The Alaska daily empire., 1923-06-18
TOMMY GIBBONS CHOOSES BOXING
 AS LIFE CAREER
Challenger of Dempsey En- ters Ring as Purely Busi-
 ness Proposition.

ST. PAUL, June lS.-tBy the AS sociated Press. )-Just about the time most anxious fathers are feeling out their sons to ascertain their life work desires, young man of St. Paul-"hardly more than kid' his friends said-gripped the lower rung of the ladder of pugilistic fame.
 It was his selection for life pro fession, and how well he has mas tered it will be demonstrated July 4 when he seeks to wrest the cham pidhship of the heavyweight division from Jack Dempsey at Shelby, Mon tana.
 For the young man who decided on fisticuffs as a life work was Tommy Gibbons of St Paul, only a youth of 16 years when he answered the lure of the game. Many boxers have gained their start in the ring through their prowress as rough and-tumble mixers, with science de- yeloped later as a necessary requisite to greater success.
 Business Proposition
 Not so with Tommy Gibbons It was purely a business proposition with him, and he selected his career for the same reason that many other young men have entered less violent professions. It was the attraction of more money than he could make any other way"
 Tommy's path had been beaten by his brother, Mike Gibbons, five years his senior, whose boxing skill later gained for him the sobriquet of "The Phantom" It was the verbal per suasion of Mike, that decided Tom my.
 q had left school and gone to work for the Great Northern railway here" he said in reeounting his start. "Of course, I was only making lit tie money: no more than any kid of that age is likely to make.
 "One day Mike came to me with a proposition that I enter the ring He said he could pay me more than the railroad company could, and as 1 had watched with some envy the money Mike was making, I decided to take him up.
 Mike was a great teacher, and from that time until very recent years Mikes eyes have been both ering him. he gave me thorough in struction. IL is to this, of course that I owe much of whatever boxing ability I possess"
 It was the luster cast over him by his brothers success that took Tommy into his first fights-infor maj quiet affairs at a little athletic club" the young men maintained out in the Gibbons neighborhood.
 Fights Above Head
 "The fellows expected me to be g my said, "and so they general, matched me with the big fellows didn't have much to gain, for they all expected me to win my fights but I had a lot to lose-at least it seemed a lot then-and so I na turally fought over my head as { rule"
 The father of Mike and Tommy hat keen aversion to fighting. It wa' over his strong protests that Mix entered the game, but when the sen for Gibbons saw the remuneration that might result from single en gagement. his opposition gradual. vanished and had disappeared by th' time Tommy was ready for the pro fessional ring.
 However, the senior Gibbons neve saw either one of his sons in tn ring He died on the night tha Tommy fought Billy Miske in NeS York last October: a fight Tomm entered yith Knowledge of his fa ther's serious illness. The bout tel minated when Gibbons fouled Miskt
 Tommy was the youngest membe of the family and, he declares. "ns turally somewhat of favorite." II tells with smile of the day he an Mike framed" bout with their f.