The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-22
SILER'S STORIES
OF BIG BATTLES
Some Inside Facts About Big
Fights Told by Man Who
Refereed Them.
BY GEORGE slLER.

The year 1900 was one of the busiest of
my career as a Maqus of Queensberry
rule arbiter Fights of Importance were
few and far between, as the bottom had
dropped GU. of the game in New York
and San Francisco had not got into the
running. The game, however, was in full
blast in Chicago. Denver. Detroit. Louis
vile and a number of smaller towns in
the middle west, and as my services
were in demand, / was kept quite busy.
] began the year. Jan. g by refereelng d
siX-round tilt at Chicago between Tommy
West and Jack Root Tommy was classed
among the tOp-notcherS in those days, as
his terrific seventeen-round battle at
Louisville with Tommy Ryan the follow
ing year attestS. Root had been in the
game only about two years, and, although
considered d good man, was supposed TO
be outclassed. He had a decided adVan-
tage III height over the Saw-Off' Tom
my, and possessed a cracking left hand
which practically won him the decision.
West showed to the better advantage in
the early rounds. but when Jack solved
his style of milling he began losing
ground, so to speak, and was awarded
the short end of the money, beaten but
not disgraced
Terry McGovern again dropped into our
midst about this time, and was matched
10 box Eddie Santry over the siX-round
route Feb l. Santry held the exalted p0-
sition of international featherweight
champion. having won the title by de-
feating Ben Jordan of England the previ-
GUS year. so the match carried with it
some Importance. Eddie had II on Terry
in cleYerness and. as he could hit some,
the betting-and there was plenty of it
was that he would stay the limit. 1t was
a pretty and well contested bout for four
rounds and two minutes and 40 % sec
onds, when Terry hung one on Santry s
law that remained there long enough for
me TO count him out. call attention to
the fractional time because it lacked 10 80
seconds of the end of the round. and l
tolled off the ten seconds just before the
bell denoting the end of the round. did
rot know how many seconds IL lacked TO
the end of the session when Eddie hit the
floor. but the official timekeeper, Frank
Kennedy, told me the following story re-
sSarding it:
George" ne began, you counted ter
seconds 10 the notch that time, as it
lacked ten and three-fifths seconds of the
end of the round when Eddie was knocked
down, and just three-fifths OF a second
of il when you SAID Ten. Sam Pooler.
Santrys manager. sat next TO me. and
when Eddie was upset he said: It's all
over Frank. Sler will hit the ten notch.
sure He has only got three-fifths OF
second leeWay. | told him, but his answer
was: He'll hit il to a dot. and you did.
II was indeed fortunate as l. learned
afterward. that the contest ended with a
knockout, as Terry, Santry and others Gil
reetly Interested had 1T all cooked up Tor
informed that Terry ana Eddie had re-
hearsed the bout in the room of the hotel
at which Terry was stopping, and that
McGOVeru. thinking Santry, because o. a
hard body blow intended TO double
cross him, handed him the knockout
wallop.
| also was informed that the fighters
and their managers agreed TO waive all
rights 10 the money should either of them
not live up to their agreement. and that
IT took considerable salve to heal the San
try party
those in the know that the bout would go
the limit. but the losers never registered
q kick, strange as il may seem.
Root Denfass Bout.
A few weeks later / took the job of
deciding the winner in the Rooted Den
fass six-round contest Ed was a pro-
tege of big Jim Mccormick. who jumped
into pugilistic fame by knocking out
Kid Mccoy in one round. DenfasS was
not considered scientific, but he had a
rough-and-ready way of scrapping. that
made him tough customer for any of
the second-raters. He had given Chicago
ing out wallops from all known and I'M
known angles a few weeks prior TO meet
ing Root and as he made good ne was
expected to hold his own with the fast
improving ChicagOan-
He fought fully up to expectations In
the first two rounds, at the end OF which
he had Jack guessing as TO its final re-
suits. The crowd, as is generally the case
when an outsider fights local man. was
with Ed to man. and when at the end
of the third round he still had Root
in the air Id began roofing for him to
win The fourth session. however, saw
his finish. Root began 1t with straight
left labs to the head and ended 1t with
terrific right hand wallop to the jaw.
The blow was crusher, as 1t lad I'D