The Washington times., 1928-03-12
CITES.
FAIR PLAY
SPIRIT
BY Gene Tunney

WOFtuG heAVyWehkuB On1hAhUA0M
To those who believe that the
advance of professional boxing
and sports of all kinds for that
MATERIALS not done the country q
great deal OF good, I wish to ask:
what has become of 'roughneck
fighting that used to mar every
public OCCASION
Even when / was a boy in Green
witch Village 1t wasn't surprising
on any summer night to see, on
two or three street corners. bands
of young and old men mixing 1t
up earnestly over some trivial
matter, probably nothing more
than an argument about The
weather.
The old days when almost any
policeman had more street fights
than a transforming vaudeville
boxer every week have gone. One
can ride the length of Manhattan
Island without seeing two truck
drivers deserving their wagons in
the middle of traffic to settle their !
differences with fists, whips, clubs
or cobble stones. A. Lot of pic 1
turesque profanity went out with 4
them, too, which is another bene.
fit that cannot be overlooked. =
tt all comes down to the fact
that men today have a greater
sense of fair play than i'm the
old days and there is only one
source from which they could
have learned it--frOm the, CON-
slant Improvement in the stand
ard Of national sports.
Boxing. / have always contended.
especially among the top notchers,
was cleaner than it was ever cred
tied with being. But before smaller
bouts were properly regulated.
some pretty tough customers used
TO creep in, and, by their actions
outside of the ring more than in
it. used to give the whole profess
sion a bad reputation. At the same
time baseball games were just al
likely to- break up in fights as not,
and I remember one time when the
Chicago police locked up whole
baseball park full of fighting fans
after a big out-of-door wrestling
match, until reserves enough could
be rallied to stop the general free
for-alI. All sports have suffered the
same way, including the picnic and
Fourth of July celebration games.
1t has only been in recent years
that most of this has passed. Sports
are so organized now that unruly
athletes are ruled out without
ceremony. The example has spread
to the fans and sporting crowds
are as orderly as churchgoers on
most occasions.
But one feels proud to be In or
ganized sports and look back along
the line and see the number OF
men who, under the loose old rules,
refused to be roughnecks. They
were among the pioneers who
helped to improve sports to their
present condition. They We're mar
tyrs, too, in small way. Tor tt
wasn't always the popular thing to
do to stand out for clean living
and certain other principles which
did not always agree with the pop.
ular idea Of rlanliness.
For 3 professional athlete to
profess religion In the old days
was an open challenge to be
called q mollycOddle and any
show of higher thoughts was
made at the risk of losing credit
for laurels deservedly won. Yet
the self confidence that sports
taught many stars in history.
led them to stand upon their
OWh UC1CAS anu DE1UCAPAGSs
Boxing fans were only recently
reminded of this by the life of
Tiger" Flowers whose religion was
simple and consistent. They al
ready know John l.. Sullivan's
change from a fiery battler to an
ardent advocate of temperance, but
few knew of the struggles Jim
1effries had to play the role OF
evangelist in the face of the criti-
cism of his former rough following.
Out in the Middle West Packey
Mcfarland and Johnny Coulon are
respected and, prosperous citizens
because they never deviated from
standards of living, they set for
themselves. Boxing history is full
of others who lived lives that were
an example. to rough sport followers.
, Football annals are fully as rich
in such examples. Johnny Poe, one
of the greatest team leaders foot
ball ever knew, went to his death
in the drab. soggy Belgian front
for a principle. Win Osgood, or
Cornell, ever the champion of the
downtrodden, carried his principles
to s.the Cuban rebellion and laid
fusing to take shelter because he
knew his action would inspire the
men he was leading.
Marshall Newell, the great Har-
ward tackle, whose outstanding vir-
tues were the talk of his period.
died while. cleaning a snow bound
switch to save an Oncoming pas
senger train. Hector Gowan, great
tackle of Princeton, occupies a pull
pit while Arthur Howe, once Yale
quarterback, and Gill, noted Blue
lineman in the beef and iron days
of college fotball. along with Nc
Cracker, of Pennsylvania. are mill
tant missionaries in far countries.
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