Jeffries ’ Backers Have Strong Argument in Ranking All-Timers
Jim Had Flock of Qualities
to Consider in Rating
of Best Heavies.
BY GRAXTLAND RICE.
LOS ANGELES. March 22—Fight
fans like to argue—among
other things—about who was
the greatest heavyweight cham
pion that ever lived. In all the argu
ments on this score that I’ve ever
heard—and I’ve heard plenty of them
in the years I’ve been pounding the
sport trail—the three leading candi
dates for the distinction were John L.
Sullivan. James J. Jeffries and Jack
Dempsey.
Bob Fitzsimmons, Jim Corbett and
Jack Johnson have their adherents,
too. But, in the main, the vote is
pretty evenly distributed among John
L., Jeff and Dempsey.
The fact that each of them was a !
puncher may have had something to j
do with this, because the fellow with ;
the grand slam always has the crowd i
on his side. And I don’t mean only
in fighting. Babe Ruth in base ball, Bill
Tilden and Maurice McLaughlin in
tennis. Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen
in golf—they’re the fellows you’ll re
member after you’ve forgotten mast
of the others, because they had the
skill plus the wallop. But it couldn’t
have been only on punching power
that Sullivan; Jeffries and Dempsey
drew the most cheers. In the matter
of sheer force wrapped up in a boxing
glove, the bald and freckled and
spindly-legged Fitz was pretty good,
too.
Sullivan a Diamond Star.
^jOLOR? Well, they had plenty of
that. But, in addition to punch
and color, they had speed and brawn
and courage—and just about every
thing else that could go into the
making of a great fighting man. Each
dominated his era. The ultimate an
swer—which is almost impossible to
get, stripped of prejudice—hinges then
on which was the greatest era.
When I speak of a Sullivan who
had speed, I speak of a Sullivan I
never saw, because the Sullivan I
knew was a paunchy old man, slowed
down by the years so that he moved
ponderously. But I have sound testi
mony concerning him from those who
—like Jack Doyle, for instance—knew
him when he was in his prime.
That is, when first he came roaring
out of Boston at the age of 22 or
thereabouts, he was just under 6 feet
tall and w-eighed about 195 pounds.
He was musicular. but lithe. He was
hard as nails. He had the making i
of an all-around athlete, because he j
could run the hundred about as fast
as any man of his time and he could
play ball so well that if he hadn't
turned to prize fighting instead he
might have been a big leaguer.
Corbett Found a Shell.
'THE thing chiefly remembered !
about him was the terrific force
with which he belted out his oppo
nents with his right hand, but those [
who saw him at his best talk, to this
day, of the blinding speed with which j
he threw his punches with either
hand. Whom did he lick? Well,
maybe some of them were fat old men
W’ho wouldn’t be allowed in a ring to
day. But they were all he had to
fight, and the record is that he did
pretty well with them—and the evi
dence that comes down to us is that
on hny given night he would have
done just as well against better men.
He was beaten at last by the great
est boxer the heavyweight division t
ever has known. But that night at
New Orleans John L. was 34 years
old, had been living at a fast pace for j
10 years—and hadn’t had a serious
ring engagement for four years.
Against Corbett, Sullivan had noth
ing left but courage, and that wasn’t
enough against a young, fast and
superbly conditioned opponent—not
after a few rounds had been reeled
off.
Dempsey—and Big Jeff.
'T'HE Dempsey of the years from 1919
1 to 1923 was a magnificent figure |
In the ring. He overwhelmed the j
men who fought him, and beat them j
down with his furious punching. He I
was a primeval fighting man to whom
nothing—including the rules—mat
tered, save the urge to stretch his foe
on the canvas in the shortest possible
time. He swept through the heavy
weights of his era and stood alone for
seven years until, past the peak, he
was impaled on Gene Tunney’s left
hand at Philadelphia. It always will
be difficult to make any one who saw j
him in the full flush of his career !
believe that there ever was a heavy- ■
weight who was his superior.
But what of Jeffries? Not, of course,
the fat and faded Jeffries whom John
son dropped in the scorching Reno
heat in 1910. But the Jeffries who
won the championship in less than
a dozen fights. The Jeffries who, at
22, was 6 feet 1! .> inches tall, weighed
about 200 pounds, had a terrific punch
in either hand—and could take a
punch so well that Fitz, a mighty
hitter, cracked both hands on him,
trying in vain to bring him down.
Undoubtedly, there were more good
heavyweights around in Jeff's time
than in any other time in the history
of the ring in this country. Fitz,
Corbett, Ruhlin, Sharkey, Choynski
and a half dozen others were all active,
all at their peak—or close to it. But
Jeff went through the pack, beating
and ruining the best that could be
tossed into the ring with him.
He was easy to hit—but hard to
hurt. He could fight all night—and
no matter how far behind he was
In some of his contests with better
boxers, he could win in a punch—as
he did against Corbett at Coney
Island.
The best of the three—of the lot?
I don’t know. But it seems to me that
there is a lot to say for those whose
choice is Jeffries.
(Copyright, 193?. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc.)
GIANTS’ROOKS QUAKE
Jackson at Hand, Ready to Grab
Talent for Jersey City.
GULFPORT, Miss.—New York
Giant rookies will be watching their
step for the next few days.
Travis Jackson, manager of the
Jersey City farm club, which trains
here, has both eyes peeled for talent,
and he expects to get it before the
Giants move on.
A
Feature Fighter
TEDDY LODER,
New York welterweight, who
collides with Neio York’s Wer
ther Arcelli in top spot of card
at Joe Turner’s Arena tonight.
SCHMELING OFFER
RECEIVED COLDLY
Braddock Spurns $350,000
Inducement to Battle
Max in Germany.
By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, March 22—Max
Schmeling sewed another
patch on the heavyweight
crazy-quilt today with a $350,
000 offer for Champion Jim Braddock
to defend his title in Berlin, but for
all the stir it created among those con
cerned it might as well have been 50
cents.
The champion, through his manager,
Joe Gould, turned dowm the offer be
cause it wasn’t up to his previously set
minimum of $400,000.
Madison Square Garden, which was
offered $50,000 by Schmeling to release
the fight to Germany instead of pro
moting it here on June 3, cold
shouldered the proposition pending
completion of its plans for legal action
against the Braddock-Joe Louis bout
in Chicago.
Schmeling accompanied his offer
with an ultimatum to both Braddock
and the Garden.
Tomorrow Is Deadline.
‘THITHER it is accepted by tomor
^ row," he stated through his
American representative, Joe Jacobs,
“or it will be withdrawn. In that case,
we will go into training for the June
3 fight, and will stand on our contract
rights.”
The new offer, made by Schmeling
on behalf of the Deutsche Halle A. C.
of Berlin, was $100,000 more than the
first guarantee offered when Der Maxie
arrived from Germany.
The money would be deposited in
any bank outside of Germany or the
United States stipulated by Braddock
and would be free of tax in Germany.
Schmeling explained the German gov
ernment has no interest in the fight
and that its only concern is in per
mitting the guarantee money to leave
the country tax free.
Gould said that in addition to
$400,000, the title holder would insist
on an American referee and an Eng
lish judge.
Garden Waits on Court.
“gCHMELING also will have to
straighten things out with the
Garden and Promoter Mike Jacobs
so there will be no legal complica
tions,” the champion's manager added.
The Garden, however, held to its
policy to have nothing to do with the
the matter until its court action is set.
The Garden holds contracts of both
Schmeling and Braddock for the June
3 fight. After those contracts were
signed Braddock disregarded them and
signed to meet Louis in Chicago late
in June. Col. John Reed Kilpatrick
refused comment on Schmeling's lat
est move except to say the Garden's
suit is not yet ready for court filing.
If the Berlin deal falls through,
Gould said, Braddock wdll follow his
schedule of opening his Wisconsin
training camp in about 10 days to
start conditioning for the Louis fight.
O’DONNELL PINMEN HIT
Take Final Block for 10-Game
Match Win at Baltimore.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
BALTIMORE, Md.. March 22.—
O'Donnell Grill bowling team from
Washington won the final block and
with it the 10-game intercity match
from the local Kelly-Buick team here
yesterday. The O'Donnells had a 10
game total of 6.250 to Baltimore’s
6,229.
In the final block the Grill team shot
a five-game total of 3,078—27 more
than Kelly-Buick. Krauss led the Cap
ital contingent with 643.
MACK SEES A’S IN TRIM
Cuts Drill After Win in Which
Turbeville Hurls Route.
MEXICO CITY—Satisfied that his
Athletics were rounding into playing
condition. Manager Connie Mack ex
cused all the players from practice
today.
George Turbeville became the first
Mackman to pitch a full game, twirl
ing a 7-3 victory over the Agriculture
team yesterday.
ROUGH ON RUFFING
Must Prove He Is Ready Before
Yanks Will Let Him Sign.
SEBRING, Fla.—Col. Jacob Ruppert,
who hasn’t had a word from his hold
out pitcher, Charley Ruffing, has
added another line to his ultimatum.
If he reports, Rufus the Red will
have to prove he’s in condition be
fore he will be allowed to sign, Rup
pert says.
Arcelli, Loder Promise Hot
Bout, but Attendance
Outlook Is Dark.
BY BURTON HAWKINS.
TWO out-of-town fighters will
mix tonight at Turner’s cauli
flower crucible in an experi
ment, which Matchmaker
Goldie Ahearn hopes will unveil a
discovery, but which might explode
into a financial fizzle.
Peeling Washington’s fistic family is
eager to focus its collective glimmers
on new talent, Ahearn has imported
Teddy Loder from New York and
Werther Arcelli from Boston to blend
in an eight-round feature fight which
might set a new high for action here
this season, but at the same time may
strike a new low in attendance.
Ahearn has violated the first rule of
matchmaking in neglecting local color,
but then again, that's necessity, since
there isn’t any local welterweight able
or willing to argue with either Loder
or Arcelli. He believes action instead
of names will entice customers and
he's gambling on it.
Looms as Hot Scraps.
VlfHILE neither you nor I are con
cerned over whether Mr. Loder
beats Mr. Arcelli or vice versa, the
fight nevertheless stacks up as a rather
hectic debate if Arcelli's one recent ap
pearance here and Loder’s record
testify to their respective prowess.
Arcelli at least has impressed one
native with his fistic ability. Phil Furr,
originally slated to scrap with the
Italian, elected to take a ring vacation.
Phil's temporary retirement is believed
in most quarters to be merely good
sense, since Werther disposed of Sid
Silas in three rounds and the best Furr
ever could accomplish against the Jew
ish lad was a knockout in the twelfth
round.
If Furr chooses to stick to the busi
ness of plastering walls instead of
attempting to paste beaks, which is un
likely, the quaint District welterweight
title automatically will be left vacant.
So, if that's any added incentive, Loder
and Arcelli may be fighting for some
sort of championship.
Loder a Hard Puncher.
^ STIFF puncher, the German
American Loder indirectly is
managed by Joe Jacobs, who is get- 1
ting nowhere rapidly at present in
maneuvering Max Schmeling into a
title fight.
Doug Swetnam, w'ho seems to have
hit his stride after many years as a
so-so preliminary boy, will square off
with Nick Camarata, Richmond
featherweight, in an • eight-round
semi-final. Camarata held Petey Sar
ron to a draw in Richmond before
the world featherweight champion
sailed for South Africa.
In a quartet of four-rounders,
Frankie De Angelo, local feather
weight, will meet Joe Letto of Balti
more; Joe < Palooka) Mathews of
Richmond will face Bill Temes, local
lightweight; Sam Bracala, Baltimore
welterweight, will swap swats with
Steamboat Bill Robinson of Alexan
dria and Norman Cohen, Richmond
welterweight, will trade blows with
Young Tony Ross of Baltimore.
The first punch will be launched
at 8:30 o'clock.
NEVER WRESTLED
Principles of Engineering
Used by Oklahoma Coach
With Great Success.
By the Associated Press.
STILLWATER. Okla., March 22.—
Edward Clark Gallagher—the
coach who learned his wres
tling is an engineering labora
tory—still is the miracle man of
amateur wrestling.
Gallagher—he never wrestled a
match in his life—brought his Okla
homa Aggies back today from the
national intercollegiate tournament
at Terre Haute, Ind.—as he has done
with monotonous regularity the last
22 years—bearing the team champion
ship and boasting four individual
champions out of eight.
This latest victory is all but lost
in the almost endless string that has
made Oklahoma in general—and
Gallagher in particular—names to
be feared in amateur mat circles.
Protege is Rival Coach.
'J'HE team they dethroned, Okla
homa University, is coached by
Gallagher-trained Paul V. Keen.
Keen's team took second place this
year and two other Oklahoma teams
broke into the scoring.
This perennial domination by Okla
homans has been going on for years—
ever since Gallagher finished engi
neering school and decided that the
principles of leverage could be applied
to prove the power of brains over
brawn.
He took his engineering into the
wrestling ring and today his pupils
are spread over Oklahoma like a
blanket, coaching in high schools and
colleges.
Gallagher's teams have gone
through 17 undefeated seasons. They
have won eight national intercol
legiate championships in the last 10
years, six national A. A. U. team
titles and 58 national collegiate and
A. A. U. individual titles.
Always Keep Ahead.
/~)NE of Gallagher's former pupils—
Coach Art Griffith of Tulsa High
—whose teams have won 8 State
championships out of 10 they entered,
and won national high school tourna
ments at Northwestern in 1928, 1939
and 1930, sums up the situation like
this:
"Oklahoma boys are just about a
year ahead of the rest of the country
in technique all the time. Oklahoma
teams will show one brand of wres
tling at a tournament. All other teams
will watch and say, 'Bv golly, we’ll
dote on their stuff, beat ’em next
year.’ But when Oklahoma teams
show up next year they will have
changed their technique or developed
it just enough to make the year's work
of their competitors useless. It’s
their superior technique that does it."
CUBS LIKE ROOK TRIO.
AVALON, Calif.—Manager Charley
Grimm of the Chicago Cubs has de
cided to keep three rookies, Outfielder
Joe Marty, from San Francisco: In
fielder Hank Majeski, from Eau Claire,
Wis., and Bob Garbark, catcher, from
Toledo, at least until the May 15
deadline.
andSTEEA
BY GEORGE E. HtBER. __
ALL fishermen have their fa
vorite fishing grounds. One
locality in particular is their
idea of God’s country. It may
be a bass hole in an old mill dam;
it may be an icy cold mountain
stream, slippery underfoot and with
overhanging boughs to foul the rod,
but it still is the best spot in the
world for their money. Or It may
be an offshore section of the coast
where their favorite salt water game
fish is found.
We have such a spot. It’s really
God’s country. Down in the southwest
corner of Florida is a section known
as the Ten Thousand Islands, and the
name is descriptive enough. There
literally are thousands of islands,
some containing only a few square
yards of soil and some stretching mile
after mile. They are of shell con
struction and covered with dense
growth of semi-tropical vegetation
and mangrove trees.
It really is an offshoot of
the famous Florida Everglades,
extending out into the Gulf of
Mexico.
Aside from the scenic wonders of
the country, the waters contain a
variety of fish seldom found else
where. Twice a day the tide roars
in and out between the islands, bring
ing with it practically every kind of
fish which swims in the gulf, chief
of which is the famed silver king, the
tarpon.
Fishing Club at Everglades.
TT IS, in fact, the best place along the
whole west coast of Florida to
catch tarpon. They arrive there early
in the Spring, hang around through
out the Summer, and then dash on
around the coast to Texas. They are
caught both still fishing and trolling
and hardly a day goes by that some
silver beauty is not brought in to be
weighed, inspected and. sometimes
mounted.
The Ten Thousand Islands
have barely been touched by
civilization and they are about
the only place in the country
where commerce has not robbed
fishing of its sporting aspects.
The jumping-off place for this beau
tiful bit of creation is the little town
of Everglades, situated on the edge
of Collier County. There sportsmen
from all over the country gather dur
ing the tarpon season in the Rod
and Gun Club, the walls of which are
lined with panels of tarpon scales.
On each of the scales the name of the
lucky angler has been written, to
gether with the date, weight and other
pertinent information, not forgetting
the name of the guide. Practically
every State in the country and the
District of Columbia Is represented.
'J'HIS is the place from which the
popular trips around the kej’s
are made, and the Shark River anglers
also start here. Shark River is the
tarpon grounds, as many local angler
will attest. Among those who plan a
trip down there this month is our
own Walter McCallum, who is switch
ing for awhile from golf clubs to his
second love, fishing rods. With him
will be Dr. Alex Preece, Dr. Paul M.
Stewart and Dr. Paul M. Stewart, jr.
Yes, we envy them.
Tarpon, while being the main
attraction, are not the only
fish caught. A hundred other
species abound there, many of
which can be caught on a bait
casting rod.
Jerry Sappington was down there
once, fishing when the tide was right,
and made 26 consecutive casts, catch
ing a fish each time. He missed on
the twenty-seventh try and called
it a day. That’s just an example of
what can be done, and is only one
of the reasons why we think this is
the best place in the Eastern U. S. A.
for salt water enthusiasts.
A slight drawback is the mos
quitoes, which come hot and heavy
at certain seasons. To give some indi
cations as to the size of these flying
rapiers, the natives down there tell
of the angler who went out fly fishing.
The larger the fly he used, the larger
the fish he caught, so, seeking the
ultima thule of his trip, he tied on
one of the mosquitoes which he had
captured by lassoing it with a 36
thread line. Using this enormous
bait, he brought in a 110-pound tarpon.
IHH^awa
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FREE ADJUSTMENTS!
BY PAUL J. MILLER, Jr.
LITERALLY swamped by the
strong aggregation of amateurs
that made up the team of 17
boards for the Agricultural
Chess Club In the recent interclub
tourney, the War Department Chess
Club keenly feels that it has endured
a public massacre which the soldiers
will have a hard time living down,
especially after copping the team
championship for 1936-7 of the
Metropolitan Chess Association.
Alexander Sturges has whipped
the Aggie boys into a smooth
playing club of chess enthusi
asts that is the envy of lesser
groups in the District.
Dr. George W. Hervey and D. S.
Burch have developed team competi
tion to the point where there exists
*TWAT *^5ULDNT
the maximum of interest with a min
imum of personal friction.
All in all, the Aggies have done a
swell job, and it bodes ill for any
local club that without careful prep
aration engages them in a team match
in excess of 15 boards.
Local-National Comparison.
JT IS true that the United States
has the greatest players in the
world as a small group. But the
largest number of class A and master
players probably may be found in a
foreign country.
In recent years America has
produced no world champion,
but the United States, with a
team of five, has won consecu
tively the last three interna
tional team tourneys of the In
ternational Chess Federation.
In Washington the Munitions club
nay have the best five-man team,
but when It comes to the largest
number of strong amateurs In the
N^etropolitan Chess Association, then
no doubt the honor lies elsewhere—
probably with the Department of
Agriculture Chess Club.
_ 1
Other Clashes Planned.
j-^LATED with their victory against
the war champions, the Aggies
contemplate other Interclub battles. !
Meantime, within their group a
club championship tourney is in prog
ress. The club is divided into three
sections, and within each section there
is a tourney. Winners of the section
tourneys will meet in a final match
for the club title.
Undaunted by their defeat at
the hands of the Aggies, Capt.
Earl Kunkle says the War C. C.
plans to meet every chess group
in the District in an interclub
fray.
The next match will be against the
Omar Khayyam Chess Club of George
Washington University, headed by
Mahmood Taher and Jean Henderson.
The college unit is relatively new, but
in its short duration has enrolled
threescore players.
Individual scoring:
Fine Scores Against Russians.
Agriculture C. C. vs. War Dep't. C. C.
Shepard _0 Kessler _1
Siurges _1 Neufeld _n
Burch _1 Morey _0
Nixon _ 0 Naid<d _ ]
Hirch-1 Sutphen _0
McClure_1 Martinez _0
Hervey _ __ 0 Bard - _ 1
McDowell _1 Saporito _ _ o
Ward -1 Powell _<i ,
Schwenger_1 Benjamin _n
Vivian _] Kunkle _ _ o ,
Hamilton _o Dunn _ 1 j
Sabin _1 Rothgeb_0 '
Wing -o Bennett. S. B._1 !
Cosgrove _1 Lind . _ 0
Richardson_1 Bennett. E. J. __ 0 ,
Lineweaver_] Camden_0
12 5
J^EUBEN FINE, youthful New
Yorker who is playing chess
among the Soviets by invitation, con
Master Villain Will Vent It
Upon Giant Davis in
Thursday Bout.
LAVERNE BAXTER, who caught
the sit-down strike fever re
cently at Turner's Arena, and
who rapidly is making local
mat fans forget such comparatively
tame figures as Dillinger and Karpis,
will unveil his villainy here Thursday
night against Wee Willie Davis.
Baxter’s brief strike was the result
of a feud with Tony Wakeman, WOL
sports announcer, who nearly came
to blows with the snarling pachyderm
during the course of an interview
at the WOL studio. Baxter became
childish about it and refused to
budge until Wakeman was removed
from the ringside. *
Baxter Pleases Promoter.
MEDIOCRE journeyman until he
decided to display a total disre
gard for whatever rules are in vogue
tinues to add to his long string of
foreign scalps.
At Moscow, Fine encountered
six Russian masters and the
Hungarian internationalist,
Andre Lilienthal. to wine five
games and drop two.
The Moscow' dispatch does not say
whether the losses were draws or
clear-cut wins by Soviet players.
The tourney score
Players. W. L. Players. W. L.
Pine _5 ~ Alatorzew .'i 4
Kahn-4‘2 V12 Judowitsch :i 4
Pannw _ 4 3 B darewsky *.'l2 4'2
Belawenetz 3>2 31 a Lilienthal r;t2 4'2 1
In the open championship tourney
for women at the Marshall Chess
Club. New York City, Mrs. Mary Bain
of Astoria and Mrs. Adele Rivero,
champion of Manhattan, have gar
nered three straight victories.
for grapplers, Baxter now Is consid
ered one of the foremost villains in
ihe game, if that's any distinction.
He has revised the usual climaxes
completely and the altered script is
paying dividends at the box office.
As a drawing card, Baxter cur
rently is Promoter Joe Turner’s fav
orite, having jammed the grapple cen
ter on three successive occasions. His
unorthodox tactics surpass any em
ployed by the other bad boys of the
cauliflower world and both he and
Davis recently have been disqualified
for carrying things a bit too far.
Davis a 265-Pounder.
J^AVIS, with 265 pounds draped
over his frame, is a former V. P. I.
foot ball star and wrestling promoter.
He was disqualified for treating Ed
Meske too roughly and last week
easily disposed of Jim Coffield.
Four preliminaries complete the
card, with Chief Little Wolf meeting
Matros Kirilenko in a semi-final re
stricted to 45 minutes, and Hank
Barber facing Marshall Blackstock
and Henri Piers tangling with Floyd
Marshall in 30-mmute matches. An
other match is in the making.
The first elbow will be crooked at
8:30 o'clock.
20 YEARS AGO
IN THE STAR.
QEORGE JAMES, captain of Co
lumbia Country Club's golf
team, is in the semi-finals of the
first annual invitation tournament
of the St. Augustine Club in Flor
ida. He now meets Col. J. E.
Smith, who eliminated the med
alist.
If the proposed trip to Panama
next Spring falls through, and
Manager Griffith decides to train
the Nats again at Augusta, he prob
ably will rent a large house and
take his own cook along with him.
He also will have meat for the
training table sent direct from
Washington, as he did at Char
lottesville. Griffith has no fault
to find with Augusta, save in the
matter of food.
pi"' ' i ’ 1 use
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