The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-19
in BOXING BOUTS
Importance of Athletics in Mill
tary Training.
General Wood Speaks of 1t in
High Praise.
SOMETHING ABOUT LAkkY BOB
Otherwise ROb't McAIlister.FOr-
mer Middleweight Champion
Who Puts the Men Thru I'm
pUrtant Stunts.


Farland, Benny L arc d, Charlie
White or some of the other boxing in
structors at the other army training
/ camps. He's a quiet sort of fellow
rather retiring, in fact, except when
| he's at his work. He hasn't the pug
look about him, and he's a gentleman
always:
But maybe it is because of these
things that lanky Bob McAllister,
! former we1ter and middleweight
champion of the Pacific Coast, is
proving himself one of the most capa :,
BILE of all the boxing instructors at the
army camps. Bob teaches the art of
self defense to the members of the
seth division and he is conducting his
classes so well that judges of the
fistic game foresee victory for the
members of the seth division boxing
stable when the fist singers from
Camp Funston, Camp Dodge and
Camp Doniphan mix 1t in the squared
arena at the soldiers athletic carnival
Tin Convention hall, Kansas City. the
night of January 25.
| BY a series of elimination contests.
McAllister is picking the best material
from 10000 men from Missouri, Kan
sas Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska, New
| Mexico and South Dakota, and when
the cream is selected, he will have
group of fighters that will make
good or die 'a-tryin'
Some persons might think a boxing
instructor in an army camp has a
.'cinch.' Such is an illusion. Meal
lister has trained for many a long
| ring battle, but never in his career
has he had such workouts as he is
getting each day here.
Picking and sorting the wealth of
| material of the division in an effort to
find the topnotchers, is mere item in
! his work schedule. 1t is Bob McAll1s-
| boxer of Kansas City and st. Louis,
to assist him, to teach every man of
the division the art of self-defense.
Gen. Leonard Wood, official COM
| mander of the Eighty-ninth division,
| from the day he started to whip the
| thousands of raw recruits into soldiers
/ of the United States army, insisted
| thai athletics be given almost as much
attention in the training of the men
as the actual military training.
Records of the worlds greatest war
show that hand-to- hand fighting is an
| everyday occurrence in which the best
man wins; the man with the better
| trained muscles, the man just little
| quicker and steadier: the man with
| the special training wifls-wins in the
| contest where life itself is the stake.
And boxing. it has been proven, fits
a man for this supreme test bettep
than any other form of athletics That
is why Bob McAllister is here and
why he is teaching the men the blows,
| feints blocks and lodges of the ring
general A boxer who can ward off a
left jab from his opponent with a box
| ing glove, can ward off the same left
| jab with a razor-edged steel bayonet.
! Boxing and bayonet fighting go
| hand in hand; they have the same
general movements, only bayonet
| fighting is game where you must
kill or be killed.
Beginning at 9 O'Clock in the morn
ing and lasting until late in the after
| noon, McA1lister holds classes. And in
| between times he is at the bayonet
school with the French, English and
American officers, aiding them.
| At night, after his days work is
| ended and the schedule for the next
day Is arranged, the Pacific coast boy
| HES to his by room over by divi-
sion headquarters and delves into the
mysteries of Blackstone. For Nc
| Allister is ambitious. He hopes some
| day to be lawyer, and a good one.
| The 1anky young fellow who used to
| bruise about, knocking out fistic as
| pirants, hasn't always made his fists
| earn his living If he wants to, he can
earn good living just by using the
| tips of his fingers.
| Rob McAllister is an expert 'tsteno"
who can make typewriter sing any
| that touch system down to a. nieety.s
+ On days when the elimination con-
tests are pulled off in the Y. NJ. G. A
| auditorium. for selecting the men who
| will represent the Eishty-ninth divi-
| sion at the athletic carnival in Kansas
| City. the spectators see more real
! fights in half the time than they ever
| see in a regular pay" show.
| Fighting is a soldiers business,
whether with rifle. bolo. machine
7
! into each other from the first gong
! and they usually have to be pried
! apart when time is called. They
| thump and pound and iab. yet all is in
| the true spirit of sportsrnanship, and
! quite often men who fight each other
going back to their barra cks together
the warmest of friends. even tho one
may have closed eye and the other
may be minus a couple of teeth.
Kansas City and St. Louis men are
showing up as good prospects, but oc-
casionally a wild cat from Arizona
perhaps with no previous training but
| a world of pluck and ambition. or
! husky farmer boy from Nebraska,
steps out on the canvas and demon
strates that wind. punching ability and
pure grit count lO+
Lloyd Adams. a 100 nounder from
Company e. 35ith Ertry. is a KAN
sas City boy WHO l.. showing I'D well
and promises to b. "~e of the best of
his weight in nc e:7iS.s;-. He :, viz
tually assured 'il2ce in the athletic
| carnival. So also. is Billy Rice.
another Kansas Cityan, who bo&e.; at
135 pounds. and who claimed the
amateur championship of Kansas CITY
at that weight when he used to box
under the colors of the X @ A c. In
his first two tryouts he knocked his
opponents out in the first round.
IL Paddy" Tuhin. of st. Louis a
hf
ston's best bets with the padded mits.
Privates Ed Daily and ]. Go1dana,
also St Louis boys. are showing UP
among the topnotchers
McAllister is certain that he will
have a CLASSY bunch of scrappers to
IA Ike IA Cit. 4 tl,c