The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1912-04-04
Ankove--That's His Name--A Prize Fighter
But They Call Him White for Short

Johan Ankove Is no name for a
prize fighter and that is why this
boxer is known as Jack White.
White is very sensitive on the
subject of name, and If you ask
him what his right name Is he
flares up and answers very
abruptly Jack White, of course.
How could it be anything else?"
All anyone has to do to refute
Jacks Illogical argument about
names is to dig down into his an
cestral past deep enough to find
him kid on the streets of Lon
don. where he was born, FL years
ago.
Jacks parents we're rated as
English Jews, but Jacks brother
calls himself Charley White and
referred to himself before he ba-
came a ring celebrity as Charles
Achowitz.
Harry Gilmore, who manages
Jack White and looks after his
publicity, says positively that his
right name is Ankove and that
like all fighters he is sensitive on
TIC SuUJeCl OF HdmeS.
But White and White or AnkCve
and Achowitz are. no different
from other ring celebrities who
have reached the top of the pugi-
listic ladder under an adopted
name. To have retained the cog
nomen handed down to them from
their ancestors would have barred
them from becoming popular idols
of the sporting world.
Had Stanley Ketchel tried to
wade through the pugilistic world
tagged as Stanislaus Kiecal, he
would have found the travelling
pretty slow along the publicity
highway. But Ketchel knew this
long before he had fought his way
into the fistic limelight and when
the occasion demanded it he had
modified his ancestral cognomen
until it was not only euphonious,
but popular hit from the day he
put over his first shift to the jaw
OF Kid Tracy at Butte, Mont. and
started himself on his illustrious
way to padded nit glory.
Tommy Ryan didn't like his
fathers name dragged into the fis-
tic spot light so he changed it'll
from Joseph Youngs, and after
wards when some of his Canadian
friends tried to inform the world
that 1t was In wrong on the name
of the great middleweight there
was nothing doing and the name
of Tommy Ryan remained one of
the most popular the sporting
world has ever known. Ryan'sl
parents were French-Canadians al !
though he was often spoken of as
an English Hebrew.
Philadelphia Jack O'Brien
started life under the name of
Joseph F. Hagan. but fortunately
for his ancestors he adopted the
ring nom de plume. 1t saved
some of his ancestors, who were
of the staunch Irish-Americanl
type, lot of disgrace.
Huka Kelly discovered that UgoI
Mitchell would never go in the
ring, so he adopted the name of
Hugo Kelly. Freddy Welsh didn't
like to mix his folks up in the
piiHC ilh6 SpOIt, 6O Nc CuduSeF
from Fred Hall Thomas. Tommy
Burns started out with Noah
Brusso, but he found out that the
sport writers liked an Irish name
better, so he stuck to it and today
n private. life is known by his
ring name. although when he goes
back to his French-Canadian home
ne is always called Brusso.
Think of Jim Flynn fightingl
lnder the name of Andrew
Haynes. yet that was what he was
Up against until he hit upon thel
IRISH classification. And what
could Tony Ross, the big
get il he had tol
Ieep the name he inherited from