The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-09-07
Feud Was the
 Bitterest In Ring History

Tn most ring contests-esp ecially in these days when boxing has become a business like selling. clothing cof- fins or confectionery-the is little or no anim osity displayed by the pugs.
 Even in a real honest to goodness
 fight the combatants as a, rule don't
 permit any personal i1-feeling to sway them. In the old days, however, there were often bitter feuds between
 the sbruisers> and this has been true
 in comparatively recent times. Terry
 McGovern and Young Corbett never
 had any particular love for each
 other, and the Nbeatings the Denverite administered toNthe Brooklyn terror
 no doubt gave him great deal of sat- isfaction aside from the Involved.
 Of all the modern ring feuds, that
 which long existed; between Kid Mc- Coy and Tommy Ryan was without doubt the bitterest. It began when Mccoy was a sparring partner in Ryan's training camp The Rooster
 Kid wasz then a novice, ands as Tommy never took any pains to spare his assistants, Mccoy had to take
 mary fierce 1acings- At the time he took everything and said nothipg but the memory of every blow was
 treasured in his keen and cruel mind
 Che Kid, although his parents had in tended making minister of him,
 had no liking for the doctrines of turning the other cheek and return tng good for evil. He kept an accur- ate set of books and was determined
 to repay every blow with interest
 Mccoy just about succeeded, too, in getting the score. It will be just 19
 years tomorrow since Mccoy paid the second insta11rnent of his debt He had previo ously@ knocked TornTny out the fifteenth round at Maspeth, x. Y.,
 s1ashing Ryan to bits before finally. pHtting him out of his misery, so that Tommy had to spend several days in bed recuperating- On that Occasi on, by a clever trick. Mccoy had lured Tommy into the ring on the under
 standing that Ryan was to have an
 easy time of it. As a, result Ryan did
 little training, while Mccoy was at his
 best. Throughout the contest Mccoy taunted Ryan about the training might. Tommy could not wipe the twisted, cruel smile from the face of his toEInentor.
 Ryan was anxious for a. chance to redeem himself, and Mccoy, in spite
 of the terrific 1acing he had given his
 enemy, considered the debt still un- paid. The second bout was staged in
 Syracuse, Ryan's home town, on Sept 8, 1897. The bad blood between the men added to the interest in the fight,
 and several special trains were requfr- ed to carry the New ' York fans to Syr- aeuse. The meeting between these
 scientific, dangerous scrappers arous- ed more attention and enthusiasm than gretted the prospect of a battle between Packey McFarland and Mike Gibbons. s-ss ,: --sseAas5s.ss<
 McCoy's kid brother, Homer SeIby appeared in one of the pre1iIninaries and the Kid insisted in acting as sec ond to the youngster, so that he was pretty we'll Jagged when his own turn came. For three rounds the men
 boxed fast and scIeyerly, and in the
 fourth Ryan held the upper hand. In the fifth both men tried hard for
 knockout, and there was 9 fierce mix
 up in which Mccoy landed several
 stiff blows, while Tommy retaliated
 with a punch to the kidney that made
 the Kd-wince. < It looked as if there
 were going to be big doihgs,s when the cops swarmed into the ring and
 stopped the contest The police de- c1ared they feared that Mccoy. might
 be killed, but the Hoosier's friends in
 sisted that the officers had interfered
 to save their local hero from being
 knocked out. Mccoy paid the fthird
 and final installment of his debt in
 1900, when he fought Ryan for six rounds at Tattersalls in Chicago.
 Maichi Hogan, the referee, awarded
 the decision to Mccoy. At that Ryan
 swung on the referee and Hogan re-
 turned the blow. and there was
 small sized riot between the. Mccoy and Ryan feudists before the cops put
 a stop to the rookus.