium next month. PHELAN OPPOSITION MENACES BIG BOUT KW YORK, August John Phelan and his 165th Infantry Regi- nent, the famous old “Fighting Sixty- ninth,” rumbled into town yesterday, after two weeks of training at Camp Smith, and with him came rumblings unfavorable to the Jack Dempsey- Gene Tunney world's heavywelght title battle proposed by Promoter Tex Rickard for the Yankee Stadium ~n September 16. Col, Phelan, who is chairman of the license_committee, disappeared with: out exposing himself to interrogation on_the subject. 5 However, the prospect of the fight being banned hers loomed more strongly than at any time since the actlon of the State Athletic Commis- sion _In voting 2 to 1 in approval of the Dempsey-Tunney match. Although no official informafion could be ob- tained, it was reported from a source close to the authorities charged with administration of the boxing law here | . Pholan and D. Walker Wear [of Binghamton, will refuse to sanc- tion the matell by the simple expe- |dient_of vetoing Dempsey’s applic tion for license. Tunney, it was reported, will ob- tain his license, the challenger having adjusted what differences existed be- tween himself and the committee, but it was ssid that Col. Phelan and Wear would decline to license Dempsey as u boxer in this State on the ground that in_ignoring the challenge of Harry Wills, the commission’s ac- cepted challenger for the title, Demp- soy violated a cardinal rule of the | State Athletic Commission and ex- | posed himself to disciplinary action. 'TENNIS TEAM TESTS By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, August 9.—The coun try’s foremost tennis players, includ- ing Willlam T. Tilden, 2d, the na- tional champion, were gathered at Forest Hilla today for the United States Davis Cup trials. The tests will continue through to- morrow and Wednesday, following which the national team will be named for the challenge round to be played in Philadelphia, September 9,10 and 11, Along with Tilden in the competi- tlon are William M. Johnston, twice nutional champion wid veteran Dav Cup player; Vincent Richards int national and Davis Cup plaver; ward G. Chandler, Paciniz Coas: sen sation; Cransion ol California star; Geor Lott, Chi ntrant; Alfred 1L Chupin, jr., of Springfield, Mass; Il Norris Willk 4, twice ‘American champion, captain and vet- eran of America’'s Davis Cup team, and Lewis N. White of Texas, —_— famous boxing expert, since dead, was g0 impressed with Iulton that be bet on Fred to stop ray battler. Fulton wus a 2-to-1 favorite. lle was sure to 1 knock out Dempsey in a round or two. | 1t was a hot afternoon. The ball park was packed. They were still com- ing in when the bell rang for the first round. Many had rushed down from the Empire race meeting at Yonkers, N. Y., after the fourth race to he at the ringside, the fight being set for 15:30. Many of these race goers had | made record trips from the track in New York to the ring. I'm sorry to | say., T met many of my best friends | coming in as T was rushing Dempsey | back through the crowd to his dress- ing_room. i He whipped Fulton in just four punches and he wanted to apologize for having missed my orders by three | socks. He put Fulton down on his | back where he wriggled like a stuck | piz. unable to get up. It was a cork- ing win. But it had its knockers. o BASE BALL ;%5 AMERICAN LEAGUE PARK DOUBLE-HEADER Washington vs. New York TICKETS ON SALE AT PARK AT 900 AM. Wallace Motor Co. means NASH Sales and Service 1709 L Street N.W. Just East of Coonn. Ave. Main 7612 |that_the license committee, consisting | TO BE BEGUN TODAY HOW CONTENDERS LOOK IN TRAINING FOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP Photos By UNDERWOOD MISS EDERLE’S FEAT DISCOURAGES OTHERS | By tha Associated Press. | CAPE GRIS.NEZ, France, August 9.—The new Channel swimming cham pion, Gertrude Kderle of New York. by her record-breaking “‘crawl” voy e across the waterway, has dis suraged further attempts by other 1spirants to try the swim. It is looked on as almost hopeless to attempt to-lower the time she made on Fridey fn swimming from the French to the English coast in 1415 hours, Lillian Cannon, the Baltimore girl, who Is among those in training, now is undecided whether to essay an at- tempt to cross the Channel. Messages of congratulation con- tinue to flow in from all parts of the world. At least 20 offers have been received from music halls, but Ger- trude announced that she would de- cline them all, saying: “I have some- thing better in view." Miss Fderle will leave today for | Stuttgart, Germany, spending a few | day with her grandmother. She will return to Paris for a day or two, go | to Boulogne to say farewell to the friends she made while training. and then embark for home at Cherhoung 'n_the Berengaria, August 81. At the Sign of the Moon Close Daily 6P. M. Aetadblished 1898 \Room Needed for Fall Woolens Our Entire Stock Goes In This Sale Suits to Measure As You Want Them Were $45. Now T 0 to $60. Now Were fabrics suitable for Early Fall Wear. . Mertz & Mertz Co., Inc. 1342 Gstrenn A number of medium weight | LINCOLN FIELDS TRACK STARTS 30-DAY MEET CHICAGO, August 9 (®).—Trek of Chieago race fans to the new Lincoln Fields race track, near Crete, 30 miles south of here, for the fnaugural of a 30-day turf season began today. The racing plant was built at a cost of $2,000,000 by a group of Chi- cago and Kentueky sportsmen. The feature of today's opening pro- gram of seven races was the $5,000 Jollet stakes for two-year-old fill Hartfords nosed out th 4to3 & Coca Colas, | | | SOLD - EVERYWHERE 1y xing Bdward soday. Yowittkeswt | Daniel Loughran Company, Inc., Dempsey-in Size—Learning to Hit Properly. ’ CorrectediTroublewith “Brittle’> Hands. BY GENE TUNNEY. IVE years ago a hunch came near to the prostrate figure acclaimed: York.” chance in one thousand o that [ shall realize the strange am July day of 1921. In the days before the war as foreign to my mind as i Italy. But I went to war, loose time on our hands. Some ot so keen about it, but I had to get the When the war was over ¢ had won the heavyweight championship of the Marine Corps. Also I had to my credit a victory over Bob Martin, who later won the interallled champlonship. I salled for home determined to go hack to my old job in the mercantile game. 1 didn’t think being a good fighter in the Army meant an awful lot, so far as a job in the professional fight game wasx concerned. They told me that T was good enough to whip a lot of the dub light heavies and heavies. They sald I was good. They got me a manager. and he got me a fight. To my surprise, I won it easil T got a few more fights, and By which time I declded that to the fight racket for a while than. clerking sround, and tonally I was given a spot. as one of the pre- liminary fighters to the Dempsey-Car pentler batile in Jersey City, back in 1921. No one dld any great cheering over my showing against Soldler Jones that day. True enough, I stopped him ih seven rounds; but it I had been any great shucks, I would have stopped him in one round, not seven. ‘Well, they put on the big fight. T watched it. -1 saw Dempsey take the best that Carpentier had to give, and then go on and beat the Frenchman to t a crushed pulp. 1 saw this gr champlon, not vet at the peak of career, merely toy with the greatest fighter that Europe ever produced. I say all that—-and then the wild hunch came. It was nething more nor that some day 1'd he standing up and Dempsey would be down and would finaliy sound and I'd be the champion of the world. Novice Watches the Master. Dempsey was a terrific hitter. a super-man at taking it; he was a clever boxer; fast as a flash of light ning; a amooth, frictionless worker, possessed then of about everything that a fighter could have, including it without know the knack of doing hurting my hands, And. on top of far too small for Dempsey. I about feet 10 or so at that time and bulked no more than 170. I had no great reputation beyond that us marine champion and a fairish sort of preliminary performer. Between Dempsey and myself then was a that, T was then mighty, mighty gap. It's said that the chances are about 1,000,000 to 1 KING Edward is a truly “The winner—and the mew Tt came at a time when it was just one of these “foolish notions™ that some folks talk about; it came w i f it ever coming into reality. through all those years; it exists now. . bition that came to me back on the s the thought now with the marines. was no other outlet, I took up boxing. But my friends thought otherwise. | anywat, because it was better payving | hit a t less than | 10 | vouth. And I—well, T was a novice. | I could hit and I could take it—but | that was about all. And the worst of it was that when I did hit f didn't | was | to me that some day I would sta of Jack Dempsey and hear myseli champion—Gene Tunney of New hen it didn't seem there was one It has endured And on September 16, 1926, I know thought of becoming a pugilist was of becoming dictator of We used to have a little \ the boys did some boxing. I wasn't my fun somehow, and because there becoming a heavy- vet the hunch that in all that milllon against a fighter | weight champion, I was that man | stnek with me ! "I kept plugging along, learning this | triek of the game and that trick,and | to my own surprise, I began to whin men whom 1 supposed might prove | too tough or experienced for me Hands Cause Him Trouble. The gap closed a little as I con tinned to win one fight and then | ther, but it continued to he 100, [ 000 to 1 against me for quite a whil | because my hands were giving me Hots of trouble and it looked for n while as it I might have to quit the ring. But Billy finally T changed managers Gibson took over my affairs first thing he did to send me to the country to chop wood and develope my wrists amnd hand museles Then he brought me back to town and_sald: “Your're having trouble with your hands because you don’t know how to 1e blow. This 18 how."” gave me a lesson. lle gave me a few more. 1 did us he told me about hitting. From that clty to this my hands have never bothered me. It wasn't brittle bones that had been causing the trouble; it was fmproper hitting. | _ Glbson Billy taught me some tricks in defense. e made me change mv style samewhat. Patfently, carefully, he gave me helpful hints. He made a ringman out of me. After which Billy turned me loose |1 met the third-raters fora brief spell | &0 as to get myself tuned up. Then T tonk the second-raters—and polished them off. After which Billy issued an open challenge to “anv of Demp sev's challengers.”” Tom Gibbons ac cepted, 0 did Bartley Madden. T knocked them out “Climb on the scales now!" orderad Gihson. T dld. The dial awung to 192 and the measuring machine recorded my height as 6 feet 1. “Great” said Rillv. “Taller than | Dempsey. A few pounds lighter—but vou'll be heavier than the champion ‘ | | hefore the year is out. You're ready. | Now we'll g0 after Dempsey.” Phe match has been made. T am | to fight a battle with hte heavywelght | championship of the world at stake. The old hunch that told me I'd some- day fight the champion was right | And the same hunch that has Hved | through five years tells me again |und in You'll beat Dempsey; you'll be champion.” I'll tell you why and how in later article: (Conyright. 1024.) from the highest grade tobacco freely and burns evenly—a clean, fine, fragrant smoke. the best-equipped factories : world makes possiile the g ably low selling price of Distributors 1347 Penna. Ave. N.W. ‘Washington, D. O. KING EDWARD excellent cigar—made : own. It draws Quantity production in one of el ‘Phone Main 391