The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-02
Ten Years Since
 Hart and Root
 Battled For "Tit1e''

l It will be just ten years tomorrow
 since Marvin Hart and Jack Root bat | tied for the so-ca1led heavyweight
 cham ptonship of the world at Reno, 1 Nev. On that occasion, it will be re-
 membered, Jim Jeffrieg, presided as
 referee and presented his title, which he had &reIfnq quished because there
 was no good man left to meet him, to
 Marvin Hart, who. knocked Root out ! in the twelfth round. The boxing
 fans did not take Harts victory over
 Root very seriously. and the Ken
 tuokian did not get much nourish-
 ment or applause from the possession of the title
 Marvin Hart was born near Louis
 vile, and was twenty eight years old at the time he became champion" ,"
 As. g. TniddAeweight he had knocked out Tommy West, Dan Creedon, Billy
 Stift, Kid Garter and other good men, and shortly before fighting Root he had won the distinction of besting Jack Johnson in a tWenty-round con 1 test in San Francisco. Jack Root, his 1 opponent, was a Bohemian of about the same age aS Hart, but somewhat
 smaller and lighter. He had defeat ed Hart in 1902, and had also out l pointed Kid Mccoy and other stars of 1 the middleweight and lightweight di-
 vision. Up to the time he fought Hart,
 the only man who had ever decisive 1 ly defeated Root was George Card
 ner, who knocked Root out at Salt Lake City in 1902 and repeated the
 trick at Fort Erie in 1903. The fol- lowing year Root defeated Gardner. l While Hart and Root were good
 men, their claims to succeed Jeffries l did not appeal to the fans. and Hart's l sports considered that Phi1adelphia
 Jack O'Brien had a better claim than
 either to fight for the vacant cham
 pionship. Tommy Burns, the Ca l nadian, also contested Hart's right to 1 the, crown. After defeating Pat Cal l 1ahan at Butte, Hart consented to l meet Burns, and in February, 1906,
 he lost his title to the Canadian
 in a twenty-round bout in Los An geles.
 1 the best white men in America, Great l Britain and Australia, but his l Nemesis was all the time the trail,
 There was a c1oud-a big. black I c1oud-on TommyAs title, for Jack
 Johnson was then at his fighting best l and eager for a fray with Burns. 1 Tommy demanded a young fortune to I meet Johnson, but the match was \ eventually arranged. and at Sydney 1 in 1908 Johnson copped the preni CT title of the pugi1istic world.
 1 The fruitIess attempt Of Jim Jef- fries to ttcorne back in 1910 left the white race without a gladiator capa- lole of wrestling the crown from John sons kinky. dome, and for @ time the Caucasian cause seemed almost hope less. Hopes bobbed up everywhere,
 only to be blasted. Luther Mccarthy, EEA1 Palzer, Gunboat Smith, Carl Nor
 riS and other would-be defenders of the white race marched to the front and turned around and marched right
 back again. Frank Moran got a
 whack at the black champion, and then subsided into oblivion.
 But all this time. while the fight fans were plunged into the slough of despair, and Johnson, Langford, Jeanette and McVey were Iording 1t over the heavyweight division, a
 kindly fate was preparing a welcome
 surprise. Young Lochinvar came out | of the west, in the six-foot person of
 Jess Willard, and restored to the
 white race it's heritage of supremacy l over the brunette peoples of the earth.
 The morals of which are that it is | always darkest before dawn, and you can't keep the white men down.