There?s a dearth of information on this welterweight of yore. An online search brings up Neve Campbell far more than her Nev counterpart?
?No horse-shoes allowed in gloves under six-ounces.??Nev Campbell
Although I look far more often than buy, I enjoy checking out auctions that specialize in boxing memorabilia, particularly when I find something quirky. I recently came across, for instance, a signed photo of heavyweight Charles Krikorian, who was hired to fight a circus bear, ?but when that thing got rough I did too, and it cost me my job,? said the tough New Jersey Boxing Hall of Famer. After putting the bear down in their second bout, the animal?s handlers were none too pleased to discover that Krikorian had broken three of its ribs. ?That?s when they let me go,? he said, adding, ?After I softened up the bear, Tony Galento got the job.?
And did you know that there was a boxer actually named Al Capone? More than one, truth be told. But the boyo I?m referring to was a never-stopped welterweight (12-2-1, 4 KOs) who fought out of Paterson, New Jersey, from 1930 to 1933. He eventually opened the Atlas Gym, where guys like Hall of Famer Midget Wolgast trained, but not before losing to Hall of Famer Lou Duva?s brother, Carl. Based on a photo that came up for bid, the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Famer didn?t bear much resemblance to his more infamous namesake, but the name alone must surely have gotten him the best tables at the hottest nightclubs. More importantly, the leggiest chorus girls. Hey, maybe even Doris Eaton Travis, who died on May 11, 2010, at the age of 106, the last of the Ziegfeld Girls.
But the most interesting item I?ve come across recently is a letter dated 59 years ago today, November 5, 1957, from Nev Campbell to boxing historian Johnny Hauck (brother of Hall of Famer Leo Houck), Prince Henry, an Allentown lightweight who once lost to never-stopped Joe Shugrue, ?and all of my friends at the Oldtime Boxers? Dinner.?
The utterly unknown Nev was a welterweight who fought out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1901 to 1913 (though out of the ring from ?06 to ?09, as well as ?12, but claiming to have fought till ?15). Leaving aside his 11 newspaper bouts (4-4-3), he wound up with an official record of seven wins, all by knockout, and four losses, three by knockout.
In his letter (?I am writing this with red ink ? my very life blood ? because that?s what I got in my eye!?), Nev, who would turn 75 on January 23, 1958, offered to take on ?any of the following boxers I fought between the years 1901 and 1915 in Lancaster or Philadelphia: Billy Kolb, Kid Beebe, Todo Moran, Jimmy Devine, Willie Lucas, Shorty Groff, Sammy Parks, Joe Smith, Frankie Bradley, Tommy Buck, Fighting Bob Givler, and a host of others whose names have faded with the dim past and I no longer remember.?
He ain?t the only one. Except for Jimmy Devine, who won 28 of 29 official fights by knockout, losing nine of 12 the same way (he had 104 newspaper bouts, 39-35-30), and who stopped Nev by third-round TKO at the Richmond A.C. in Philly on September 2, 1905, and Frank Bradley ? one of the few men to beat bantamweight champ and Hall of Famer Johnny Coulon and who sorta avenged a kayo loss to Coulon conqueror and Hall of Famer Kid Williams with a draw (both newspaper decisions), but whom Nev beat at the Lancaster A.C. on May 24, 1910 (also a newspaper decision) ? I never even heard of, never mind remember, any of these tough lads, many of whom appear to have been as hard-hitting as they were glass-jawed. Not quite true, as I also know of Kid Beebe (who fought a total of 303 times from 1900 to 1922, getting stopped only twice), but can find no record of his bout with Nev. Nor is there a record of a fight with Joe Smith, a lightweight out of Philly. The same is true of Fighting Bob Givler. Nev did indeed fight someone named Fighting Bob, but apparently not Givler.
As an appetizing aside, Bradley (a Philly bantamweight whose real name was Bloch ? he was Jewish, not Irish) opened Frankie Bradley?s at the corner of Juniper and Chancellor in 1933. According to local writer Bob Skiba, the restaurant attracted such neighborhood celebrities as Jose Ferrer, Lucille Ball, Tony Randall, Robert Preston, and ?the ultra-campy? Charles Nelson Reilly. ?Frankie Bradley?s has been called Philadelphia?s Sardi?s; the walls were covered with pictures of stars who dined there,? writes Skiba, and ?was known for its hearty chicken, lamb, seafood, and garlic-laced planked steak, all accompanied by ethnic Jewish touches like matzoh balls, kreplach, and chicken soup.?
Bradley died in 1976, the restaurant closing for good 10 years later. But in its day, it must surely have been competition for Hall of Famer Lew Tendler?s place, on the northeast corner of Broad and Locust, ?where everyone wore a suit, from the mugs to the opera patrons,? writes boxing scribe Gabe Oppenheim, ?and any interaction, any bumping of shoulders, might alter forever the trajectory of a person?s life.?
Back to Nev, who had some stipulations in issuing his challenge. He insisted, for instance, on Walter Schlichter as referee, who?d reffed from 1893 to 1910, and was the subject of Thomas Eakins? 1898 painting, Taking the Count, which commemorated the bout between Charlie McKeever and Wilmington Jack Daly at the Arena A.C. in Philly that April 29, McKeever winning by newspaper decision. A safe stipulation, given that ?Slick,? who co-founded the Philadelphia Giants Negro League baseball team in 1902, died in 1944. There was also his insistence that the bouts take place at Maennerchor Hall in Lancaster. ?Since the Hall has burned down ? rebuild it or I won?t fight.?
According to the letterhead, Nev appears to have made a bit of a name for himself as a writer of fiction and non-fiction. He contributed articles and stories to a wide variety of publications, including The Veteran Boxer, published by the Veteran Boxers Association of Philadelphia (in ?57, the year of the letter, Packey O?Gatty was one of the assistant editors), as well as (unexpectedly) something called Every Woman. Also, his 1933 short story, ?Parkbench Philosophers,? won an unspecified prize. Last but not least, he apparently excelled in rendering ?Your Horoscope in Song Words and Music.?
Otherwise, there?s a dearth of information on this welterweight of yore. An online search brings up Neve Campbell far more than her Nev counterpart. In hindsight, I spent an inordinate amount of time giving close, if irrelevant, study to her photos. I did find out, however, that Neve and fellow Canadian actress Rachel McAdams had a Female Celebrity Boxing Association-sponsored bout in which Neve sported a ?cerulean-blue bikini, tight black battle braid, and tan sheepskin UGG [ugh] boxing boots,? while Rachel was ?in maple-leaf motif sports bra, solid red aerobic trunks with white maple leaf at the hip, and white aerobic runners and socks?both vixens.?
A tale of two termagants for another day.
