The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-03-08
Boxing Match Occurs at
Central Fire Station.
STUDENTS STRIP FOR BATTLE
One Of the Lads Decorated With q
Black Eye; 1t Was a Six
Round Contest. e
From Mondays Daily.

From Mondays Daily.
An affair occurred at the central fire
station Saturday Afternoon that has
caused good deal of comment on the
street. 1t seems that college student
from Brainerd got an idea that he
was pretty good with the gloves and is
sued a challenge to any of the other
students to meet him. The PROPOSE
ton was accepted by student from
Iowa, and it was agreed to pull off the
affair at the armory hall. 1t is said
to have been advertised as prize
fight, and that an admission of ten
cents each was charged. The janitor
of the armOry was induced to open
the hall and ordered all except mem
noon, and crowd assembled. A mem
Der of Company H took tickets at
the door. Captain Maltby accidentally
heard of the matter and FASTENED to
the hall and ordered all except mem
bers of the company to leave, which
they did. When he arrived, the fight
or sparring match was about to be-
gin, the contestants being stripped and
their gloves on. Nearly two hundred
young men were in the hall and on the
stairways.
The crowd then went to the central
fire station and asked to be allowed
to have the match there, and Captain
Funk assented. The fight lasted six
rounds, when the Brainerd man had
enough, as his eye was BACKED, and
both men were tired. 1t is said by
some that the referee, another student
from this city, declared the match for
feited because of a foul.
Captain Funk, when seen about the
matter today, said that the students
had come and asked whether they
could do a little boxing at the fire
station, and he had said that they
could. 1t is common occurrence, he
said, for young men to assemble there
and box or wrestle for fun.
The affair started at once, the con-
testants stripping and wading right in
to each other He knew nothing OF
an admission fee being charged, or of
it's being advertised as a prize fight. 1t
seemed to him merely a boxing glove
contest. The affair was pulled off on
the main floor, in the presence of fifty
to a hundred young men.
Captain Maltby was indignant that
the armory hall had been secured for
the affair, and said that the member
who took tickets will have the case
looked into at the meeting of the COM
pany tonight and will receive the limit
of punishment for such an infraction
of the rules.
Mayor Taylor said to The Free Press
that he intended to have talk with
the chief of the fire department about
the matter. He did not know what ac-
ton he would take until he had in
vestigated the matter. 1t was a bad
thing, indeed, if a fight was to be
pulled off in a city building.
City Attorney Daley expressed his
regret that the affair had occurred.
Even if it was only boxing match, it
had no place in the fire station. 1t
was not one of the purposes OF that
building to be used for public exhibit
tons of athletics, with the attendant
gathering of crowds.
The college authorities, while inclin-
ed to minimize the affair, because of
reports made of it by students, felt
that it did not do the school any good,
and regretted that it had taken place.