She's a Knockout!
Page 16
In these last years of the 1940s, women’s work became normalized, despite the many social pressures for them to return to the home. Married women left work for their expected roles as housewives and mothers, but young, single women continued to work before marriage. The desire for women to remain physically fit meant that all types of exercise, including fighting sports, became more regularly practiced. In 1949, twenty-five-year-old Gloria Thompson of Los Angeles was touted as the female boxing champion of the world.[63] Training under Joe Louis at the Chris J. Perry Elks Gym, Thompson fought professionally for several years and had a 9–0 record, but only one of her opponents was a woman. Only twenty years later, women throughout the United States would be denied the right to box professionally, but in 1949, female boxing grew in practice and popularity.
Postwar Fighting
Barbara Buttrick and the Boxing Greats of the 1950s
In 1948, an eighteen-year-old British girl, Barbara Buttrick, known as “Battling Butt,” was a tiny and scrappy fighter, standing at only four feet, eleven inches tall and weighing a little less than one hundred pounds. A typist by day, Buttrick issued her first public challenge that same year to any 98- to 112-pound girl who would face her in the ring. Three young women immediately responded.[64] Buttrick’s mother was nonplussed because she had hoped that her daughter would only box as a hobby and not in public.[65] But Barbara faced other difficulties in her boxing career aside from her mother’s consternation. First, given her small frame, she had difficulty in finding an opponent of appropriate size.[66] She entered the headlines before her career truly began, not only by calling out women in 1948, but by agreeing to participate in an exhibition fight against a man.[67] The fight was called off, but by the following year, Buttrick had fought professional boxer Bert Saunders in a three-round exhibition match.[68] Unfortunately, exhibition sparring was Buttrick’s only real fighting option in Britain at the time, which meant that her venues were primarily theaters and performance spaces rather than boxing arenas.
Barbara Buttrick. Courtesy of Mary Ann Owen.
The British Boxing Board of Control refused to give Buttrick a license to officially fight, despite her promise to represent her country as the greatest female boxing champion ever known.[69] And the Boxing Board was not the only institution that took a stance against her. The Variety Artists’ Federation, a trade union formed to protect the rights of various types of performers, spoke out against female boxing, claiming that it was “degrading to the best interests of variety public entertainment, the boxing profession, and womanhood.”[70] The federation’s claim that the event would be degrading to women was ridiculed by Nat Tennens, the promoter of Buttrick’s first intended fight, who noted that the organization supported stripteases and other nude performances, which were much more degrading to women than female boxing.
Despite the many critics who denounced Buttrick, the petite fighter continued her quest for boxing glory. During her nearly fifteen-year career, she scored twelve knockouts and lost only once, to JoAnn Hagen, who was thirty-three pounds heavier.[71] After working her job as a typist during the day, Buttrick spent her evenings training at the YMCA under the tutelage of her coach, Leonard Smith, whom she would eventually marry. She was known for having a stiff jab, which she used to break her husband’s nose and floor an impertinent reporter who “suggested that women were better off inside sweaters than in a ring.”[72]
The restrictive British antifemale boxing campaign waged against Buttrick eventually led to her relocating to the United States to further her career. A story in the Dallas Morning News finally gave her the respect she had certainly earned, as it details a sparring session between her and a 140-pound “porky” veteran fighter named Jose Andres. Buttrick had Andres up against the ropes, and after the second round, he told the reporter, “She’s good. Punches hard as a man. Boxes like a professional. I’ve been fighting fourteen years, and I’ve fought some pros that were worse.”[73] At the age of twenty-six, Buttrick finally received her opportunity to fight for the world title, but the event was not without criticism. One particularly rude announcement in the Seattle Daily Times from 1957 introduces Buttrick and her opponent, Phyllis Kugler, but then goes on to state, “[you can] forget them as soon as you learn they are scheduled to box ‘for the championship of the world.’”[74]
Kugler grew up in South Bend, Indiana, and became internationally recognized in the boxing community in the 1950s. According to an interview with Kugler in the South Bend Tribune in 2005, she retired with an impressive record, at fifty-five victories with only one loss.[75] She recalls that half of the battle was being allowed in the ring in the first place. Events were often cancelled because two women appeared on the fight card. Kugler flew under the radar for a little while, because she was often called Phil instead of her full, feminine name, Phyllis. And Kugler was known for her femininity, in addition to her prowess in the ring. In 1957, the Fraternal Order of Police chose her as “woman boxer and beauty queen of the year.”[76] When she was not fighting, Kugler wore dresses at the behest of her trainer, who must have assumed that this practice of normative femininity would help the fighter gain acceptance outside of the ring.
Buttrick beat Kugler in that historic battle, unanimously winning each of the six rounds and claiming the title of female boxing champion. Three years later, and four months pregnant with her first daughter, Buttrick retired from the ring, but not from the world of boxing. She founded the Women’s International Boxing Federation and was elected to the International Boxing and Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1990. She also served as president of the Veteran Boxers Association from 1988 through 1990.
Barbara Buttrick as president of the Veteran Boxers Association. Courtesy of Mary Ann Owen.
JoAnn Hagen, the boxer who provided Buttrick with her only loss, was another celebrated fighter of the era. Most of the information regarding fighting sports in the 1940s and 1950s comes from interviews with the people involved several decades after the fact. JoAnn’s younger brother recalled watching his sister spar at the gym and being teased by classmates that his sister could beat him up.[77] Her parents were not thrilled when they learned about their daughter’s career, but one of her brothers claimed that once their father saw her fight, he said, “Well, it looks like you can take care of yourself.”[78] Hagen defeated the famous Buttrick in 1956. That same year, Hagen was defeated by Kugler, making this triad of female champions inextricably connected in a small fighting community. Kugler and Hagen both made appearances on the popular televisions shows The Steven Allen Show, What’s My Line, and I’ve Got a Secret. Hagen rarely spoke openly about her boxing career, although her siblings note that she often said it was fun. When she passed away in 2004, her family donated her gear and newspaper clippings to a local museum for an exhibit so that her legacy would live on.
Another female fighter who made headlines in the 1950s was Australia’s bantamweight champion, Cath Thomas, who won fourteen of her eighteen bouts and reportedly knocked out five male opponents.[79] After a devastating automobile accident, she gave up boxing, but her competitive nature inspired her to enter the world of ballroom dancing. Reporters lined up to watch her tango, and while wearing an elegant pink evening dress and looking every bit the ballroom dancer, she explained that her boxing footwork aided her dancing skills. She won a gold medal in a Sydney dancing competition and regularly practiced with her two young daughters, both of whom enjoyed dancing and boxing.
Thomas, Hagen, Kugler, and Buttrick competed in boxing despite the harsh criticism leveled against them. Women who did not adhere to the requirements of the 1950s cult of domesticity were often censured in such women’s magazines as Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal, and unlike many of their predecessors, who boxed during a time when matches were arranged and fought through individual promoters and businesses, these women were limited by the various governing bodies, who deemed them unfit to represent boxing. Yet, all four women remembered their time in the ring with fondness, and th
e women who fought in the following decades remembered them as pioneers.
1. New York Times, 25 September 1904, 34.
2. Lady Greville, ed., Ladies in the Field (London: Ward and Downey, 1894).
3. Greville, Ladies in the Field, 3.
4. Harvey Green, The Light of the Home (New York: Pantheon, 1983), 153–63.
5. Jennifer Hargreaves, Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s Sports (London: Routledge, 1994), 143.
6. “Polly Burns,” Women Boxing Archive Network. Available online at http://www.womenboxing.com/Burns.htm (accessed 5 January 2014).
7. Donald K. Burleson, “Polly Burns (Polly Fairclough): World Champion Lady Boxer, 1900,” Travel Golf, 1996. Available online at http://www.travel-golf.org/genealogy/burns_polly.htm (accessed 5 January 2014).
8. Washington Post, 1 March 1916, 4.
9. Washington Post and Times Herald, 3 January 1959, D2.
10. Milwaukee Journal, 17 August 1989, G1.
11. Cincinnati Enquirer, 29 September 1908, 1.
12. Boston Globe, 12 September 1909, SM3.
13. Boston Globe, 12 September 1909, SM3.
14. Washington Post, 15 July 1915, 1.
15. Washington Post, 15 July 1915, 1.
16. Chicago Tribune, 6 May 1921, 19.
17. Hartford Courant, 13 January 1931, 12.
18. Manchester Guardian, 28 January 1926, 9.
19. Daily Mail, 30 January 1926, 4.
20. Daily Mail, 30 January 1926, 2.
21. Cincinnati Enquirer, 16 June 1902, 3.
22. Irish Times, 30 January 1926, 7.
23. Observer, 30 July 1933, 8.
24. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9 December 1918, 5.
25. “Top Ten Old-Time Strongwomen,” Physical Culturalist. Available online at http://physicalculturist.ca/top-10-oldtime-strongwomen/ (accessed 2 February 2014).
26. Broadcasting, Telecasting, 1 July 1946, 76.
27. Times-Picayune, 7 November 1938, 13.
28. Miami News, 22 March 1936, 17.
29. Miami News, 22 March 1936, 17.
30. Evening Independent, 5 October 1926, 18.
31. Evening News, 5 October 1926, 1.
32. Washington Post, 6 January 1933, 14.
33. New York Times, 6 January 1933, 26.
34. Times-Picayune, 7 November 1938, 13.
35. Sunday Times-Advertiser (Trenton, N.J.), 6 November 1938, 5.
36. The spelling of the word jujutsu in both titles reveals that the spelling has become more standardized today as jiu-jitsu.
37. Cincinnati Enquirer, 17 July 1910, B1.
38. Health and Strength, 8 April 1911, 339.
39. Dennis Brailsford, Sport, Time, and Society (London: Routledge, 1991), 133.
40. Salt Lake Herald, 20 July 1895, 8.
41. Cincinnati Enquirer, 18 July 1900, 6.
42. Kansas City Star, 4 November 1907, 10; Washington Post, 7 May 1961, C5.
43. Detroit Free Press, 9 January 1908, 8.
44. Detroit Free Press, 9 January 1908, 8.
45. Cincinnati Enquirer, 18 October 1908, 2.
46. Cincinnati Enquirer, 18 October 1908, 2.
47. Detroit Free Press, 4 November 1908, 11.
48. Detroit Free Press, 4 November 1908, 11.
49. Chicago Tribune, 5 March 1910, 3.
50. Chicago Tribune, 5 March 1910, 3.
51. Denver Post, 5 March 1910, 6.
52. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 27 December 1920, 3.
53. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 24 December 1920, 6.
54. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 24 December 1920, 6.
55. Charlotte Observer, 30 December 1920, 5.
56. Grand Forks Daily Herald, 24 November 1922, 7; Kalamazoo Gazette, 22 November 1922, 24.
57. Marilyn Morgan, “Aesthetic Athletics,” in Consuming Modernity, eds. Cheryl Warsh and Dan Malleck (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2013), 137.
58. Hargreaves, Sporting Females, 122.
59. Hartford Courant, 3 September 1942, 13.
60. Chicago Tribune, 11 March 1943, 24.
61. New York Times, 28 July 1948, 25.
62. New York Times, 28 July 1948, 25.
63. Philadelphia Tribune, 7 June 1949, 11.
64. Hartford Courant, 17 November 1948, 13.
65. Daily Mail, 11 November 1948, 4.
66. Daily Mail, 26 March 1949, 1.
67. Washington Post, 15 February 1949, 17.
68. Washington Post, 30 January 1949, C3.
69. Toronto Daily Star, 26 October 1948, 12.
70. Daily Mail, 9 February 1949, 1.
71. Daily Mirror, 30 October 2010, 32.
72. Daily Mirror, 30 October 2010, 32.
73. Dallas Morning News, 29 May 1955, 4.
74. Seattle Daily Times, 4 November 1957, 22.
75. South Bend Tribune, 14 October 2005, 1.
76. Sue Fox, “Phyllis Kugler: The Boxer Named ‘Phil,’” Women Boxing Archive Network, May 26, 2002. Available online at http://www.womenboxing.com/kugler.htm (accessed 4 January 2014).
77. South Bend Tribune, 19 September 2005, 1.
78. South Bend Tribune, 19 September 2005, 1.
79. Globe and Mail, 30 July 1958, 13.
Chapter 4
The Fight to Fight
The state of women’s rights improved immensely in the twentieth century, and women’s involvement in sports increased correspondingly. In the nineteenth century, doctors had claimed that young women playing vigorous sports might disrupt their delicate uterine ecosystem and make it difficult for them to give birth. In the early days of the twentieth century, women were still restricted from playing sports for “health” and moral reasons, but by the middle of the twentieth century, the medical community had recognized that exercise benefits women more than it harms them, although certain sports, especially contact sports, were still considered detrimental to female health.
Sports in the Twentieth Century
Sports also united men and women in activities that were a far cry from sitting in parlors and walking through the countryside. The suggestive nature of certain sports frightened some spinsters, but by the 1920s, golf and tennis were encouraged activities. The Olympic Games, which had long been reserved for men, allowed women to participate in the bizarre 1900 Paris Olympics, the games that famously lasted six months and became confusingly mixed up with the simultaneously occurring World’s Fair. The disorganized structure of the Paris Games allowed women to compete in tennis and golf, with the first American woman, Margaret Abbott, winning the nine-hole golf tournament.[1] Golf has not been played at the Olympics since then, but the chaotic Paris games marked a seminal moment in women’s sports history. Nonetheless, it would not be until the twenty-first century that women could compete in boxing and wrestling at the Olympic Games. Women, while rather grudgingly accepted in certain sports, were still outside of the new governing bodies of fighting sports.
Physical education was standard practice in most schools in the United States, but the types of athletics offered were dependent on each school’s financing, as well as regional location. Students in the colder regions of the country were more likely to play hockey, while children in the South might practice tennis, track and field, swimming, and other outdoor sports. Sadly, the growing presence of girls in sports did not necessarily mean that they were treated respectfully at all times. In the 1950s, numerous newspapers published stories about young men wearing boxing gloves while playing basketball against girls to diminish their clear advantage.[2] Accounts of these games were printed with an obvious delight; news stories explaining the ridiculous measures taken to create equality between the sexes were coupled with pictures of young men in boxing gloves towering over small and seemingly inept female players.