New Britain herald., 1915-02-27
Op0TtOgrAphy
 BY GRAVY"

Brooklyn is known as the "city of churches, but at one time it might
 we'll have been called the city of pugilists, for many of the best boxers of a decade or two ago claimed the worlds biggest suburb as their home port. Jack McAuliffe, Jack Dempsey Jack Skelly, Brooklyn Jimmy Car roll, Brooklyn Tommy Sullivan-these are a few of the illustrious ones who were born or got their fighting start in the borough of steeples.
 Today is the anniversary of the wise Brooklyn Tommy" who once reigned as king of the feather weights. Tommy was reared in Brooklyn, and it was in 1897, when he was sixteen, that he began to make a noise in the sporting world. The same year witnessed the pugilis- tic debut of another Brooklyn lad, Terrible Terry McGovern, who had been a noWSy III DIOOhlyi UCAoi0 Ile took to the fight game. Early in their career the two lads were des- tined to be featherweight cham pions met in a Brooklyn ring and boxed ten fast rounds to a draw.
 McGovern was the first to reach the heiRhts, and in 1900 he annexed the featherweight title by whipping George Dixon. The next year Terry was toppled from his throne by the young Denverite, Billy Rothwell fighting under the name of Young Corbett.
 Both McGovern and Corbett had passed into the lightweight division before Brooklyn Tommy forged to the front. The woods were full of good little lads in those days, but Tom my whipped them all, knocking out George Dixon and Eddie Santry, among others, and also defeating Kid Herman in Kansas City and Clarence Forbes in Omaha. He also tackled several lightweights, but was not so successful in that division.
 In 1904 the featherweight title was claimed by Abe Attell, who tri- urnphed over Harry Forbes in St. Louis. Brooklyn Tommy, was not in- clined to give up the honor he had been striving for, and sought match with the Hebrew. Tommy and Abe met in St. Louis in October of 19O4 and the Brooklynite won on a foul. After that, with the title in his pos session, Sullivan held his honors un- challenged until 1907, when Attell again faced him in the ring. This time Abe got a draw. They fought again in 1908 at San Francisco and Tommy was knocked out in the fourth round by the clever little Hebrew. After losing the title Sullivan retired from the ring, although he pulled two or three comeback stunts which fizzled
 Sunday will mark the birthday of two of the cleverest little boxers Eng land has produced, Digger Stanley, the former bantamweight champion, and Sid Smith, the fyweight boxer. Dig ger will be thirty-two years old, hay ing been born in Norwich on Fep. 28, 1883, while Smith, a native of London, will be twenty-five. Digger started his ring career in 1901 by whipping Owen Moran. The next year, after several more victories, he lost to Pedlar Palmer. The next year he again defeated Moran, but lost to Owen in 1905. After a. visit to America in 1911, Stanley fought Charley Ledoux for the bantam weight championship of Europe, winning the first bout, but losing the second. In 1913 he lost the British title to Bill Beynon, the Welshman, but regained his laurels in a return bout, only to quickly lose them again Sid Smith, a Hebrew, started fight l ing in 1907, and for a time held the l f1yweight championship of England. ] He was defeated in a bout with l Charley Ledoux, the Frenchman, in
 1913.