The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-01-11

IT OVER
WITH YoE WILLIAMS

NEW YORK, Jan. ia funeral
IN vault Wednesday, where
mourners mourned. A hockey rink
Thursday night where steel blades
flashed and padded bodies clashed.
A fight arena tonight, where fists
will thud against quivering flesh
and mad men roar-thats the
Garden. And somehow the Garden
seems faithfully to reflect the spirit
of its dead master in its mighty
flow of endless energy, constantly
shifting scenes, and veneer OF raz-
zle dazzle.
A closeup of Tex Richard,
Snowman and promoter, would re-
veal these same qualities, and
they were the qualities that made
him the greatest sports manipu-
lator of all time.
IT WAS FITTING THAT HIS JOURNEY
TO THE GRAVE SHOULD HAVE
STARTED FROM HIS BELOVED GARDEN.
IT WAS FITTING, TOO, THAT THE
CEREMONY PROFOUNDLY RESPECT
TUL. SHOULD AT THE SAME TIME
HAVE sMAcKED OF PAGEANTRY AND
COLOR. THE TWO HIGH PRIESTS BE-
FORE WHOM THE DEAD MAN WoR-
SHIPPED.
THAT less than an hour after
the bronze casket had been
wheeled through side door into
the sunlight in West Fiftieth street,
the Garden staff men were at work
getting the big hall ready for the
next attraction hockey game
Thursday night. This news would
have caused the dead maestro to
smile: he was proud of the eff
ficiency of his organization.
y n
From the executive office of
the Garden, printed sheets of the
program of the ceremony, includ-
ing the eulOgies, the time length
of the talks and the order of the
cOrtege were delivered to the press
workers. Old Tex would have liked
that, too.
e always see that those news
paper fellows have something to
write about" he would say.
u RATHER THINK PLACING A TIME
LENGTH ON THE EULOGIES WOULD
HAVE APPEALED TO HIM. TOO; He
NEVER HAD MUCH PATIENCE FOR PRE-
q
TNHE people want to see the main
j bout, they don't care who you
put on in the prelins," he'd say
when you criticised the nondescriptS
who preceded champion and chal-
lenger in one of his battles of the
century. And Wednesday old Tex
himself was the main bout. The
Garden never played to stranger
crowd. The mice people" of whom
Rickard had grown so fond in recent
Wears because of the influence and
prestige they brought to his enter
prises we're there in glamorous
numbers, stern faced, somberly clad,
carrying high silk toppers.
Il
Jack Dempsey sat Win the nOh-
.orary pail bearers, overloaded,
wearing a high stiff collar, slit by
a black silk tie, and holding his
silk top hat rigidly against his
bulging chest. A thin veil of tears
came and left his Redeemed eyes at
Intervals and his colOrless lips
worked with a feverisb nervous
mess.
- II
Z > THERE WE'RE FIGHTING MEN THERE
WHO HAD HELD WORLD TITLES,
OTHERS WHO HAD FOUGHT UNFOR-
'GETTABLE BATTLES. MANAGERS
WHOSE NAMES WERE ONCE BETTER
KNOWN THAN RICHARDS. PROMOTERS
WHO THREATENED TO DRIVE HIM TO
THE WALL WHEN HE INVADED THEIR
iscACRED REALMS ELEVEN YEARS AGO.
BUT WoSE RESENTMENT SOON
CHANGED TO ENVY AND THEN TO RE-
LUcTANT ADMIRATION.
.TOHNNY DUNDEE pays his re-
81 spects. He was fighting as far
back as 1910. He has been in more
fights than Richard promoted, and
is still fighting. Dundee's friends
want him to quit Tex Richard was
urged not to match him again. His
'rommens was: 81 hate to have to tell
a man he's grown too old to be OF