Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-02

FINAL JIT BET
ON BOB MARTIN
Army Cleaned Up as Antipod-
can Hit Canvas After
IA Seconds.
BY M j.

The fight which Bob Martin and
Capt. Cowgirl staged in France on
July 4, 1919. for the inter allied
championship had for its setting as
dramatic a situation as the prize ring
has ever known" relates Jimmy
Bronson. manager of the soldier boy
fistic hero.
THE wal was over then. The SOL
diers were awaiting back home or
ders. And while they waited intense
rivalry was created as regards the
various champions among the SOL
diers.
THE interest conferred mainly in the
heavyweight title. Bob had, through
a succession of victories, won the
championships of the American army.
Cowgirl, the Australian, had beaten
And the final involved Bob and the
ibggiant from the Antipodes.
"A short time before the Martin
Cowgirl battle was staged, they put on
a battle to determine the middleweight
championship. 1t brought together
Pettybridge, of Australia. and Al
Norton. of the u s.. a. Norton was
a two to one betting fayOrite and
every American doughboy in Paris was
down on Al to his last dollar.
In the third round Norton COM
ilitlNu III NAGuSdDlC lOu1 anu bACAC
was nothing for me to do as referee
but to ~disqualify my own countryman
and give the fight to P~ettybridge.
When the betting opened on the,
Martin Cowgirl fight, it was five. TO
one against Bob winning. For a while
there were no takers. And the reason
was easy. For the boys were flat
broke.
yet a few hours before the fight
started Martin money began to ap-
pear-in amazing volume. American
soldiers. who had been without a dime
a little while earlier, suddenly ap-
peared with bundles of money. And
they began to plunge on Bob's chances
in such furious fashion that they
drove down the odds from five to N
TO eight TO five AZ ringtime.
at was a mystery TO me where all
the boys got their sudden wealth. /
tried to find out by questioning them
but they all grinned-and that was
the end of it.
But afterward / learned that a gov
eminent storeroom had been broken
into the night before by parties I'M
known. Also | learned that most of
the goods taken were sold st cut rate
for ready cash TO anyone who wanted
to buy it.
And American soldier boys were the
statesmen in those particular instances
Cowgirl was a whale of a fellow
6 feet 1 inches tall, 215 pounds, as fast
as a cat and with a powerful smash in
either hand. He had whipped the
greatest fighters in the armies and
looked mighty dangerous.
but the American ~doughboys ber
on Bob and continued to bet until every
last franc in their possession rode on
Bob's chance TO win.
The fight was staked in the Perish
ing stadium in Paris on Fourth of July
afternoon-almost at the same hour
that Jack Dempsey was fighting and
winning a worlds championship from
Jess Willard in Toledo.
"And the crowd in the stadium per-
haps eQualed that in Toledo, for il
went beyond 40. o00-to the very limit
of its capacity.
Cowgirl looked good-for about 80
seconds. Then Bob jockeyed him
around. tented a left and then dashed
out with a right handler. Cowgill's
body quivered under the impact. col
lapSed-and then crumpled TO the floor.
The fight was over. Bob had won
in a seconds. Twenty thousand Amer
lean doughboyS went mad with happi-
ness and that night they put on a
celebration in Paris unlike any Paris
had seen before-or since"