Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-24

only played him in the big towns it was
hard shedding for him to be a spender like
Sullivan, McAuliffe and others.
COrbett Made Brady Rich.
"Corbett. however, proved himself a good
fellow when he finally got big money and
a little education along Broadway. He
never blew his coin like a drunken sailor,
and doesn't now, but he keeps his end well
up when he's out with the boys. Yes, i'm
deed, Brady made a lot of money with
Corbett. He was in on all of Corbett's
fights and got a good slice of Jim's end
when he defeated Sullivan at New Orleans.
The purse for that mill was $4,000. winner
take all, for Sullivan wouldn't have it any
other way. John could have demanded
s25, 900 as his bit-win, lose or draw, a la
Tommy Burns, but Sullivan really thought
1t was like drawing money out of the bank.
so sure was he of winning. Brady also got
a large slice Of Corbett's earnings when
Jim beat Charley Mitchell at Jacksonville
in 1894. You'll remember, perhaps, that
Brady had engaged Madison Square garden
long before tie Mitchell fight and immedi-
ately after Corpett had won he was rushed
back to New York to give a monster boxing
show in the garden. which got an ocean
of money.
There was nothing slow about Brady,
for he got the dough on the jump while
the iron was hot. He was a revelation to
the old fighting managers. Four months
after Corbett beat Mitchell Brady took
him to England with their comedy drama
A Naval Cadet which was played in all
the leading cities in Great Britain. It's
- .kzt- 10 ~ou not a haaylIoo St1nraEG
as the English sports wanted to see Cor
bett fight instead of act. Fitzsimmons had
been camping on Corbetts trail for several
months, but the latter had persistently
ignored Bob's broad challenge. But when
Corbett came back to this country the de-
mand from the sporting press and public
became so great that Brady and Corbett
agreed to make a match with Fizsimmons.
1t looked like more easy money to Jim and
Bill. We all remember how Fitz put clever
James away with his solar plexus punch.
Brady and Big JeT.
A Brady had no use for a loser he soon
cut away from Corbett and began a hunt
for another money-getting champion. He
soon got hold Of J%effries, and the moment
the big bollermaker beat Fitz for the heavy
weight title Brady signed him to an iron
clad contract. Jeff went on the road i'm
meuiatey ana tne COIlDlidllOI hu "NA
Nobody knows how much Brady got out of
the Jeffries-Sharkey mill at Coney Island.
In those days when the boxing clubs Of
fered big purses, did Brady accept any of
them in behalf of Jeff? Not on your life!
He Just butted in to the Coney Island club,
ran the Jeffries-S harkey match himself,
got the lions share and gave the club a
, percentage.
Brady tried hard to make an actor out
[ OF Jeffries as the star i'm The Man from
> the West, but the big pugilist didn't eaten
I on like Corbett and failed to draw the
; money to the box office. So Brady dropped
Jeff like a hot potato. By that time Billy
had about all he could get out OF the box
I ing game. and soon declared that nothing
could tempt him to handle another cham
pion. Brady, in my opinion. was the pluck
n lest. brainiest and most up-to-date pro-
moter and manager of fights and Fighters
4 that ever came down the pike.
Il see where Jeff has accepted an offer
Of 5000 a week in a Frisco theatrical
show. Say, that. sounds a bit pipelike TO
me. What. $1,000 a week for a bum act?
lust cut that down to about half before ]
take any stock in it. How many real star
actors are getting 5000 a week? The new
coon champ. Jack Johnson, is getting ]'75O
a week away off in Australia, and that's
going some for him, you can bet. Speak
ing OF Johnson, 1t seems strange TO me
how all this bunch of American fighting
managers passed him up. Why, it's a fact
that several OF us kept dinging away for
months at Sam Fitzpatrick before he took
hold OF the negro, and finally when he did
Sam was slow in getting on Burns trail.
johnson and Fitzpatrick seemed to be salts
fled with boxing a few rounds with such
men as Sailor Burke. getting. a few hun
dreds instead of jumping out after big
game. We had TO hammer it into Sans
head to go over to England after Burns,
not because we liked the coon, but because
Sam is a good fellow and we wanted TO
see him get some money.
Sam FitEpatrick's Luck.
IF ever a man was showed into good
luck by his friends II was Fitzpatrick. Few
= OF the present day ringgoers know that
Sam was something of a fighter himself In
the old days. II was about twenty years
ago that he arrived in Frisco. He came
from Sydney and was known as the Aus
ltralia Comet Sam may ne slow, but he
is also careful and will not make mistakes,
Now that he has the heavyweight cham
pion OF the world under his wing he in
tends 10 nurse him and he won't be In
any hurry TO get him beaten. Fitzpatrick
has had numerous fighters in his care,
notably Peter Jackson and Kid Lavigne.
There's another man across the ring
who has handled some great fighters in
his time-Tom O'Rourke. He made a for
tune with little Dixon. but he had all kinds
of trouble with the later fe~atherweight
champion. Dixon was a hard drinksr and
had O'Rourke guessing all the time. but
the little colored boy was always in con-
dition when he had a fight on. O'Rourke
also developed Joe Walcott. the Giant Kill
Eler. who was the most wonderful welter-
weight the world has ever seen. Walcott.
IN my opinion, with O'Rourke behind him.
could have beaten such h~eavyweights as
Corbett Mccoy. Mahsr and others, for he