Evening Star Newspaper, December 9, 1928, Page 90

2 THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 9, 1928 —SPORTS SECTION. Referee Reveals Truth About That 14 Count in Famous Chicago- Title Battle TELLS STORY AFTER A YEAR OF SILENCE Third Man In Ring During Tunney-Dempsey Fight, | { DAVE BARRY BY DAVE BARRY. (Copyright. 1926, by the Chieago Tribune.) I've been taking the razz on that Tunney-Dcmpsey fourteen count fourieen months. T'v> stood.up under it damn well. So for Personally. 1_think | then on. japplauded by fellow students in at- tendance at the show. One of my first blows floored my ad- |versary. I was in the fight game from Whom Barry Fought. leass pardon me while I emit a few | S L'v\\f: of protest 1 can't howl as loud as the wolves who have becn on me. My voice is a whisper as compared to th> oratory of that great sportsman and pool shark. Leo P. Flynn. who was Dempsey's step- manager. But you. in fairness to agent who has held his tongue for Yourteen miserable months, ought to put on your ear phones while I, for ‘th: first time. broadeast my slant. What Jack Threatened. When you've heard me through I'm confident’ you'll agree that I was more friendly to Dempsey then to Tunney Why. if I hadn't enforced the Tliinois Athletic Commission’s rule which sent Dempsey to a neutral corner he would have socked Tunney while he was down in that wild seventh round Jack was as completely out of his head as was Tunney the first instant Gene hit the canvas. Jack’s judgment was gone. I could ses what his instinct was leading to. If I hadn't chased him to a neutral corner he never would have waited_for the champion to get to his feet. It would be as reasonable to ex- pect a tiger to wait while wounded prey scampered up a tree. I would have had to save Jack from his own frenzy even if it had not been my duty to enforce the Illinois Ath- Jotic Commission’s knockdown rule. ‘The rule had bzen emphasized and the interpretation had been agreed upon by the principals. Jack Would Have Fouled Geone. If the rule hadn't been in effect or hetl been ignored, Dembsey would have bruially fouled a fallen man. Th> t would have ended and th-re would ® been a hell of a merry time get- ting the challenger.and his handlers out of the arena ali! The mob instinct was running high at that moment. I tremble every time 1 think of what would have happened I Dempsey had been permitted to hit Tunney while he was down—r if he hod behaved as he Gia in the Firpo fight. 1 admire Dempssy when “he is him- | Possessed of his rational faculties | self. ho's cne of the greatest battiers the rinx ever has known. But T -was con- scious of ‘the moment when he was swept from man to tiger—when he clipped Tunney and sent_him_to the floor. I had no alternative. I wouid alter my procedure if faced with the same emergeney a thousand times. | BACK TO THE START But I'm getting ahead of my story. Fourtcen months 70—on the nighi of Septomber 22—I stood one of th: men in a_ring at which 145,000 persans stared. One of those three lay, stupe- fied, on the resin sprinied canves fioo of the ring. Another swayed to ang fro, a few feet behind the victim of his pile-driver attack. I the only other occupant of that focal point, stood be- twean the man on the canvas and the man with the clublike arms. I counted 4. How, why and with what resulis is the burden of what I have to say here. Silent Fver Since. T have kept sibnt since that fated Sepiomber nighi while press associc- newspapers and megagines were ing ‘to evcry hamlet and town in country, innuengioes, szurrilous at- ks, falsshoods, wild conjecture and icule of my conduct during that sxventh round of the now historic Tun- -Dempsay fight at Soldiers’ Field ‘in Chieago. No referee of any fistic battle of im- portance ever has been subjected to & cress-fire of abuse and ridicule equal in intensity to the barrage that has been fired at me Beginnint the morning after J coniinuint constoatly. ths bacom» mors vicions &s th h* fght brcam loss vivh of thos: who saw wha tually honpancd. Nature of she Attack. At first, the attack was centered in #nonymous tclephone calls to my home and in anonymous letters. The tele- the phone calls were so numerous and the | messages so malicious that my mother was afraid to answer the phone, When 1 was absent even she became the tar- gt of the tirades. I paid no attention to these anony- mous foes and sought to carry on as a referee of less important boufs in Chi- cago. he howling would cease. I thought folks would be fair. I assumed that after the publi~ had time to calmly re- virw the facts I would be vindicated. In the 14 months I have refereed #cme 50 bouts in Illinois. Not a one ef them has failed to produce a chorus of cztcalis, climaxed with ths monoton ous chant—"One!" “Two!" “Fourteen. “Bitter as Gall.” “Fourteen Count Barry.” Is title to cling to me all my life? i compose my epitaph? secm great sport te the boys on the eutside of the ropes—they are cloaked by the smoky haze of darkened arenas. But the chant is bitter as gall to me. I am now happy at this apportunity to t21l every man who has participated in the chant of the Fourteen Count that be is a coward. In the 14 months not @ one of these inspired sportsmen has had the fairness’ to assall me face to will THE REFEREE'S PAST This picture of a scnsitive referee May not fit your idea of the nature of & man identified with the prize fight Facket. You may say. “Barry is at- tempting to make a martyr of himself. He's trying to alibl. He’s a hoodlum ®nd what the helt does he care? He got his." Well, let's see I was born in Montreal, Canada, Sep- tember 1833. My granddad was born in Brooklyn and so was my father. Their folks, like all the Iri; Barrys, c>m2 frem County Cork. My mother was a Feron 1 got my earlisr schooling at Mount €:. Louis Colleg>. Mpntreal. When I was 12 years old my family moved to Chicago, and there I continued school work at Lewis Institute. During my senior year at Lewis 1 boxed in the gym with Lloyd Hogsg. who later became one of the world’s greatest middle distance runners, and Louis DeGroot, our feotball coach and physical director. DeGroot, you may remember, was a famous foothall player at Harvard. One night old Thunderbolt Smith— barber to most of the Lewis student was puttinz on one of his regular stags t the old Ilinols Cycling Club and nied with Hogg. We went as to r'ng th> show Smith came 16 us in nic. “I'm in a hell of a fix." he “Cne of my boyz has failed to w up. Will one of you take his 1 urged Hogg and Hogg urged me. ¥- inshot was thet 1 went on, loudly 1 figured that as time wore on | and on to | that | The razz may | For the six years following I boxed as a_lightweight in virtually every city |in the country. My big engagements | included_two bounts with Joe Gans— |one in Detroit and one in Bakersfield. Calif. Kid McPartland, now a New York referee, but at that time a lead- ing lightweight, was another of my op- ponents on the big time. My fighting career was suspended be- cause of a near fatal-attack of typhoid- | pneumonia Urged by my mother to quit the box- ing game forever, I took up the study of medicine at _the American College of Medicine and Surgery in Chicago After_one year at_ American College I transferred to Northwastern Univer- sity. 1 went out for foot ball and made the team, then coached by Wally Mc- | Cornack, former Dartmouth all-Ameri- can. In midseason it was recalled that 1 had been a professional prize fighter. | I left the squad. 1 Returns to Ring. The wanderlust then seized me and | 1 deserted the medical profession flat to operate in other fields. The year 1909 found me in New Orleans. Times were hard and appetite acute. I re-| |turned to boxing. ° I had two fights. onc with® Samm: Phillips and the other with Jimi Clabby. Tliness had susnended my fighting career before. Ten rounds with Mr. | | Clabby ended it permanently. | This -early -activity was a preface to my entrance on the career which led | me to the ring at Soldier Ficld on the | night of September 22, 1927. While de- | feat by Clabby -entied my appearance in the ring as a fighter. it marked the beginning ‘of my career as a referee. 1 refereed a fight between Young Corbett and Harry Ferns early in 1910 This was the first of more than 600 de- cision fights in which I was the third man in the ring. Included in the long list were the following champicnship encounters: | Freddie Welsh vs. Young Erne. | Abe Attel vs. Chirley Whilz, Marvin Hart vs. Tony Ross. Sam Lankford vs. Dixie Kid. | Harry Forbes vs. Frankie Neal. Jack Britton vs. Ted Kid Lewis. In the Spring of 1926 boxing was legalized in Illinois. It never had been legal -before, but had been tolerated in Chicago until the Gans-McGovern scandal in 1900. 1 was among the first to receive a | referee’s licens> following the forma- tion of the Illinois Athletic Commis- sion after the legalizing of the sport. l BARRY NO ROWDY , | I have given the resume of my early luife and activities in order that yo may have a fair picture of the man | who was in the ring when the most talked about 14 seconds in prize ring | history were counted off. | I'm telling you this in an attempt to convince you that I am not a rowdy, had the necessary experience to referee |the Tunney-Dempsey fght, and by temperament would naturally feel a | res>ntment and a hurt at what I think is unfair treatment by fight fans. | Before tais article |puroose to discuss the chorges ma-e 2gainst me and to answer them truth- {fully and squarcly. But first let me | tell you how I was drawn into the fight. Dempsey Loses His Title. On September 23, 1926, World Cham- pion Jack Dempsey, the Manassa | ‘Mauler, had lost his title to Gene Tun- | ney, a peculiar type to be a prize fighter. g The decision was fair, but no one could | believe. It was like the case of the | farmer who said “They ain't no sich |2nimal” when he viewed a giraffe for |tk first time. An ideal spot for a re- |turn engagement, and no ong knew it beiter than Tex Rickard, who had both of the fightors under contract. | Th~ vigor of the bidding for the re- | turn encountr has boen thorousinly | plained in the press. To got the great le, Chicago had to lift the enter- e out of the class of the usual sport- ing world routine. Staging the Tunney- Dempsey fight became a civic matter, and men who never had seen a prize fight put their shoulders to the wheel. | Eventually Rickard decreed that the | fight would be held in Chicago, and the civic character of the enterprise was | emphasized. Chicago's Great Fear. There was the promise that nobility and the official and society cream of the land would get the choice ringside seats. At the outset it was made clear that the hoodlum element was to bz crowded into the background. No funny business was to be tolerated. The | boxing commission set about taking every precaution to prevent any mixup | that would cause these high-taned strangers in the world of fistic sport to regret their interest in the spectacle. | Naturally there was a great deal of | talk in Chicago, and throughout the | country, for that matter, on who was to be ‘the referee of the great return bout. The naming of the referee was up to the Jllinois Athletic Gommission. The latter at the time consisted of John C. Righeimer, Oswald Huncke, | and Paul Prehn. | cago business man, once owner of a | saloon: Prehn is a former wrestler and | | afterward instructor in wrestling at | the University of Illinois, and Huncke is an insurance broker. He had been named as chairman of the Illinois box- ing_commission at the time of its ap- pointment by Gov. Len Small, but subsequently had_resigned, although at | the time of the Tunney-Dempsey fight his resignation had not been accepted and he still was serving. | He Wanted the Job. Undoubtedly pressure, great pressure, | was exerted upon these three men to !obtain the selection of a referee. How | much pressure, and from what sources, {1 cannot state. . During the weeks immediately pre- | | ceding the fight my friends frequently | asked me if 1 thought I would referee the big fight. I told them what was | the truth—T don’t know.” And I didn't Frankly, I hoped that I would get | the assignment. In the first place, I‘ craved the honor. And I wanted the money. I theught, too, if you'll pardon ! the egotism, that I had more experience, | {more training and was better fitted for |the job than any one else.. But I never—and may I drop dead 'if it is not true—I never discussed my |desire with any member of the com- | mission nor to the best of my knowl- |edge did any single one of my friends. | Dave Barry will tell {about the preliminary meeting of box- sion, attended by all the of- | ficials eligible to referee the Tummey- Dempsey fight, at which the regula- | tions to goverm the championship bat- | tle—and these played a very impo) tant part in it—were gowe over in detail. is completed I | 'NET BODY DELAYS | Tennis | the committee voted to refer it to the | meeting of the Lawn Tennis Righeimer is a Chi- | F | by Lassman. “ PRI R el ettt o 2 TR AL TEEL HER AT AR RN sports event in this country. GALLAPHER MUST PROVE RIGHT TO DROP MANAGER Marty Gallagher, local heavy- weight fighter, is to appear befsre the Maryland boxing commission ot l}:!‘finmre tomorrow afternoon at 5 oclock to show cause why he shonld not continue under the man- agement of John S. Blick®of this | Gallagher signed a contract with Blick when 19 years of age and re- cently upon reaching his majority, decided to change managers. At the close of a 10-round hont which Ga'locher fought in Baltimore last Monday, Blick ‘had the fighter's purse attached. Gallagher's share of the reecipts =~ said to be slightly more than $900. The Maryland Commission will hear hoth Callagher and Blick to- morrow. Its d>cision will determine whether Gallagher's contract is SCRAPS INTERCITY ! ON CARD TOMORROW ‘Thirteen bouts will be offered when | | the City Club boxing team meets the | leather pushers representing the Balti- | more Y. M. C. A. tomorrow night at | :30 o'clock nasium Ten bouts have been definitdy listed. The bouts arranged so far follow: pound elass —Hll;(o Stellabotta (C. C.) i ©. c) 126-pound class —Joe Tamagni (C. Mensel (V) -Albert Satryb (C. rice Amemberg (Y.) 153-pound elass—Henry Slaughter Tackt Rohm (Y.) in the City Club gym- | 1 | vs. Louts Hers oe Lesser ys. CARTS c s ©. c) C) vs. i-pound class—Angelo Marletta (C. C.) vs, Oscar Voiaht (Y.) 147-pound clats—Jack De Prato (C. C.) vs. Warch (Y). -pound classKenneth Brvan (C. C.) 0. vs. Ernest Betz (Y.) 160-ponnd elass—William Stanley (C. C.) vs. Benny. Owens (Y.), ACTION ON TILDEN EW YORK, December 8.—Defi- nate action on the application | for reinstetemont of Big Bill Tilden was postponed until February by the.cxecutive com- of the United Siates Lawn Association at its December ‘mecting today. Tilden's application for ment was considered briefly today. mittee reinstate- but amateur rule committee with instruc- tions that that body investigate it fur- ther, correspond and confer with Tilden and report at the next meeting of the executive committee, set for February 8 in Boston, the day before the annual ocia- tion, In connection with the discussion over the Tilden case it was disclosed that only two members of the execu- tive committee had spoken in favor of immediate reinstatement for the tall Philadelphia veteran. The committee announcement. how- ever, failed to say who these two were. Aftending the meeting were: Samuel H. Collom of thlndfiln‘ém dent of the association York. vice president. presi- aile trcasurer: " Gibbons and William' P. Rowland. Philadeiphia: _Holcombe Ward. ‘Walter 1. Pate. Jones W. Mergerau. Julian S. Mrick w_York: Charle J. D E.J men . Wast Philadelphia chairman ‘of the Davis Cup committee. and William M. Pisher. New York. chairman of | the ranking committee. GRANT NOT TO DEFEND | COLLEGE BOXING CROWN NEW YORK, December 8 (P).— | | Leonard Grant. intercollegiate heavy- weight boxing champion, will not defend his title. < Grant. captain-elect of New York | Universify's 1928 foot ball team, says he | will not. box this year because he doesn't | like the sport. o Al Lassman, who does nét plan to box for this year's Violet squad. prob- ably will start coaching George Sargis- son, sophomore guard, to retain the heavyweight title for the Violets. Grant's championship victory was at- tributed in a large measure to coaching ROBINSON WILL REMAIN | AS BROOKLYN MANAGER' By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, December 8.—All reports to the contrary, it appeared virtually certain tonight that Wil- bert Robinson, portly manager of the Brooklyn National League Base Ball Club, . witl pilot the Robins through the perils of the 1929 sea- son. Published reports that Rebinson would be relieved of his duties be- fore the start of the next eampaign brought from Stephen W. McKeever, a heavy stockholder in the club, a statement that Robinson and no one else would be manager of the Brook- Iyn club through 1929. . e Jimmy Cherry of Los Angeles, former | member of the United States Navy, holds the endurance swimming record for men of 65 hours and 3 minutes. / “It's all the bunk, any story ahout Robbie’s heing forced out as mana- f‘:r." ul:lh Mc!eev:. “Himm:'{:{t s another year to run 1] all there is to i6” The ring at Soldier Field, where the famous “fourteen count” was made. i bk VL EL I Eyes of 145,000 persons were focused on this scene on the night of September 22, 1927. NCIPALS AND SCENE OF FAMOUS RING DRAMA ENACTED MORE THAN A YEAR AGO It was the largest crowd at a thony J. Drexel Biddle, jr., wealthy sportsman, fainted during a gym work- out today from the pain of a boil on his neck and requested a postponement. CE VOS-HUDKINS BOUT SLATED DECEMBER 21| NEW YORK, December 8 (#).—Rene | De Vos, crack Belgian middleweight, and Ace Hudkins, the Nebraska wildcat, must wait_until' December 21 to match | 5 ! Harib g i Albert M. Hawkins of Norfolk, Va sncks in Madison S Garden for j OKs L Mehon B G quarterback of the Virginia Milita the right to challenge Champion | Institute foot ball has been elected cap- Mickey Walker. o De Vos, recently purchased by An- ' tain of fhe 1929%eleven. V. M. I. ELECTS HAWKINS. LEXINGTON, Va., December 8 (4) [FOUR CAPITAL RUNNERS TO RACE IN BALTIMORE Four Washington runners and one | from Alexandria have entered the fifth annual 10-mile street race to be held | in Baltimore January 1, under the aus- pices of the Emorywood A. C. Haskell F. Clark, who finished tenth in the recent Y. M. H. A. 10-mile run | at. Baltimore: Mike Lynch, Jerry Looney ) | and James Montague are the Wash- | ingtonians entered. Harold Fields of Alexapdria will represent Serepta Lodge, |I. 0. O. F.,, of that city. STRONG TO WED ACTRESS. NEW YORK, December 8 (#).—Ken Strong. the country's highest scorer in the foot ball season just past, plans to marry Rella Harrison, musical comedy actress, soon after he obtains his degree from New York University, next June. COCHET PUT FIRST INFRENCH TEANS Accorded Top Ranking Over La Coste, No. 1 Racketer on 1927 List. By the Asgociated Press. AR]S, December 8.—Henr{ Cochet, star of the Frénch Davis Cup team) and winner of the Ameri- can and French tennis cham- | pionships, replaces Rene La Coslte at the head of the French first 10 players, issued today by the PFrench | Tennis_Pederation. | La Coste, who has been alternating | with Cochet at the top for thé past few years, is ranked second. The other players in order are, Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Christian Boussus, Rene Debuzelet, Pierre Landry, Georges. E. Duplaix and A. Gentien. The list of the first five women play- ers was issued at the same time. They are Mesdames Mathieu, Deloges, La~ faurie, Golding and Bordes. The selection of the brilliant ball boy of Lyons for the ténnis throne met with wide approval among the tennis experts who have been watching the increasing power and finesse of his game through several years.. This season Cochet de- feated La Coste, first in 1ast year's rank- | ing. to win the French title; crushed | Big Bill Tilden in the final match of the Davis Cup challenge round, and conquered Francis T. Hunter in the final of the American championships. Recently he was placed at the bead | of the “world’s first 10" selected by A. Wallls Myers, noted British tennis authority. The only other change in the rank- | ing since last year was the displacement | of Pierre Landry from fifth place by young Christian Boussus. dropped to seventh. member of the Prench Davis Cup squad and made a brilliant showing in Amer- ica with Cochet. | TIP FOR FISHERMEN. HARPERS FERRY, W. 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