South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-08-26
LEACH CROSS IS
FAR FROM READY
To STOP CAREER
Announcement of His Retire
ment Brings Quick Denial
and a Few S~CrapS-Fight-
erS Born, Not Made.

NEW YORK. Aug. 26.-Leachie
Cross. the lightweight. and Sammy
Wallacb. his brother-manager. had "a
narrow escape from death by shock.
Somebody announced a few weeks
ago that Leachie had retired from
the prize ring and i'm future would de-
vote all his time TO the mOlar jerking
business. When Leachie and Broth
or sam got the papers and read what
the paper said the shock was so ter
rifle that for "a time it vas feared
neither would recover.
At last. however, sam, the mana
ger of Leachie, revived sufficiently
20 waddle 10 a telephone and franti-
cally inform all sporting editors that
the announcement of Leachie's re-
tirement was a bald faced liza das-
tardly piot-the work of a thief in
the night-a crime without parallel
in history.
ITS awful-perfectly awful be-
spoke Sammie. ITO think of it,
Leachie TO quit the ring2 Leachie
with many years OF fighting still in
his system,"
WHO circulated the report?" sam
mic was asked
who did, How shOul 1 know ?
All / know is that whoever did it did
it with malicious intent and malice
afOrethOught. 1T was done SO the
tight club managers no longer would
offer hght for Leachie and thusly de-
prive Leachie from making lots more
money in the prize ring. That's why
it was dOne-and it was a dastardly
plot"
Whereupon. sammy hung up the
telephone receiver, disconnected and
then got himself connected with q
few fight clubs and promptly match
ed up Leachie for several bouts at
guarantees siZeable enough to en-
able Leachie 10 bank quite a lot and
still leave enough to pay his energetic
brOther-manager his bit"
One of our fellow scribes announces
that prize fighters cannot be made
that they must be born. And then
he points out AL Reich and Joe Riv-
ers as examples that back up his ar
gument.
Reich is a heavyweight. He has
the physique. stamina. the punch and
a fair defense. But he hasn't the
fighting heart. lie can't take punish
ment. and keep on coming for more.
Rivers against men who are his i'm
feriOrs shows up like a world beaten.
But against good men-men who can
maui him and beat him-he is an
entirely different person. B~eatings
take the heart and spirit out of him.
Bat Nelson looms up as the real
type of a born fighter. Bat never
fought a real fight during which he
didn't take enough punishment to
send an ordinary fghter to the hos
pital. But the beating never dis
cOuraged him. He Kept on coming
boring in. taking punches wherever
they landed-bOring, ever boring.
n Bat. never "A skilled boxer.
never a real puncher, became the
lightweight champion of the world
because he had the fighting heart.
Somewhere in the long ago we read
one OF the many stories that had To
do with miserliness of Tom Sharkey.
the 'war horse of the ring in thu
less recent days OF pugilism. 1t was
revived the other day. although the
rcVivcr made a local citizen the hero
william of the yarn.
h original yarn ran this way:
Sharkey and a friend were walking
along Fourteenth ST. in New York
one night when "a human derelict
blocked their path.
Say. bo." he said to Sharkoy
I'm down and out. Will YOU give me
10 cents for a bad@'
Lets see the bed" asked the eau
tious Sharkey.
The weather has been So torrid in
NCw York d's~ing the last month that
the fight clubs who have been run
ming indoor shows have been. for the
most part. operating at a loss.
The fans Won't turn out i'm mum.
hers. nor Will they pay any fancy
prices TO sit i'm "a sitting room &c
watch youths swap punches and
some Of the clubs have decided tina
hereafter they viii close their doors
about the first of june and keeI
them closed until after Labor day.