The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-09
BOY WHO BEAT TERRY
SIDE LIGHTS ON YOUNG COR
BEFT and HIS METH
DDS
SKETCH OF HIS EARLY LIFE
Gives His Ideas of Training AMI
Tells How He Gets in
Shape for His
Fights.

William Rofhweli, who knocked out
a Terry McGovern, began to fight as soon
as he was able to walk. His recent tri-
e umph is the outcome of q short but busy
+ lifetime of fighting. He is a specialist
of marvellous gifts and a tremendous
IS range of experience.
Lovers of peace with honor will be de-
lighted to know that it was only when
battle was forced upon him that young
Rothwell took up ,fisticuffs purely in self
defense Three young citizens Of Den
s yer, Col. Fred Jacobs, Billy Miller and
r Charley Dolan, walloped the lite boy
so hard and so often that they forced
him to learn how to hit back. If these
& three had not mauled little RothWell so
I persistently and numerically dozen
& years ago, Terry McGovern would still
be featherweight champion today.
William Rothwell was born in Denver
Col, on October l. 1880 John II. Rotf-
well his father, was born in Listowell,
Ont. about forty-five years ago. His
grandfather enigrated from England to
Canada about 1900 John H. RothWell' 5
wife the mother of Young Corbett," was
also named Rothwen She was a remote
cousin of her husbnd
The pugilist's father was a trainer and
driver of trotting horses in his youth, as
y his father was before Inn AS a young
ster he was fond of wrestling and out
i door sports, but he never boxed. He is a
{ small wiry man of no great muscular
ability, but with a strong, healthy consti-
tuition
The Denver boy won his championship
chiefly because he was a cooler quicker
thinker than McGovern Terry had rush
ed him across the ring and daZed him
with hard punch, when he suddenly
noticed that the Brooklyn boy was so
infatuated that he was swinging wildly
for his head, quite neglecting to try for
the body. Instantly Rothwell threw up
both arms to guard his head.
McGovern kept whirling in the furious
rain of blows. Presently he tired. The
impact of the fists was lighter Roth
well stepped back out of range, and as
= left swing Whizzed past his chin he
stepped in with a crashing left on Nc
Governs chin. The Brooklyn boy tot
tered. Rothwelrs right fist was already
far out in front. With a short blow that
was half a push Rothwell sent McGovern
TO the floor.
The winner was still too dazed from
y McGoYern,s blows to know clearly
whether he had Won, but his mind was
sufficiently alert to keep him poised
4 ready to finish the work should McGovern
arise.
RothweIIs lifetime of fighting began III
the public schol at Swansea, a suburb of
Denver.
Il was SO small then that I can't re-
member just how old [ was sand the
pugilist. Fred Jacobs, Billy Miller and
Charley Doiariused to beat me regularly
Tou see my folks were pretty careful
sWith me and they wouldn't-1et me run
around with boys who seemed to be
.ough [ didn't care much for that kind
of boys myself, for L was quiet little
fellow.
so these three boys thought / was
stuck up and they hammered me good
and plenty. They made a habit of it.
They We're bigger than l was.
Every time school was out you'd see
little Willie Rothwen making a rush
Is home and one of these fellows after him.
They never failed to catch me and to
thump me we'll. I used to invent all Kinds
of schemes to keep away from them.
after a while | began to get tired of
lodging out the back door of the school
to save myself from those boys / made
UP my mind to fight. They didn't always
beat me then, but they used to do it most
Of the time.
Little by little 1 began to improve.
go so that could lick Miller and Dolan
after awhile, and they didn't bother me
any more. Fred Jacobs was the toughest
/ couldn't be sure of him at ALL Finally
: we agreed to go out to the stockyards
and settle it. The men out there put up
II
rounds and I won. That settled Jacobs
forever so far as 1 was concerned.
"By this time I had grown fond of
hghting. I was a little fellow of twelve
or So and I found out that l could earn
money by knocking out boys at the
variety theater. They used to match boys
BIT even weights and give the winner so
cents. l used to get my 50 cents pretty
nearly every night. [ liked the fun of the
game, anyhow, and the money looked big
as a house [ liked boxing so we'll that
[ have never earned a dollar in my life
at anything else.
when Corbett beat Sullivan in New
+ Orleans in September, 1882, | was the star
Of all the little boys that boxed in the
variety theater. They found a negro
named Bluch Jones and matched him
against me. They billed him as Young
Peter Jackson and they called me Young
Corbett' I licked him after a hard fight,
md that made me a bigger attraction
= han ever
Somebody told my father that his son
was Young Corbett' Howell l caught
t good and hot, Just the same, he
couldn't keep me from fighting. l lodged
MIN as [ used to dodge Miller and
Jacobs and Dolan. Night after night l
; went to the old Central variety theater
and earned money by beating other boys.
At last my father appealed to the HUI
name society to protect me from pao
company and boxing and all that. The
Humane society officials notified the pro-
yrietor OF the Central Variety theater thai
II he let me box any more they'd take
away his license. That ended my rins
. }areer for a while. 1 went back to school
y but none of the other boys ever tried t.
lick me took up skating and running
and walking. L could beat most of the
boys at those games.
When I was fifteen 1 tried for thu
amateur bantam championship of Colora