New Britain herald., 1929-01-15
DEMPSEY knows
PROMOTING GAME
Former Champion to Have
Plenty Of Headaches With Bout

New York. Jan. Is ~ - Jack
Dempsey. the former heavyweight
champion. has nothing to worry
about for the present, at least. 20
far as his fighting career IL con-
cerned, but william H. Dempsey.
the promoter, may have several
headaches before he is through with
handling the forthcoming Stribling
Sharkey match in Miami Beach.
Promoter Dempsey perhaps can
recall with some vividness = few OF
the difficulties Tex Richard exper-
fenced at various moments In his big
ventures. Tex was chased from Cali
fornia to Nevada with the Jeffries-
Johnson fight and once had to put
up $4,000 bond to get Luis Firpo
out of the hands OF the law and
into the ring. At Philadelphia. II it
wasn't = lawsuit against Dempsey
to arouse alarm, it was the final
worry of having Gene Tunney take
an airplane ride on the day OF the
100000 spectacle.
Dempsey probably 10 hoping
nothing untoward happens to either
Sharkey or stribling in their forth
coming preliminary engagements.
The Boston sailor is booked to fight
X. o. Christner at Madison Square
Garden next week, and II that
doesn't mean anything to the aver
age observer. 1t may be recalled
that X. o. lived up to his name by
flattening Knute Hansen not 20 long
ago. Stribling has three or four
bouts in scattered spots by way of
keeping In fighting trim. His oppo-
nents are somewhat obscure. but 10
was Christner before he knocked
out Hansen. and so was Jack
League. who recently had the one
time Georgia schoolboy on the door.
The writer of the preface to q
special story by Phillips Finlay, de-
scribing him as the longest driving
amateur in America" must have
experienced shock in noting that
Mr.. Finlay devotes a good share OF
his article to p1aising Mr.. Robert
T. Jones. jr., as the most consistent
distance-getter of them all.
The evidence supports Finlay for
the last time this youthful long
hitter encountered the champion he
was outdriven nearly all the way.
They met In the semi-f1nals Of the
national amateur at Brae Burn last
September. Bobby's practice just
before the match was devoted en-
tirely to driving, as II he was de,
termined to give a particularly good
sample of his wares. 1t looked like
case Of master and pupil when
play began. Finlay dashed out some
mighty wallops, but Jones got any.
where from 10 to 50 yards more on
the average and finished II up.
II there are any athletes around
with a stronger will to win than
Ray Barbuti, the Olympic 4oo.me-
ter champion, Jackson Scholx has
not heard OF them. In an article on
the Olympics just written by the
veteran Splinter for the New York
Athletic clubs magazine, Scholtz
says of Barbuti:
Il shared the same stateroom
with Ray and it was easily evil
denced from the moment we left
the dock that Ray had made IN
his mind to win the Olympic cham
pionship. He kept himself at a ter.
rife state of nervous tension. Even
when he was being beaten in his
trials before the games themselves.
Ray never doubted his ability to
come through in the big event. and
ne actually worked himself up to a
burst of fury which have never
seen equallcl in any athlete. As a
result, he ran one of the greatest
races l have ever witnessed and 7
shall never recover from the thrill
OF watching him fall across the
tape"