South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-11-05
RED HAIR CAUSED
FRANK MORAN To
BECOME FIGHTER
Kids Yelled at Frank and He
Secured Lot cf Experience.
First Fight Melted Him
Five Cents.
By Frank G.. Menke.


NEW YORK, Nov. TITS my red
hair that got me into Tia lighting
game" asserted Frank Moran, the
Irish husky who yearns to try conclu-
sions with Jess Willard.
You see, it was this way" Moran
explained When I grew up TO tho
tender age of 10 years my hair was a
flaming red. That gave the kids a
chance TO yell. Red-head. ginger
bread at me, all OF which peeved me-
considerably. There was only one way
to stop that trick of the other boys
and that was to whale 'em into
silence.
We'll, it took me about Two years to
finish the job-but 1 did il, There
were a lot of boys in my neighbor-
hood and / had 10 beat them up in ro-
tation Some of them were bigger
than I was and ] had to tackle those
fellows three or four times before [
could blacken their eyes or bloody
their noses. In my kid days, a eight
wasn't settled with a knockout; II vas
settled with a black eye or a bloody
uose. The kid who scored the first
black eye or landed the first gore
producing wallop on the beezer Of the
other kid was the winner.
Practice makes perfect, and as I
said, constant battling to save my red
hair from insult won me all my kid
fights in time.
Fought for Five-Cent Purse.
MY first prize fight was for a five
cent purse 1t was staged in q ca
boose on my way to school 1 had to
cross a railroad track in one of the
Pittsburgh suburbs. A caboose always
lay at that point and was used as a
loafing place for the trainmen between
runs.
lone day a trainman hailed me. He
said he'd heard 1 was quite a scrapper
but he said he knew a kid who could
beat me up. 1 told the trainman that
didn't care what the kid thought
that l only fought fellows who called
me 'red-head.'
"'Oh, you've gotta fight this fellow
said the trainman, because he keeps
on saying that you're just a ''red-head-
ed ginger bread" false alarm
"WeH, right there I said I'd fight.
The trainman said he'd have the other
kid in the caboose the next day after
school and that 1 should be around.
The winner of the fight said the
trainman, will get a nickel
Ct won the fight. 1 smashed the
other kid right on the bridge of the
nose with the second punch, and not
only did his eyes get black, but his
nose TO Dl6eus TOO.
F1eeced Him OF ''Roll."
After that I used to scrap any
kids that came to the caboose. Pretty
soon 1 had Snickels that I'd won.
l was saving them all until 1 got a
dollar and then L was going to put it
in the bank. But l never got that dol
lar together because l was trimmed
by a substitute trainman.
Zone day the sub called me and
told me about a kid who wanted to
fight me for a side bet Of 81. L told
the trainman 1 had only so cents. The
sub said: That's all right, kid; you
give me the so cents and I'll put 20
more to it to make the dollar. I'll
act as your stakeholder
The scrap was pulled off the next
day. I beat that kid up considerably
and after we'd been smuggling away for
five minutes he yelled he had enough,
jumped from the caboose and ran
away.
II then looked among the trainmen
for the stakeholder, but I couldn't see
him Where's Jim?' (the stakehOld
err I asked. One of the trainmen said
hede been transferred to another run
that morning. 1 never saw Jim again
and never got the 50.
Since I've been in the fighting game
I've been f1eeced pretty often and for
thousands of dollars at a crack but no
loss ever hurt me like that first one
did.
Some folks have the idea that
got a big bunch Of money for my fight
against Jack Johnson 1 ought TO have
gotten a nice roll, but the truth is I
didn't get a cent. In several other of
my big fights I didn't get penny. I've
been shorn closer than any lamb but
from now on frankie Moran won't let
any managers get about 100 per cent
of his money"