The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1922-02-04
Al SPHINX PRAISES NEGRO
PUGILISTS.

They are saying around Chicago
that the recent match at Portland,
Ore, in which the Colored heavy
weights, Harry Wills and Bill Tate,
were the contenders, was really ar
ranged by Jack Kearns, manager
and Man Friday of Champion Jack
Dempsey.
Due to the fact that all sorts of
people were calling for meeting
between Dempsey and Wills, Kearns,
they say, was anxious to see how
good a man Willis really was.
AS the story goes, the best way
to discover Willis skill, strength
and ability, was to send a friend of
Dempsey's against him with orders
to fight Wills every foot of the way
and try him out.
Following out this plan, as the
story goes, Dempsey's old man Fri
day, Bill Tate, was selected as the
Colored individual to make the test,
and then came this bout at Portland,
or rather in the Milwaukee arena
near Portland.
III tutll lllSJ llldl Wills nearly
spilled the beans by fouling Hate
in the first round. Naturally, as
that was not fair test, Kid How
ard, dear friend of Dempsey's and
Kearns and Bill Tate's manager,
allowed Tate to try it all over again.
Howard was praised for his very
kind and generous act" and it
looked like something of that sort.
Now that Wills has proven mot
such-a- much" you may see match
between the big Colored gentlemen
and Dempsey.
AS matter of fact, however, It
does not look. to me as tho Demp-
sey, wise fighter that he is, will
ever enter the ring with a Colored
fighter as his vis-a-vis.
Dempsey has never had a liking
for battles of this sort
This was proven when Jack
Johnson came back a while ago
and offered to meet the champion
any old place and for any sized
purse.
To Jacks def then, Dempsey
and Kearns maintained a discreet
silence.
Then there have been other oc
casions where Dempsey and Kearns
have side stepped propositions COM
ing from black men.
The late Sam McVey and Harry
Mills have always been willing to
face Jack.
Then there is another Colored
In
challenged Dempsey, but whom he
has always refused to meet.
That is Sam Langford, 'the Bos-
ton Tar Baby" who for the last
several years has made his head
quarters in Chicago;
Time and again Langford has
called on Kearns, Dempsey's man
ager, and asked him for a match
with the champion, but always
Kearns has replied:
Sam, I'm looking for something
easier"
So, if Dempsey would not meet
Langford, he is not likely to meet
Wills
And there seems good reason
for Dempsey's steering clear of the
Negroes.
The only black man Dempsey
ever met was John Lester John
son of New York, and when Demp-
sey came out of that fight 1t was
with three broken ribs.
They say Dempsey's experience
with johnson is the actual reason
he draws the color line.
Until very recently in the prize
fighting world, il was claimed that
no matter how strong, physically,
the black fighters were, there was
astreak of cowardice in their maker
up, that once reached, was their
undoing.
1t was generally believed that if
the gaff was put to a blask fighter
long and hard enough, he would
quit.
Later ring history, however, has
failed to confirm this widespread
belief.
Many of the Colored boxers of
the present days have taken, in
some instances, punishment to show
that they are just as game as
white fighters.
There was never, perhaps, two
gamer boxers than George Godfrey,
"Old Chocolate" they called him,
who in his day, met the best heavy
weights in the business and geneT-
ally gave as good as was sent, and
Sam Langford, both black, and both
hailing from the city of culture.
And Boston had several other
game Negro boxers besides Godfrey
and Langford, notably Joe Walott
and Sam McVey.
Philadelphia, too, had several
good Negro fighters who attained
widespread notoriety, Joe Butler be
ing perhaps the best of the black
fighters who iAade that city his