New Britain herald., 1926-07-23
(BY JOE WILLIAMS)

Chicago, July 23.-You may want
to hear something about the man
who promoted this towns first
LOCALIZED boxing contest in more
than rs years; the man who is
mainly responsible for the comeback
Of the sport here; the man whom
mid-westerners consider a greater
promotional genius than Tex Rick
ard.
His name is James Code Austin
Mullen. he is AZ years old. Irish as
Paddy's pig, gray as an eagle and
dynamic as they make EN-.
The day I met him he was sit
ting in his office in West Randolf
street in his shirt sleeves eating a
fish sandwich and talking into the
mouthpiece of a telephone that
seemed never TO be idle.
who, Bill Swift from Aurora
Sure, 1 remember you. You want
me to hold one of my best S2.20
seats for you? It'll be here for
you"
The Duke of the Loop went back
to munehing his sandwich. After Il
moment or so he explained he had
made a hibit of taking care of all
ticket requests personally back in
the days when he was promoting
little shows in the neighboring viii
lagos.
Il intend to keep it up If I can"
he added. Those fellows made my
little shows go over when a $4,000
investment was a lot OF money. l
feel that they are entitled to the
same kind of service at these bigger
shows"
They We're Worst Seats
The Duke of the Loop then turned
TO his business associate, Harry
Hochstatder, and requested him to
pick out the best S2.20 seat he had
left and put it away for Jim Mad
den. (The irony of this was the
S220 seats were the cheapest and
consequently the worst seats avail
able for the championship fight be-
tween Rocky Kansas and Sammy
Mandell,)
Illinois admits that Mullen did
more to bring boxing back to a
legalized status than any other in
dividual in the state; he gave pro-
digiously Of his money, energy and
influence, of which hes has plenty
on all three counts. And he did so
largely because of his boundless en-
thusiasm for the sport.
Mullen has been an incurable
boxing nut ever since the day Eddie
McGoorty, old-time middleweight,
came into his life back in 1906 when
he (Mullen) was an umpire in the
Wisconsin-ll league.
All during the game Mullen was
razzed viciously by a certain leather
lunged individual in the bleachers.
After the game Mullen set out to
discover who the heckled was. 1t
developed to be McGoorty who was
then just starting as a fighter.
Somehow or other, what had all
the promissory ear-marke of an i'm
pending fist fight did not occur.
The two grinned broadly shook
hands, and the upshot of the meet
ing was McGoorty came to Chicago
with Mullen, who turned him over
to Marty Forkins. In less than a
year McGoorty was one of the
games great middleweights.
He Started in 1920
Mullen didn't begin promoting
until 1920. He went to Aurora, an
$500 town." matched Pal Moore
with Jimmy Kelly, and ballyhooed
the card into a $500 gate. A year
later he built his own arena at
Aurora, paid $4,000 for it, and paid
off all the cost in five weeks with
fight profits. When that season
closed his books showed a net gain
of $4,000.
The Duke was never fighter
himself but there are few better
judges of fighters in the land. It
was he who discovered Mandell,
and it was he who gave Mandell his
first night. This was three years
ago at East Chicago. There was
no opponent for one Mike Eulo, a
preliminary participant.
The Duke singled out Mandell
sitting in one of the back rows,
Put that kid in there and you'll
start your show with a one-round
knockout" he suggested to the pro-
moters.
They did. Mandell stopped Eulo
in less than two minutes. ~
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