The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-04
~ Up to the Minute
| ~ SPORTING NEWS
NJ FROM EVERYWHERE.
CHANGE IN SPORTILIFE OF JOHN |
Old Champion Was a Man of
Strong Character.
His Greatest Feat Was That of
knocking Out Booze.

John Laurence Sullivan, who died
suddenly at his home near Abingdon.
Mass, Saturday, was one of the most
picturesque characters in the history
of prize fighting. For more than ten
years, from the time he de.eated Pad
dy Ryan in 1882, in bare knuckle
fight under the London prize ring
rules, until he was defeated by James
l.. Corbett, in 1892, his personality and
methods of fighting completely domi-
mated sporting circles in the United
States.
In the annals of pugilism in this
country two notable distinctions were
his; he was the last champion under
the London prize ring rules and he
was the first native born American
to succeed to the worlds champion
ship. 1t was largely thru his achieve
ments that the championship title was
made a prize of great monetary value.
In the early days of his career, $1,000
a side was looked on as a great sum-
He received only $50 for the fight
that made him national character in
fisticuffs and won him the right to
challenge Paddy Ryan for the cham
spionship.
His friends ranged all the way from
the ordinary fight fan" to many men
of social and financial distinction in
the United States, and it is said ne
was on cumming terms with the late
King Edward VII of England.
He began his fighting career soon
after he was II, when as the "Bos--
ton Strong Boy he took part in anna
teur boxing contests in several cities
in Massachusetts,, if Sullivan's GUS
tomary procedure in his early youth
could be called boxing. Tactics, STRAIT
egg, plans of campaign were all swept
away when John L. hammered his
ruthless. undertaking way to the front.
rsr-ts To
the simple, primitive principle of bat
tering an opponent into insensibility.
His success coupled with his free
manners, a certain social triumph and
his subsequent position as a semi
public character proclaimed him
sort of disnita-ry in the sporting world
He Made the X. o.
After his nine-round fight with
Paddy Ryan, on the strip of green
sward on the Gulf of Mexico the
word knockout was manufactured
by Billy Madden, Sullivan's trainer, to
describe the effect of his blows when
properly delivered.
kilrain. 1t was fought near New Or
leans and lasted for seventy-five
rounds. That was. the last champion
ship, contest in the United States to
be fought with bare knuckles. under
the old rules.
That fight practically decided the
uselessness of trying to beat Sullivan
by combating him in his own sledge
hammer style. A thirty-nine round
fight with Charley MITCHELL wary
and skil1fu1 boxer, seemed to show
fighting managers that the great John
L. might be vulnerable to a man who
could box well and stay with him long
enough to wear him down. The op-
portunity to try this method on the
champion fell to James J. Corbett
=
up in a ring battle up to that time.
The purse was $25, 900, and the stakes
$4,000. The fight that was to end
John LIS championship was fought
before the Olympic club of New
Orleans. When the fight was over
there was q new champion of the
world. Sullivan was thirty-four at the
time of his defeat.
Sullivan said himself that he made
two million in the fighting business
and that he spent one million of it in
buying drinks for himself and his host
Of admirers.
He Knocked Out Booze.
He had knocked out two hundred
men, of one sort or another in his
fighting. career, and finally he said
that in a saloon in Terre Haute. Ind,
in 1906, he gave the BLACK Bottle,'
his greatest enemy, the knockout
wallop. On the occasion of the
decision with regard to the BLACK
Bottle" he said:
IF 1 take another drink, I hope
choke, so help me God" He never
took another, but kept up his fight for
temperance by lecturing occasionally
on the evils of drink for those who
have athletic ambitions.
He was born in Boston October / 5,
1858. and passed the later years of
his life on a farm which he owned
near West Arlington, Mass. He was
twice married. His first wife was
Annie Bates, of Centerville r. L.,
whom he married in 1882 but with
whom he lived only a few months, and
from whom he obtained divorce on
the ground of desertion after twenty
six years. At fifty-one years of age
the former champion took as his sec
ond wife Kate Harkins. of Roxbury.
who was his sweetheart years before
when he was 1.-THE Boston Strong