The Washington herald., 1922-11-20
: nSAYS DAM o N
kunyOn ::
D'BRIEN FOUGHT
MANY BATTLES
Bid Dancing Master Went Into
Ring 200 Times at Average
of $1,000 Per Time.

~IEW IOhh, NOV. lS.0Soin-
.N ing over from Philadelphia
= not long ago, we met up
with Joseph O'Hagan, distin-
rxuished-looking gent with; slight
siy indented features known in
..pther years as Philadelphia Jack
I O'Brien.
. The old Dancing Master, Of Fis-
stiana-and not so old, at that's
seonducting a big gymnasium in
sNew York, but he occasionally
visits his former home, the town
J. that gave him his name, where
ahe still has business interests.
= We got to talking of this and
that, and in the course of conver-
,isational events, we touched on
Philadelphia Jacks financial af-
fairs
~ "You made a lot of money in
your time, Jack:" we queried-
Eyes, a lot of it for the era in
which i was fighting" replied
Jack at might not be considered a
lot of money now, but it was
.plenty then. If / hadn't dropped
in for some bad real estate and
'other investments, / would have
wound up with plenty.
81 fought around 200 battles
in'tfe course of twelve years." he
continued. 81 averaged about
$1,000 per battle. don't mean
Il always get that much, because
rI'd fight for a few hundred dol
lars, but counting in the few
fairly big shots l got it averaged
up about that.
,,s<kT WAS never idle" Jack went
on, 81 fought as often as l
u could get matches, and l
Fought all over the world. If you
hook up my record you'll find that
iifew fighters have covered as much
fsground as. l did.
. 81 fought all the toughest men OF
nmy day, welters, middleweights,
nlight heavies and heavies. l went
aAll over America, to Europe and
EAlaska while | was in the game.
a.All the black fighters of my time
Epicked on me, and / never lodged
amy of them.
"I have no regrets" sighed Jack,
,,,1ost in memory, ''uniess it is that
IA didn't come along in this day Of
Fiat purses. / had a good time,
,,made plenty of money, and got out
sbf the game with all my wits about
nme.
"Nor am / one of those oldtimers
5fhat think there are no good fight
hers nowadays" he continued. 4
lkhat would have compared favor
n..ably with the best of the old fel-
iisows. / consider Jack Dempsey one
ssof the greatest fighters that ever
,,iived. Benny Leonard is great
mfighter. So is Jack Britton.
- "And say" Jack added, "since
I've quit fighting I've come to the
aeonclusion that managing fighters
sis almost as tough game as fight
Sing itself. l had a couple of ex-
aperiences handling boxers, as you
lifmay recall. / had my $50, 900
abeauty, Jack McCarron, and my
,..bwn brother, Young Philadelphia
MACK, and | know what the man.
sagers have to contend with"
PHILADELPHIA JACK was
w one Of the most picturesque
~. - characters the game has
s,ever known, as well as real good
lSighter. He had knack of getting
.spublicity for himself that has never
s6een approached by any other
Boxer.
f" Jack attracted attention by going
I'm heavily on the social stuff. At
rpne time, if memory serves, he
..astonished the boys by pulling a
ssocial secretary on them. He also
.,had a tutor. Strong men almost
afainted at the very thought, but
uit was brand-new publicity stuff
fin pugilism.
~ Jack dug up Anthony Drexel-
stBiddle, a name to conjure with
socially over in Philadelphia, and
Taught him to box. They boxed to-
,.igether in exhibitions, which was
water on Jacks publicity wheel.
Naturally a polished sort of duck,
Jack adopted mannerisms to go
with his social role, dressed the
part, lugged a cane, and was a
yeritable riot wherever he went.
( All that-and it was always all
artificial with jacks now behind
him. He is as bubbling and effer-
tvescent as ever, retaining all of his
-old-time enthusiasm, but he no
longer requires the kind Of pub
licity he sought in the brave days
.pf his pug1istic youth.
-
'BRIEN was exceptionally fast
and exceptionally clever in
~ the ring. He was smart"
! boxer. He knew how. He learned
shis business in a hard mill.
= He demonstrated his absolute
n,gameness on one memorable oc-
L.. - h.n