?Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. (To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.)?―Marcus Tullius Cicero
Boxing historians, by definition, are solid researchers and many?if not most?are also fine writers. It?s not axiomatic, however, that a good researcher makes a good boxing historian. Creating lists and setting forth statistics may be indicative of solid and potentially revealing research, but unless those stats can be translated into compelling narrative, they will remain sterile.
Confusion notwithstanding, the late Hank Kaplan, the late Nat Fleischer, Budd Schulberg, Herb Goldman, Tracy Callis, Harry Otty, Carlo Rotella, Adam Pollack, and Springs Toledo are historian/ writers that quickly come to mind. They, and others too numerous to list, have a certain something that sets them apart. Of course, the renegade Flash Gordon?maybe boxing?s last hippie?must be mentioned. There are a great many others that fit the bill including a large number of WBAN (Women Boxing Archive Network), BWAA, and International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) members.
Boxing lists and stats abound (see http://www.todayinsport.com/boxing). Fine books on boxing history are also plentiful (see http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/adampollack-the-daily-iowan.htm). For whatever reason, excellent historical articles are not quite so abundant (see http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/casey/MC_index.htm). The CyberBoxingZone once featured them. Boxing.com now has a goodly number of exceptionally fine writers who turn them out regularly.
The Internet
?There?s easier access today to the global scene of boxing, through the internet, and when more information is provided to you more easily, it makes you more knowledgeable about what you?re researching.??Ed Brophy, IBHOF
Before the internet, word-of-mouth knowledge, old and scratchy video footage, and/or vintage film, microfiche, and yellowed newspaper articles limited the amount of research available. With the advent of the internet, the ability to research has been turbo-charged. Writers can now feast upon the rich global buffet that it offers?some can even learn that the great Tony DeMarco did not lose to the late Edwin Valero. With readily available records via BoxRec, video footage via YouTube, and the ease of electronic communications to various sources such as online boxing sites and Facebook (where one can exchange with knowledgeable fans), there is a universal awareness available to all writers. Importantly, the accuracy with which the Hall of Fame ballot placing analysis is now done has thankfully been enhanced (though there are still issues). And for the truly serious, The Hank Kaplan Boxing Archives at the Brooklyn College Library can be tapped at: http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pages/archives/findaid/Kaplan/HowToUseThisCollection.html.
The Historian
?There?s no doubt that becoming a historian is certainly the most time consuming thing. If done well I think one can become [one but] you must read incessantly. You have to analyze. It?s a bit of a compulsion???Herb Goldman
?And this issue of him (Jack Johnson) being black was not that relevant to him, but the issue of his being free was very relevant.??James Earl Jones who played Johnson in Howard Sackler?s Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Great White Hope
?Now, the late 1960s are over, as is Ali?s era. We can look back at Johnson now and give him the examination he deserves, without someone else getting in the way.??Gerald Early
So how does the boxing historian/writer differ from other writers? Quite simply, a boxing historian identifies the subject, researches, studies and assimilates the historical context, corroborates, uses reliable sources (the closer to firsthand the better), fills in the gaps and makes appropriate connections, and then writes?in that order. What separates the good ones, in my view, is the third step in the sequence?the one in which the writer enmeshes himself in the history of the particular era.
Writer Mike Casey recently did this with an exemplary article about Jack Dempsey titled, ?The Tiger in the New York Jungle.? One could feel Mike ?ride the rails? with Jack during the hard times from which the Manassa Mauler was bred. As Mike wrote, ?Perhaps that certain something in Dempsey took root in earlier times. Before sampling the punches of New York, he had taken the blows meted out by his hard life in the Old West. He was brought to his knees many times, but always got up.? Mike studied the history and learned about the values that existed in those hard times?and then he wrote about the fighter. One can almost taste the dust of the prairies and feel the danger of riding the rod. Hard times breed hard men and Casey nailed that.
Mike also got it when he described, in part, Ingemar Johansson?s slaughter of Eddie Machen in 1958 as follows:
?What Johansson did to Machen stunned the boxing world. Eddie was slammed to the canvas three times?His cold destruction, brutal and unnecessarily protracted in a more lenient era, stuns the young fans of today when they stumble upon it on the Internet. Even for hardened tradespeople, watching that slaughter requires a strong stomach. Oddly enough, it shakes the viewer more than Johansson?s seven-knockdown hammering of [Floyd] Patterson.?
??and unnecessarily protracted in a more lenient era?? That?s a gem sparkling in the sand.
?Too good for his own good? is a simple statement that could be ascribed to any number of avoided fighters, but when it is used to describe Charley Burley, a plethora of history emerges involving race relations and the Black Murderers? Row. It helps greatly to know about the race issues that existed during the times in which Burley before diving into the boxing angles.
In describing Burley in a 2006 article, Springs Toledo nailed the historical context with just one perfectly composed sentence, ?He was never the champ, but the whole city knows he should have been, would have been?had he only been given a chance.? See http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/cbzforum/showthread.php?9962-The-Tenth-God-of-War-Charley-Burley.
Those who write about the great boxing era of the late 1940s and the decade of the ?50s can add richness to their work if they also learn about the post-war mores and values that existed during those times and the no-nonsense attitude of the men who came back from the War?men who were hard and determined, who became well-schooled with great trainers, and had more fights to earn a living and to stay sharp. They also had an uncommon ability to regroup from misfortune. Not necessarily better men; just different men who may have had a different standard when it came to their craft. Knowing the history of those times makes it easier to describe why fighters often engaged in 80 or more bouts.
Finally, anyone wanting to write about Jack Johnson had best study what the 1908-1915 period was like and, more to the point, what Jim Crow was all about. They might learn that that while Johnson was heavyweight champion, he was covered more in the press than all other notable black men combined. As historian Ken Burns states: ?In my other films I approached race from an aerial point of view and then went down into the specifics?But with Jack Johnson I had the opportunity to begin at the beginning and move up through the life of an extraordinary human being that reflects an entire age and American consciousness.? (?Boxing While Black: Ken Burns Chronicles Jack Johnson?s Bout with Racism? by Shelly Gabert/Documentary.org/January 2005).
?He (Jack Johnson) was scandal, he was gossip, he was a public menace for many, a public hero for some, admired and demonized, feared, misunderstood, and ridiculed. Johnson emerged as a major figure in the world of sports at the turn of the century when sports themselves, both collegiate and professional, were becoming a significant force in American cultural life and as the role of black people in sports was changing.??Gerald Early, Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the Department of English at Washington University in St. Louis. See http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/rebel/.
On a more modern note and to paraphrase one of my favorite scribes Gutter Dandy, more and more writers have come to accept?often grudgingly? the greatness of Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. Those who view the brothers within a historical context know that the world (and not just the world of boxing) is a far larger place than the United States. For some, this has been difficult to digest. However, with or without the Klitschkos, the heavyweight division most likely will never again be ruled solely by American heavyweights. The fall of the Soviet Union has changed the equation in heavyweight boxing forever and those writers with an objective and unbiased eye to this change will arguably enrich their work accordingly.
The Present
Regrettably, as the boxing historians with firsthand experience of classic fights leave, we will lose a critical link with the past. Analyses of those fights will become more and more abstract and less human no matter how hard a young writer tries to humanize them. Whether or not one liked Bert Sugar?s writing and/or aura, he undeniably shared a burning passion for boxing that was uniquely tethered to a historical context. Bert didn?t need YouTube to discuss a particular fight. Bert?s YouTube was between his ears and switched on to a superb memory bank. For me, this was one of the most important implications of Bert?s passing.
Taking a different perspective, when my dad and I ventured to Marigold Gardens or to the Rainbow Arena in Chicago to catch a boxing card back in the day, we were greeted with odors that combined to form a marvelous alchemy. Cloying perfume clashed with the heavy scent of cheap after shave (maybe Mennen or Old Spice) which in turn blended in with the seductive odor of even cheaper cigars. Also in the mix were Vienna hot dogs (the world?s best) topped with tangy yellow mustard (no Grey Poupon here) and plenty of chopped onions. Finally, fresh roasted peanuts, buttered popcorn, steamy coffee, and slushy, foamy Meister Brau beer (a Chicago favorite though brewed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) completed the deal. Given concessions to political correctness, this pungent alchemy no longer exists, but back then it provided an indelible memory that simply cannot be reproduced by a writer who was not yet born.
Bottom Line: There are boxing writers. And there are boxing historian/writers. It will be up to the latter to keep the historical flames burning.
Side Note: For what it?s worth, I consider myself more of a boxing writer than a boxing historian. In fact, I only track back to the late-1940s in my work. However, I do enjoy the pleasure of meeting at least once a month with a number of hardcore boxing historians including Dan Cuoco (President of IBRO) and many IBRO members. The passion in our discussions?which more often than not morph to heated debates?is palpable, not to mention the important knowledge that is passed along. We discuss everything from the enigmatic career of Lloyd Marshall to Old School vs. New School. And like boxing history, it?s a pure joy. Follow us on Twitter@boxing_com to continue the discussion
