Joe Gans

by Colleen Aycock

  Before he could defend his title, he had to defend the integrity of his title win. It was not easy for the sporting public to accept Gans as champion or to let go of Erne’s glory. Some San Franciscans considered his championship win a “fake,” in line with the many other “fakes” they accused him of perpetrating, which they claimed invalidated the title. All the talk about Gans during his career as a faker would help to stigmatize him throughout history.

  It was as if reporters were trying to rewrite history by casting aspersions on this and previous fights, and in doing so bring the championship title back to its rightful, white owner by nullifying Gans’ achievements. Using a backhanded logic to attack Gans’ integrity and skill, sportswriters said that the title fight with Erne was supposed to have been a fake and that Gans didn’t play fairly by not faking! They said the fight with Erne had proven that Gans couldn’t keep his word, and that by tricking Erne he had gained claim to the crown crookedly. “It was a breech of faith on the part of Gans that he turned what was scheduled to have been a defeat into a victory.”5 The paper said that it “was vouched” (source unnamed, of course) that Gans had agreed to go out and by his not doing so, Erne was caught off guard in the first round and was “given the double cross.” It appeared Gans couldn’t win public opinion even when he won the match.

  After winning the title from Erne, Gans would go from coast to coast, and up to Canada to take on four of the toughest fighters in the division: George “Elbows” McFadden, Rufe Turner, Gus Gardner and William “Kid” McPartland. The June 27, 1902, bout with New Yorker “Elbows” McFadden at Woodward’s Pavilion in San Francisco would cement public opinion if Elbows won. The fight was Gans’ seventh with McFadden, but McFadden was always remembered as the only lightweight to have knocked out the great “Kid” Lavigne. The odds in favor of Gans, called the “subtle negro” in the local paper, were 10 to 7.6 The initial question looming over the fight was whether or not Gans could make the weight and how much strength he would have if he did make it. After his morning training run the day before the fight, Gans weighed 136½ pounds. McFadden was already under the 133-pound weight limit at 131.

  When the betting odds fell from the opening 10 to 4 in the pool halls the afternoon of the McFadden fight, people argued that something no good was afoot. Apparently, no one at the time saw the irony of the comments that appeared side by side with the description of the rough and tumble fight. It made no difference that the round-by-round coverage of the fight in the city’s own paper indicated that Gans carried the day with a flurry of pin-point blows. In the first round after a few moments of sparring, Gans landed a strong right on McFadden’s jaw. And in swift succession, a series of lefts and rights to the challenger’s head left him wobbling until he slipped to the floor. Gans then unleashed his rapid-fire short arm punches to the head that caused McFadden’s eyes to roll, leaving him in a state that made him look either drunk or doped. In the second round when a groggy McFadden was unable to land a punch, and Gans had made “a succession of lefts and rights on the head,” the crowd yelled “fake.”7 In the third round Gans landed a “hard right” to the side of McFadden’s head that sent him to the floor. And when he rose, Gans hit him again with a “hard right cross” to the jaw that caused Mac’s seconds to throw in the sponge.

  Which interpretation of the fight stands up to reason? Round-by-round reports of the fight shown in San Francisco papers are not significantly different from those in Baltimore. The papers indicate that Gans’ blows landed solidly. There would have been also no financial incentive for a contract between the two fighters to stage a fake. Little money was bet on the fight by anyone. Gans would have no financial incentive to risk his title if he didn’t intend to win. And McFadden had every financial incentive to win the title and all the benefits that went with it.

  Efforts in the Press to Discredit Gans

  In a concerted effort to discredit Gans, reporters cried “Sold again!” when Gans won the bout.8 The moral attitude taken by the papers was that the fight had robbed statesmen, politicians, and athletic supervisors of the $5 ringside ticket price, and the poor sporting public who paid $1.50 to sit at the back could little afford to throw their money away. In the afternoon before the fight, rumor had it that McFadden was planning to “go out.” But rumors of a fake surrounded nearly every fight then. Jimmy and his brother-manager Billy Britt were at ringside and Jimmy said he would like to take on Gans, “if he were only white.”9 His brother commented that Jimmy could take on both simultaneously and win.

  Even the preliminary bout involving Gans’ sparring partner and chief second, Herman Miller, was called into question by the press. Apparently it was like a bar-room brawl, quite pleasing to the crowd, until the fourth round when Miller wrestled the local San Franciscan to the ground and the referee gave the fight to Miller. The paper noted that Baltimore Police Captain Anderson quickly jumped into the ring, somehow causing referee “Handsome” McDevitt to change his decision and give the fight to Lewis. What seemed like pre-arranged wins for the Baltimore contingent that day caused the sportswriters to say that actions like these proved Gans’ “shady” past.10

  This was the era of the big con, which included the “rag,” the “wire,” and the “pay-off,” all scams involving sports betting.11 Boxing had no corporate sponsors or cable television financiers—it was fueled by gambling, to a large extent. In this context, the public often viewed prize fighting as a con game, a view especially convenient when the champion was a black man. Although confidence games are as American as apple pie, Joe Gans was the real deal, as proven by the frequent defenses of his title. Ironically, his image was continually besmirched and he became known as a consummate “faker.”

  Gans won his next three bouts decisively. In Oakland, he beat Rufe Turner of Stockton in 15 rounds and afterwards remained on the West Coast to see the Fitzsimmons-Jeffries battle. In September Gans made his first appearance in Baltimore as the world champion, against Gus Gardner. It was a cause for celebration for the spectators and concern for Gans. He had left his trusted friend and sparring partner Herman Miller in San Francisco, where Miller was fighting. Gans was not familiar with Gardner and was very worried about his ability to get adequate training for this fight. He had tried local sparring partners, but after a few rounds with Gans, they both quit. Some said that this would be an easy fight for Gans, but all of Philadelphia believed that their man could beat him.

  The contender for the eight-round contest proved no match for Gans, although the champion certainly didn’t know that beforehand. Fans came from all walks of life to watch Gans “bring the title home to Baltimore.” With over 4,000 fans, the Baltimore Music Hall was stuffed to capacity with politicians, merchants, professionals, and the Maryland horseracing crowd. When Gardner failed to make the weight requirement before the match, manager Al Herford came into the ring and announced that the bout would not be considered a title fight. The crowd showed their displeasure, but was, nevertheless, anxious to see the champion fight. Reporters at the match said Gans could have put Gardner out in the first round if he had wanted to, but he let it go to the fifth. “Gans played with his man for three rounds, touched him up a bit in the fourth and then went in and knocked him out, an act that he could have done in any one of the rounds.”12 It was said that this was some of the easiest money that New York referee Charley White ever earned on a fight.

  Gans appears in his evening attire. As H.L. Mencken stated, “His manners were those of a lieutenant of the guards in old Vienna” (Chicago History Museum, Photographer: Chicago Daily News, 1907).

  On October 12, 1902, in Fort Erie, Ontario, with odds on Gans 2 to 1, Gans knocked out William Lawrence “Kid” McPartland in the fifth round in what was to have been a twenty-rounder. Gans did the trick with opponent McPartland’s signature punch, a left hook to the stomach. Gans let McPartland, who was two inches taller, do most of the fighting, picking off his punches with lightning speed and scientific precision. It was said that in the entire
battle McPartland was able to land only eight solid blows. Gans dropped him in the third round with a straight right to the jaw. Gans’ sparring partner Herman Miller lost his preliminary battle to Warren Zurbrick in seven rounds. What ties this match to the next one is their close proximity in time. The morning after this bout, Gans got on the train and headed for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a fight that night with Dave Holly of Woodbury, New Jersey. This would be unheard of today. For one thing, the ring physicians would not permit it. The Holly bout was a ten-round fight called a “no-decision.” Pennsylvania law held that anything other than a knockout was ruled “no-decision.” The newspapers, however, called it a win for Gans.

  Gans opened the New Year by giving Gus Gardner, his 1902 rival, another shot at the title, again fighting only one day after a previous bout. On December 31, 1902, Gans had fought Charley Seiger in Boston and then gone on to New Britain for the title match. Gans won the Boston match against Seiger in ten rounds and said he would have won sooner if it were not for the fact that he had to wear 8 oz. gloves. In most of his title fights he used 5 oz. gloves. Gans soundly defeated Gardner in the New Year’s Day fight in New Britain, Connecticut. Gans struck no blows in the first two rounds. As in many of his fights, he simply used the first rounds to size up his opponent, parrying his victim’s jabs and smothering his punches. Gans began attacking the body in the third round, and while Gardner looked for openings for his punches, they landed only occasionally. By the seventh round Gardner was fading. In the eighth he went down on his knee. In the eleventh round, when he realized he was about to be knocked out, he intentionally fouled Gans by tripping him with his knee. Because the referee had given Gardner two prior warnings about this behavior, he awarded the match to Gans. Some of the gamblers were pleased in that Gardner was able to stay ten rounds with the champion—allowing them to win some of the side bets.

  Gans’ next title defense was scheduled to be with Steve Crosby of Louisville, Kentucky, on September 27 at a private club, the Chicago Athletic Association. Because “protests came in a storm when the booking was known,” public opinion being against Gans since the McGovern bout two years earlier, the match in Chicago was cancelled and Gans was banned from ever boxing there again.13 Gans, however, would return to Chicago in 1910, where his appearance would attract a large and devoted following, but it would on his deathbed, where he would be carried like royalty on his stretcher.

  Al Herford rescheduled the Crosby fight to March 11 at Hot Springs, Arkansas. The fans got a good show for their money, seeing two champions in the ring: Gans, the lightweight champion, and Tommy Ryan, the middleweight champion, serving as referee. Gans came out fighting, and Crosby’s form was admirable but no match for the champion’s, who in the eighth round knocked the contender through the ropes. Crosby repeatedly fell in the ring, and in the eleventh round, his seconds threw in the sponge.

  America during Gans’ Championship Reign

  What did America look like when Gans reigned as champion? Teddy Roosevelt, nicknamed the “Trust Buster” for his actions against the abuses committed by corporate conglomerates, was president during what would later be called the Progressive Era. And yet a casual perusal of the periodicals of the time indicates that Jim Crow laws dominated the lives of black Americans. Lynchings of African Americans were reported in the papers as casually as the weather. Booker T. Washington had founded Tuskegee Institute. The school taught that blacks should “cast down their buckets” in society as it existed, emphasizing industrial education over political empowerment. In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk, which made a bold case that economic gains were ephemeral without access to political rights. And all through the strife and rhetoric, Joe Gans was showing the world what a man could accomplish with determination, hard work, and courage. Having mowed down the field of seasoned lightweight challengers, Gans took on the younger fighters of his day.

  By May of 1903 Gans was on the West Coast again, fighting Tom Tracey in Portland, Oregon, before going down to San Francisco to fight Willie Fitzgerald on May 29. Once again, sportswriters discounted the champion. W. W. Naughton of the San Francisco Examiner claimed that Brooklyn fighter Willie Fitzgerald would have a “royal chance” with Gans, in that he was younger, gamer, could endure punishment, and had great punching ability.14 He said he was simply pointing out the fact that Gans had both won and lost against Erne and McFadden and that Gans had only beaten them when they were in their decline. Further proof of this point was that they had been beaten before and after Gans had gained his victories over them. Despite the implications in the news that Gans was shot, the betting odds were still 2 to 1 with few takers on Fitzgerald’s side.

  On the day of the Gans-Fitzgerald fight, Al Herford issued a novel challenge that caused quite a start in the papers. He challenged Jimmy Britt. The idea of a world champion’s manager issuing a challenge to another fighter was a complete novelty. But then, no one ever accused Al Herford of being a man to follow protocol. Actually, Herford had something up his sleeve for later in October. Herford was looking for big money for the fight he was about to arrange.

  The morning of the Fitzgerald fight the odds had risen to 10 to 4 on Gans, and Naughton’s pen was no longer flaming. The veteran editor of Hearst’s San Francisco newspaper was supportive of Gans in his report, almost extolling his career: “The sporting public evidently regards Gans as a sure winner. He is the lightweight champion of the world and the hero of hundreds of battlers. Despite all that has been said about his drawn face and his “ribby” appearance, he is in tip-top shape.... Gans is known to be one of the headiest fighters in the ring. He is particularly clever at blocking blows and never overlooks a chance for a telling smash. He can hurt a man from short range and always takes things easily and bides his time. He is one of the greatest artists in the world at handling headstrong or impetuous opponents. Joe’s record is little short of voluminous. Every year since 1894 a sufficient number of battles are jammed into the story of his life to warrant the suspicion that training with him has been a continuous performance.”15 With Pinkerton men guarding the ring, Gans entered Mechanic’s Pavilion with his face drawn and his ribs visibly showing. So it came as a total surprise when Gans was overweight at the agreed upon weight limit of 135 pounds. No one knew if the fight would go forward. Manager Weedon for Fitzgerald and Herford for Gans haggled over the situation until almost eleven P.M., when Herford finally agreed to let Gans go into the ring and split the purse 50/50. They would each make $3000 regardless of who won.

  Fitzgerald began in fine form but was soon outclassed by Gans’ expertise. The sixth round saw frenzied activity, but Fitzgerald took a wicked blow to his left eyebrow that caused the blood to flow. He tried to punch inside the clinches, but in the tenth round he was socked on the jaw and fell to the mat. The next day, Willie Fitzgerald issued this statement: “Gans got me before I got him. That is the luck of the game. He won a clean, honest victory and deserves all the credit he can get.”16

  The fourth of July in America was one of the most decorated and celebrated holidays of the year. Independence Day, Labor Day, Christmas and New Year’s were among the few days that workers were allowed off. These days were highly anticipated and, except for Christmas, usually filled with parades, civic fanfare, and to cap it off, a round of boxing. With the popularity of the sport increasing, athletic clubs competed for the services of the coveted boxers during these major holidays.

  Gans’ last lightweight title fight of 1903 would be on the Fourth of July in Butte, Montana. The city was celebrating the patriotic holiday with a week’s worth of festivities that included parades, troubadours, a terpsichorean artist, and the finest lady singers that could be found to entertain in Montana (which included the “Voluptuous Queen” Nellie McPherson). But the granddaddy of events was three days of boxing, ending on the 4th with a world title contest: champion Joe Gans against Denver’s Buddy King. The inclusion of the boxing event was hyped even more because it was expected to put an end t
o the sport in Butte due to all the bickering among the various clubs. Even though the Butte Miner predicted a “fast” fight between the two boxers, at the end of the three-day-boxing festival, the fact that the dominant fighters so outclassed their opponents (Joe Walcott had fought the day before Gans) caused the celebration to be called a “triple farce comedy” and “unequal and uninteresting.”17

  The day before Gans’ fight, his customary training bout, a 10-rounder (always described as “rough”) with his cornerman Young Peter Jackson was well attended by the fight fans. The day of the fight at Reilly and Mackey’s Liquor store, King failed to meet the 136-pound weight limit and forfeited his $250. The bell rang for the first round at 3:20 in the afternoon. The fighters came together and began sizing each other up, which was not uncommon in the championship ring, with the fighters sparring with steamless light blows. Suddenly, the referee stopped the fight and warned the participants that the crowd had come to see a fight, and that they had better “go in and fight.”18 By the end of the first round, Gans had drawn the first blood. In the second and subsequent rounds Gans used his strong right to the body and short left hook to the jaw to knock King to the floor. Gans played it cool in the third, while King, encouraged by the crowd, attempted to mix it up at close range.

  That afternoon Gans’ ring deportment, which had always been considered calm, would be tested. In the fourth round someone in the crowd, more than likely inebriated, and certainly without good judgment (considering the town had assembled one of the mightiest contingents of the world’s best boxers) yelled, “Fake!” Gans had been forced over the course of his career to answer to this cry, and the constant reminder of his reputation for fakery had begun to wear on him. Gans paused, and “invited the man who made the remark to step in the ring with him and he would show him a thing or two about faking.” In the crowd was Joe Walcott, and accusations against Walcott for “fakery” had been even more stinging than those assigned to Gans. Lou Houseman of Chicago had written that “Walcott is one of the worst fakers in the business.”19 Walcott, who had fought the previous evening, Friday, July 3, had been accompanied to Butte by his chief second—future heavyweight Jack Johnson. Walcott wasn’t going to sit there and see his fellow fighter heckled. So as the Miner reported, Walcott “then ‘butted in’ and offered to lick any man in the crowd.”20 The spectator was silenced, sitting amid three of the men whom Nat Fleischer considered the greatest fighters of all time.21 As the newspaper noted, by the fourth round Gans had decided “that the crowd had its money’s worth ... and started in to do his man up.”22 Gans proceeded to plant lightning fast jolts on King’s face, although several vicious swings missed. It was over for King by the fifth round when the referee counted ten.