The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-09-23
FIGHT THRONG
Starts Trek
FROM CHICAGO
Fans Drift Home, Arguing
Over Low Blows, Long
H Count Given Tunney.
JAM SPECIAL TRAINS
Soldiers Field Is DesoIate
Waste, Uttered With
Broken Seats.
Full page Of Fight Pictures on
Page FL.
Full page Of Fight Pictures on
Page FL.
BY C. C. NICOLET.


CHICAGO, Sept. 23.-Bedraggled
thousands, many nursing headaches
and others shifting with colds,
fought today for a chance to ride
on trains leaving Chicago, just as
they fought for hotel rooms earlier
in the week and fought for their
seats in Soldiers Field last night.
They fought hard and well, and
they didn't get million out of it,
but most of them seemed satisfied
to have seen Jack Dempsey sent
back to his Hollywood real estate,
and Gene Tunney crowned as a
genuine champion after year on
trial.
There was acrimonious discus
sion among some hardy souls to-
day over whether the count on Tun-
ney really was too long, and wheth-
er Dempsey fouled his rival in the
early rounds.
Recover From Hysteria
For the most part, however, the
fans seemed to have recovered from
the touch of hysteria of recent days.
Several hundred visitors had
spent the night in hotel lobbies,. in
railroad stations, or wherever they
could find a warm place. They
were the careless ones who neglect
ed to obtain hotel rooms in advance.
Special and scheduled trains, most
of the latter running in several Sec
tions, reported every seat taken and
every section filled, and departing
\ automobiles crowded the highways
around Chicago. More than fifty
thousand persons came here from
other cities for the fight.
Soldiers Field Is Waste
soldiers field was a desolate
waste Of broken seats and miscel-
laneous debris. A few guards and
workmen took the place of the 145,-
600 flght-erazed fans of last night.
It wasn't sold-out house, and
Tex Richards $3,000,000 dream
proved too optimistic. But, with the
aid of cut rates on late ticket sales,
the crowd was swelled to a record
for a prize fight.
1t was, in some ways, an unusual
crowd that saw the battle. 1t had
what many fighters lack--a change
of pace. Never was there more
:, reserved and distant assemblage of
persons than those 145,000 during
the early part Of the evening. The
preliminary fights failed to draw
comment from any but the most
hardened fans.
Wildly Bowling Mob
But when Dempsey and Tunney
appeared, 1t suddenly was changed
into a wildly bowling mob which
kept on bowling until the ten furious
rounds were over. 1t cheered for
Jack and it cheered for Gene; it
booed Jack when he hit low and
booed Gene when he turned to
dancing and backward racing after
he was knocked down in the seventh
round.
1t cheered again for the champion
when he hammered his opponent in
the last two rounds, and went wild
when the referee raised Tunney's
hand.
Then the crowd did one of the
most remarkable things in the his
tory Of big-time bouts. More than
half the throng stayed for the two
preliminary" bouts which had been
saved until after the big show.
Many Women Present
It was a crowd of celebrities and
nobodies mixed except in the first
dozen rows-with cheerful disregard
for everything except ability to buy
tickets. Men were in great major
ity, Of course, but there were
enough women to make up a good
sized city.
Some wore colorful early autumn
clothes and some were wrapped in
dull-colored winter overcoats. The
latter were happier as the chilly
breezes blew across the stadium.
Probably never before were so
many hip TASKS concentrated in one
place. In cheerful disregard of the
5000 policemen and fifty-two Fed
eral agents, the fight fans lifted up
their TASKS and drank whenever
they were so moved.
It was a great show-as great a
show as 1t was expected to be.
But 1t was relief to Chicago to
have it over.