New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-02-02
JOHN |. SULLIVAN
TAKES final Count
Former Champion Of America
Dies at Home in Abingdon, Mass.
KNOCKED OUT zoo MEN

Spent St,O0O,GJ0 for Drinks for
Himself and Friends, and Finally
Became Temperance lecturer.
Abingdon, Mass, Feb. John l..
Sullivan, formerly Americas heavy
Weight champion, died at his home
here today.
John Laurence Sullivan was one OF
the most picturesque characters in
the history of prize-fghting. For
more than ten years. from the time
lie defeated Paddy Ryan in 1882, in
u bare knucklc fight under the Lon
don prize ring rules, until he was de-
feateH Iay james J. Corbett in 1892,
his personality and methods of fight
ing completely dominated sporting
circles in the United States.
y II tho annals of pugilism in this
country, two notable distinctions
were his: he was the last champion
under the London prize ring rules. 1t
was largely through his achlevemets
that the championship title was made
q prize of great monetary value. In
the early days of his career, $1,000
u side was looked on as a great sum.
lie received only $53 for the fight
shat made him a national character
in fisticuffs and won him the right to
challenge Paddy Ryan for the cham
pionship.
His friends ranged all the way from
the ordinary fight fan" to many
men of social and financial distinc-
tion in the United States. and it is
said he was on cumming terms with
land.
He began his fighting career soon
after he was seventeen, when as the
Boston Strong Boy he took part in
amateur boxing contests in several
cities in Massachusetts. if Sullivan's
customary procedure in his early
youth could be called boxing. Tactics,
strategy, plans of campaign were all
swept away when John l.. hammered
his ruthless, undertaking way to the
front. His style was atavistic, q re-
turn to the simple, primitive Aprin-
ciple. of battering an opponent into
insensibility. His success, coupled
with his free manners, a certain
social triumph and his subsequent po-
sition as a semi-public character pro-
claimed him a sort Of dignitary in the
sporting world.
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 effects Of his blows
when properly delivered.
His hardest fight was with Jim Kill
Sain. 1t was fought near New Or
leans and lasted for rs rounds. That
was the last championship contest in
the United States to be fought with
bare knuckles, under the old rules.
That fight practically decided the
Gselessness of trying to beat Sulli-
van by combating him in his own
sledge- hammer style. A 39-round
fight with Charley Mitchell, a wary
and skiIlful boxer, seemed to show
fighting managers that the great
John L. might be vulnerable to q
man who could box we'll and stay
with him long enough to wear him
down. The opportunity to try this
method on the champion fell to
James J. Corbett- The purse was
the largest ever put up in a ring
battle up to that time. The purse
was $4,000 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 a new
champion of the world. Sullivan was
81 at the time of his defeat.
=, Sullivan said himself that he made
two millions in the fighting business
and that he spent one million of it
in buying drinks for himself and his
host of admirers.
He had knocked out 200 men, of
one sort or another in his fighting
career, and finally he said that in
saloon in Terre Haute, Ind, in 1905,
he gave the BLACK Bottle" his
greatest enemy, the knockout wal
Sop. On the occasion of the decision
with regard to the BLACK Bottle
he said:
eff / take another drink, hope I
choke, so help me God" He never
took another, but kept up his fight
for temperance by lecturing oc-
casionally on the evils of drink for
those who have athletic ambitions.
. He was born in Boston October Is,
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 Centerv1le, r. L.,
Whom he marrled in 1882, but with
whom he lived only q few months
and from whom he obtained a di-
vorce on the ground of desertion af-
ter IS years. At 81 years of age the
former champion took as his second
wife Kate Harkins, of Roxbury, who
was his sweetheart years before
when he was '"The Boston Strong
Boy"
xkyI7 = i
lived on a farm here for the last ten
years. He was taken i'll with heart
trouble three weeks ago, but his health
i'm nproved and he went to Boston yes
terday. This morning he arose as
usual and planned another visit TO the