From 1921 up to the last newspaper mention of him I found four years later, he was billed as ?Young Wolgast, World?s Champion One-Legged Boxer.? It was variously reported that his proper name was Eddie Wolgast, Johnny Wolgast, and Pat McGuire; and that he hailed from Brooklyn, Syracuse (New York), Norfolk (Nebraska), Tulsa (Oklahoma) and Chicago. At age 14, it was written, he ?claimed the newsboys? (boxing) championship of the world,? and as a pro he fought lightweight champs Benny Leonard, Freddie Welsh and Willie Ritchie?though nowhere on their published records do the names Kid Wolgast, Eddie/Johnny Wolgast or Pat McGuire appear.
It?s at least for certain he did have just one leg, and coverage of his ring appearances around the country was pretty much in synch regarding how Wolgast lost the other one in the great world war that ended 100 years ago today.
?He was in France 22 months,? reported the Rock Island, Illinois Argus on December 3, 1921, ?and returned minus a leg and with plenty of scars on various parts of his anatomy. The underpinning he left at Belleau Wood on June 2, 1918.?
?Wolgast lost his leg and received nearly 30 shrapnel wounds in an engagement at Belleau Wood,? said the Salt Lake City, Utah Telegram of January 4, 1924.
?Named after the former king of the lighties, (Wolgast) lost his right leg halfway between the knee and ankle while battling with the 2nd Division of the American Expeditionary Forces in Belleau Wood, in France,? recounted the Fremont, Ohio News-Messenger on July 3, 1925.
The legendary World War I battle of Belleau Wood, northwest of Paris, spawned the immortal battlefield quotes ?Retreat? Hell, we just got here!? by USMC Capt. Lloyd Williams, and ?Come on, you sons of bitches?do you want to live forever?? popularly attributed to Marine Sgt. Major Dan Daly. The Americans won the nearly month-long battle, but at a cost of 10,000 dead and wounded doughboys.
Did Belleau Wood also spawn the World?s Champion One-Legged Boxer? I can?t vouch for Young Wolgast?s military credentials, and frankly the holes and inconsistencies in the rest of his biography give me pause?plus the fact that his barnstorming was done mostly in the hinterlands, where his story was more likely to be accepted at face value.
On the other hand, one of his first exhibitions, in Arkansas City, Kansas on October 29, 1921, was under the auspices of the American Legion. At least once Wolgast also showed his wares at a military camp?someplace a phony war hero likely would steer way clear of.
His prosthesis of cork, leather and metal, it was said, made Wolgast ?the only fighter in the game who equips his seconds with an oil can, a monkey wrench and a screwdriver to work on him between the rounds.?
Despite his handicap he was reportedly so fleet of foot in the ring ?that the bearings in his tailor-made leg (often) get too hot and the entire time between the rounds is used in getting it cooled off and ready for action again.?
That sounds mighty fanciful, but after watching the uniped boxer spryly skip around for three rounds one popeyed reporter allowed ?it was hard to believe one of his legs is buried over in France.?
Usually when Wolgast?s exhibitions concluded fans showered the ring with money. He?d also pass through the crowd afterwards with a container for additional donations. It was initially reported that all of it went to the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars; but later in his pre-fight talks harkening back to Belleau Wood, Wolgast tossed in pointed references to a wife and children back home, wherever that was, whose sole support he was.
??He claims the one-legged championship of the world,? noted the Reading, Pennsylvania Times on March 27, 1923, and ?as there isn?t (another) pug in the game with a flat wheel, his title claim seems destined to go unchallenged.?
But in fact, just two weeks before that and 200 miles east in Altoona, Wolgast was scheduled to defend his self-proclaimed title in a four-round contest against a hometown amputee named Roy Hertz. How Hertz came to have one of his wheels flattened wasn?t mentioned, but it turned out to be a moot point because Wolgast refused to go through with the match when he was told he could not both collect his contracted purse for the fight and solicit donations from the crowd afterwards.
Maybe it was payback for that a year later when he was prevented at the last minute from entering the ring in Warren, Pennsylvania by a just-discovered rule ?against cripples participating in exhibition bouts.?
In an early 1925 appearance Wolgast claimed to have also survived a close brush with tuberculosis. The trail goes cold in Springfield, Missouri, where he was supposed to box an exhibition on November 3 of that year.
Young Wolgast, it was written, ?is a fellow who can look life right square in the face and grin, for he has adopted the slogan ?A man may be down but he?s never out.??
I hope that?s why he was grinning.
Happy Veterans Day and thanks to all our heroes.
