A picture of a bearded sailor against the backdrop of the sea is framed by a lifebuoy emblazoned with the words Player?s Navy Cut?
I had a nice surprise the other day when my father handed me a small pack of cigarette cards and said, ?Here, you might as well hold on to these.?
Dad has taken to doing this kind of thing every once in a while. Despite still being outrageously sprightly and alert at the age of eighty-four, he has begun the process of making me the guardian of his prized boxing memorabilia.
It is some collection, comprising of photographs, magazines, old newspaper cuttings, old gloves and pumps, fight programs, cards and copies of Boxing News going back to my grandfather?s day in the early twentieth century. Lord alone knows where I?m going to put it all, but avid collectors always find a place.
The small pack of cards is a rare gem. Within the tattered but still visually beautiful pack are 50 cards (still in pristine condition) of famous boxers, managers and trainers from the sport?s bygone days. The pack itself is an artwork in miniature, stylistically similar to the colorful advertising posters of the age which were lovingly painted by different artists. A picture of a bearded sailor against the backdrop of the sea is framed by a lifebuoy emblazoned with the words Player?s Navy Cut. You can almost smell the salty air and feel that first glorious hit of tobacco in your lungs.
The cast making their home therein includes the cream of American, British and international talent, some forever famous and others sadly forgotten. Taking a bow when you slip them out of their time capsule are Tommy Milligan, Jock McAvoy, Benny Lynch, Joe Louis, Ted (Kid) Lewis, Jake Kilrain, Peter Kane, John Henry Lewis, Johnny King, Jack Johnson, Frank Hough, Len Harvey, Larry Gaines, Ben Foord, Tommy Farr, Jim Driscoll, Jack Doyle, Jack Dempsey, Al Delaney, Arthur Danahar, Dave Crowley, Georges Carpentier, Primo Carnera, Jim Braddock, Eric Boon, Jack (Kid) Berg, Max Baer, Henry Armstrong, Lou Ambers, Eddie Phillips, Jack Petersen, Walter Neusel, Harry Mizler, Gene Tunney, Max Schmeling, Paolino Uzcudun, Jimmy Walsh, Bombardier Billy Wells, Jimmy Wilde, Moss Deyong, C.H. Douglas, Jack Hart, Jack Smith, Victor Berliner, Sam Russell, Ted Broadribb, Johnny Sharpe, Sydney Hulls, Arthur J. Elvin and John E. Harding.
Back in the days when it was unfashionable not to smoke, these wonderfully crafted little jewels were a nice little reward for acquiring a hacking cough and possibly more serious complications. You could trade your favorite boxers with friends whilst looking super cool as you blew thick clouds of blue smoke hither and yon and pretended you were Robert Mitchum. Unlike Mitch, I never have mastered the art of keeping a cigarette in my mouth without blinding myself, but that?s by the by.
Several of the British boxers named here deserve a special mention, as they might not be familiar to some of my American pals. These fighters plied their trade in the great era of American dominance, overshadowed by the brilliance of such titans as John Henry Lewis, Henry Armstrong, Lou Ambers, Barney Ross and Tony Canzoneri. It was tough to get a place at the top table in those days. You could be an excellent boxer of world-class standard and still be frozen out at the top level.
Len Harvey
Len Harvey was a ringing case in point. An outstanding master of his trade, Harvey was a classic boxer from the west country of Cornwall who fought his way up through the weight divisions and lost just 10 times in a 140-fight career that began in 1920 and concluded with a brutal knockout loss to Freddie Mills in 1942. Len was an old and rusty 35-year-old who had been inactive for three years by the time he met fearsome Freddie at the White Hart Lane stadium in north London. Harvey was knocked through the ropes in the second round and counted out whilst outside the ring. It was a sad ending to a fabulous career and it is unfortunate that there are few films of Len at his sublime peak.
Harvey thrice outpointed the big hitting Jock McAvoy, who I will come onto a little later. Len also defeated such quality opponents as Eddie Phillips, Larry Gains, Jack Petersen, the dangerous Jack (Cast Iron) Casey from Sunderland, Jack Hood and Frank Moody. Harvey drew with Walter Neusel of Germany and won a decision over the great Californian Dave Shade, an ?uncrowned champion? of the golden age who racked up 249 professional outings.
However, in his two tilts at world championships, Len Harvey couldn?t cross the line. This was largely to do with the quality of the men he challenged, but there was a psychological reason too, one that seized many British fighters of the era. So overwhelmingly dominant were the Americans that British boxers fell into a state of mind where they simply didn?t believe they could succeed at the highest level. In later years, men such as Randy Turpin, Ken Buchanan, John H. Stracey, Lloyd Honeyghan and Lennox Lewis would gradually shift the balance of power, but it took a long time.
Then again, how many light heavyweights beat John Henry Lewis in his prime? That was Harvey?s task at the Empire Pool, Wembley, in 1936, and Len did well in his losing effort over 15 rounds against a champion of great quality. Only Freddie Mills and Jack Petersen?late in Harvey?s career?managed to vanquish the clever Cornishman inside the distance.
Four years earlier, when Harvey was still boxing at middleweight, he was outpointed by Frenchman Marcel Thil in a bid for Thil?s NBA middleweight crown at the old White City stadium in London. No shame in that either. The rough and tough Thil was a hellish man to fight and beat the very talented likes of two-weight world champion Lou Brouillard and Gorilla Jones (described by the great Freddie Steele as the cleverest man he ever met). But Thil wasn?t fashionable or dashingly handsome in the way of his compatriot, Marcel Cerdan, and has been somewhat forgotten by the passing years. Teak tough, relentless and unashamedly contemptuous of the rule book, Thil seemed to roll on forever until losing his claim of the world title to Fred Apostolic in 1937. Marcel was leading Fred on points in their match at the Polo Grounds before being waved out of action in the tenth round due to a severely cut right eye.
Jock McAvoy
Built like a little tank, hair parted in the middle and with a nervous habit of chewing the thumb of his gloves while he sat in his corner, Jock McAvoy was equally loved by British and American fight fans. The Rochdale Thunderbolt, as he was known, was a tremendous puncher. In a career that spanned 18 years from 1927 to 1945, McAvoy knocked out 88 men in his 132 wins, losing 14 bouts and drawing one in a total of 147 fights. Born Joseph Bamford, he took the name of Jock McAvoy so that his mother wouldn?t know he was fighting.
Jock thrilled American fans in December 1935 at Madison Square Garden with a shocking first round blitz of NBA middleweight champion Babe Risko in a non-title fight. Poor Risko never knew what hit him. He was smashed down by a roundhouse right to the jaw and then decked a further five times before taking the full count from referee Billy Cavanaugh after 2:48 seconds.
McAvoy was a natural and terrific middleweight, but hopped constantly between the middle and light heavyweight divisions. He even jumped up to heavyweight to challenge Jack Petersen for the British and Commonwealth titles. A return fight with Risko for Babe?s version of the middleweight championship might have seen Jock wearing the crown, but the Thunderbolt went after John Henry Lewis for the 175-pound title and was unanimously outpointed.
Nor could Jock ever quite master the deft and artful Len Harvey, losing three of his four meetings with Len. Happily, the gloriously defiant McAvoy ended his career with three straight victories before hanging up his gloves in December, 1945.
Eric Boon
If you liked the all action, no-nonsense approach of welterweight Dave (Boy) Green in the seventies, you would have loved his lightweight template and idol, Eric (Boy) Boon, who hailed from the same town of Chatteris in Cambridgeshire. From 1935 to 1952, Boon was all business, a relentless big puncher who posted 63 knockouts in his 94 wins against 21 defeats, five draws and a no contest.
Unlike Green, Boon never got a chance at world championship glory in the much more competitive furnace of his time, but Eric was a constant terror at British domestic level, which was still a formidable level at that time. In just under three years, he roared to a 66-3-3 record and was still two weeks shy of his nineteenth birthday when he knocked out Dave Crowley to win the British lightweight championship at the grand old Haringay Arena in London. That was in December 1938. In the year of 1937 alone, Boon had 29 fights.
Eric twice defended the title, against the clever Arthur Danahar and Crowley, before losing it on a tenth round knockout to Ronnie James. That loss marked the beginning of Eric?s slide. He moved up to welterweight but was never as effective as the hard fights began to catch up with him. Old foe Danahar knocked him out in the fifth round of an eliminator for the British title, and later Boon failed in his bid to lift the crown from Ernie Roderick.
Eric gamely marched on, hoping to recapture the old magic, but lost eight of his last nine bouts and suffered painful defeats to world-class men in Robert Villemain and Beau Jack.
Jack (Kid) Berg
One of the greatest junior welterweights that ever graced the stage, the electrifying Jack (Kid) Berg hailed from Whitechapel in East London and became known as the Whitechapel Whirlwind after his ferocious style of fighting. Berg took to America like a duck to water and it is interesting to note how his East End (Cockney) accent is barely discernible on the old newsreels. Jack was a true cosmopolitan and probably one of the first ?transatlantic? Englishmen.
But how Berg could fight. Here again, the bare statistics alone take our breath away: 192 fights, 157 wins, 61 knockouts, 26 defeats and nine draws. The remarkable Whirlwind started blowing in 1924 and was still at it in 1945, winning right to the end of his sparkling career. Jack defeated such top class talent as Andre Routis, Mushy Callahan, Tony Canzoneri, Kid Chocolate, Billy Petrolle and Tippy Larkin.
Berg engaged Billy Petrolle, the great Fargo Express, three times. Jack drew with Billy in their first encounter at Mills Stadium in Chicago in 1928, but then took a colossal hammering from Petrolle at the same venue a month later. Jack was floored nine times in the first round, once more in the third and stopped in the fifth. In 1930, he got his revenge with a points win over Billy at Madison Square Garden.
Berg had lifted the NBA junior welterweight crown from Mushy Callahan earlier that year and racked up six successful title defenses in the next fourteeen months against Joe Glick, Al Delmont, Buster Brown, Goldie Hess, Herman Perlick and Billy Wallace.
In April, 1931, Jack lost his championship to the mighty Tony Canzoneri on a chilling third round knockout in the third of four meetings between the two titans. Berg had won their first two fights, but Tony balanced the scales in their fourth and final clash when he thwarted Jack?s attempt to regain the championship at the Polo Grounds by unanimous decision.
Berg won the last three fights of his career in 1945 and lived to the decent age of 81 before his death in 1991. A man had to be good to survive the streets of Whitechapel and make a name for himself. Jack (Kid) Berg did all that.
Missing But Marvelous
Since we have talked about special records here, I would be remiss in not mentioning a remarkable man whose name is not included among my 50 cigarette cards. Len Wickwar, a lightweight from the English Midlands town of Leicester (pronounced Lester), remains the most prolific professional boxer of all time with his astonishing log of 468 fights in just under 19 years. A serial loser whose sole purpose was just to test the young guns? Not a bit of it. Len won 339 of his fights, lost 86 and drew 42.
Wickwar started out as a flyweight, never won a British title, never even got a shot, but averaged nearly 25 fights a year during his epic little career, pitting his skills against the cream of the abundant domestic talent. His only title of significance was when he won the local Leicester flyweight belt with a points victory over Tiger Bert Isom at the Spinney Hill Club in the winter of 1929.
I don?t know about you, but I think that?s quite magnificent. If it were possible to expand my little pack of cards, I would craft a special number 51 for Mr. Wickwar.
