The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-05-19
KILBANE
HAD HARD
STRUGGLE
Fought AtteI'S Brother and
Won EaSiIy-RefuSeS to
Fight Murphy.
BY JOHNNY KILBANE

Featherweight Champion of the World
Copyright. 1923. by NEA Service, Inc, In
the United States and all foreign coun-
tries having copyright laws. Reproduce
ton is prohibited.
7 T must not be supposed I decided
one night to be champion. and
awoke the next morning with the
world at my feet. True, I covered
the distance in a short time-four
years. But I had some thirty fights
with boxers like jeff Gaffney and
Happy Davis. now forgotten. before
tackling Attel1
But now that was the champion
things were different. Offers came
fast during the first days. One in
particular stands out, that with
Monte AttelI. a brother of Abe's.
It was in 1912. the same year won
the title.
Poor Monte. am sorry to say had
lot Of trouble with one eye at that
time. It was almost blinded although
I knew nothing about 1t then.
We started mixing 1t up from the
first bell. He came at me with
right I jabbed with my left and
crossed with right. The glove
landed flush on his face. and the
force of the blow knocked his sight
back in the poor eyel It must have
been the excitement Of recovering his
sight in the eye that made Monte
Jubilant, for he grew careless, and
whenever any one grew careless with
me in those days it was sure suicids.
In the eighth round I knocked
him through the ropes. and he
sprawled out in the ringside seats.
Then the police stepped in.
Another battle" that stands out
in my memory Of the early days was
that scheduled with Young Murphy
at Syracuse. y. Y. I had agreed with
Dunn, my manager, to meet Murphy
and let him weigh 1873 pounds ringside.
That should have been enough to
satisfy. But no. When the night
came and we weighed in, we discov.
cred that our customer tipped the
scales at 1873. I weighed 124.
VIII you fight him?" Dunn asked.
Il will not" I answered.
II M0b d4li4OUiCSu 1iOlu kLt6
that I had refused to meet Murphy.
The crowd gave me a merry ra8zing. I
jumped into my trunks, and ran into
the ring.
Ladies and gentlen en-" I said, "I
have agreed to meet Murphy at 1873
pounds. I weigh 1g4. Now learn
Murphy weighs 1873 and think
you'll agree with me that I am Jus
titled In refusing 10 meet him. But
am here. and am willing to meet
any one they bring on at 1873 OF less. ="
waited to see II they would bring
any one on, and nothing happened.
Then I jumped from the ring and
left.
Well. the house turned inside out.
They wanted to mob the manager, and
to this day I don't know exactly how
he orawIed out Of it.
was to get 81 900. and this they
refused me But I carried the case
to court and won a verdict and got
the thousand.
7 soon discovered that there weren't
any featherweights left TO fight. And
I started to tackle bigger boys. Willie
Jackson. the lightweight. then in his
prime. was one. and I knocked him
cold in five rounds.
I have never refused 70 meet =
legitimate contender. and that was
why l accepted willingly ths challenge
of George CLANCY, who doomed at that
time as p conner. This was in 1916.
We were matched.
KiIbane tells Of the CLANCY
battle I'm his next article. His
description illustrates strilxingly
his ring generalship.