Despite The Ring ranking him seventh in 1929, third in 1930, and sixth in 1931, Smith never got a shot at middleweight champion Mickey Walker?
?Harry Smith is the worst kind of opponent: A colored boy who can sock.??Ed Hughes
The name?s mundane, but not the fighter.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 28, 1907, middleweight Harry Smith fought out of Harlem from 1928 to 1932, winding up with an impressive record of 51 wins, 38 by knockout, seven losses, only one by knockout, two draws, and two no contests, about 15 or 16 fights a year. And that?s in addition to a flawless amateur record of 60-0, 55 KOs, which is not too dissimilar from Sugar Ray Robinson?s 85?0, 69 KOs.
?The Harlem Thunderbolt? won his first 14 pro fights, 11 by KO or TKO, before losing by disqualification to Nick Palmer at Ridgewood Grove in Brooklyn on April 6, 1929. Except for two draws and one no contest, Smith won his next 38, 26 by KO or TKO, before getting knocked out in the 10th by Jimmy Hanna at the Dreamland Auditorium in San Francisco on October 2, 1931, his only loss by stoppage. Harry had outpointed Jimmy at the same venue that August 28.
Overly devoted, at least for a boxer, to wine, women, and song, Smith?s career fell apart following the Hanna loss (in fairness, though, the kayo?a sucker punch, according to one report?may very well have caused brain damage). He won only two more bouts, outpointing Sandy Garrison Casanova at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles on December 8, 1931, and retiring Willie Snowy Unwin (the only time he was stopped) in the fifth at the Royal Albert Hall in London on December 7, 1932, in what proved to be his last fight. Otherwise, he lost five, one bout ending in a no contest.
In his day, however, the ?sensational colored middleweight of New York? beat such worthies as Jack McVey, aka the Pride of Harlem, outpointing him at the Olympia Boxing Club in New York City on November 16, 1929; Pal Silvers, stopping him by fifth-round TKO at the Broadway Arena in Brooklyn on January 7, 1930 (ref Jack Dorman ?waved Smith aside as Silvers was about to collapse under a terrific right and left to the jaw,? reported The New York Times); Osk Till, kayoing him in the second at the Olympia Boxing Club that March 1 (one of only three men to do so, and nobody did it faster); Yale Okun, first outpointing him at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn that June 18, then stopping him by third-round TKO at Woodcliff Park in Poughkeepsie on June 8, 1931 (with Okun winning on points at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 1932, and at the Olympic Auditorium that July 12); Gorilla Jones, outpointing him at the Olympia Boxing Club on October 23, 1930, in a fight one observer called ?putrid? (they had fought at Queensboro Stadium in Long Island City that September 4, the bout ending in a no contest, Jones claiming a broken hand); durable Fred Lenhart (137 bouts in 12 years), kayoing him in the first at St. Nicholas Arena in New York City on April 10, 1931; and Frank Rowsey, outpointing him at the Olympic Auditorium that July 28 (his West Coast debut), an ?impressive victory,? according to the California Eagle, that made Harry ?the most talked of fighter in Los Angeles.? It was anticipated that the Thunderbolt would ?draw many a colored fan to the Olympic? that August 11, when he?d face Sailor Harry Goodland. Kudos to Goodland, who got kayoed in the second, for stepping up, as Chick Devlin, Leo Lomski, and George Manley all demurred (the latter two, light heavies). ?Good-Time George? did indeed eventually face a spent Smith, outpointing him at the Olympic Auditorium on May 17, 1932.
Smith?s 1929 fight with McVey was ostensibly for the ?colored? middleweight championship, which he apparently defended against Joe Tinsley at Woodcliff Park on August 13, 1930, knocking him out in the seventh (his 1930 no contest with Jones was also for the title). Why ?ostensibly? and ?apparently?? Because the title became officially extinct when Tiger Flowers beat Harry Greb by controversial split decision at the Garden on February 26, 1926 (?The decision was met with deathly silence by the crowd,? said Hype Igoe), thus becoming the first black Middleweight Champion of the World. Larry Estridge was the last to score the ?colored? title, beating Panama Joe Gans by unanimous decision at Yankee Stadium on June 26, 1924, until it was reinstated in the early 1940s, with Charley Burley stopping Holman Williams by ninth-round TKO at the Victory Arena in New Orleans on August 14, 1942. Williams then took both Burley and the title by unanimous decision at the Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans that October 16. Cocoa Kid became the last ?colored? middleweight champ when he outpointed Williams at the Victory Arena on January 15, 1943.
Perhaps because of blundering on the part of manager Jack Wren (or Dave Brown), Smith didn?t participate in the NBA Middleweight Tournament, following Mickey Walker vacating the title in 1931. It was thus Jones who won the world crown, stopping Oddone Piazza by sixth-round TKO at the Auditorium in Milwaukee on January 25, 1932, losing it to Marcel Thil by 11th-round disqualification at Parc des Princes in Paris that June 11. There wouldn?t be another black Middleweight Champion of the World until Robinson took the title from Jake LaMotta by 13th-round TKO at Chicago Stadium on February 14, 1951, in the famed St. Valentine?s Day Massacre.
Despite The Ring ranking him seventh in 1929, third in 1930, and sixth in 1931, Smith never got a shot at Walker, who was champ in ?29, ?30, and for at least part of ?31. The ?Toy Bulldog? is rarely thought of as an ?avoider.? That said, following his controversial win over Flowers, taking the championship on points at the Coliseum in Chicago on December 3, 1926 (?Spectators at ringside couldn?t believe it when they saw referee [Benny] Yanger hold up Walker?s hand as the winner,? wrote Bob Soderman of the Chicago Tribune), he only defended four times over the next five years?kayoing Tommy Milligan in the 10th at the Olympia in London on June 30, 1927, winning against Jock Malone by newspaper decision at Lexington Park in St. Paul on June 5, 1928 (Malone could only have scored the title by stoppage), and defeating Ace Hudkins by split decision at Comiskey Park in Chicago 16 days later, as well as on points at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles on October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday indeed for ?The Nebraska Wildcat?).
According to boxing historian Kevin Smith, Mickey turned down $50,000 (almost $700,000 today) from promoter Jess McMahon (granddaddy of the WWE) ?to fight Harry for the title at Ebbets Field in the summer of 1930.? Maxie Rosenbloom is another who refused to fight Harry, twice. Tiger Thomas, a toughie from Philly, turned Harry down, because, ?I don?t think my momma would want me dyin? in Philadelphia.?
Smith?s lethal reputation did indeed send ?the white boys seeking cover every time his name is mentioned,? as the New York Amsterdam News put it early in the fighter?s career. And not just the white boys. Small wonder, given that he was given to ?bowling over contestants with monotonous regularity,? as Al White wrote in the Baltimore Afro-American.
?It looks like Mr. Smith is here to stay with us for quite a spell,? observed the California Eagle after the 1931 Rowsey bout. But looks, in life as in boxing, are nothing if not deceiving?Harry died of a brain hemorrhage in Chicago, on his way to California to be married, on September 19, 1933, and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. He was 25.
