The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-02-28
English Had Expected Their Son
to Defeat Sharkey and
Enter 'valhalIa'
SETTING FITTINGLY TRAGIC
Is It Travesty on ~Sportsmanship
or Action of One Who
Called Wolf?
BY BERNARD RICKATsON-HATT

BY BERNARD RICKATSON-HATT
Chief American Correspondent of
Reuters News Agency Of London
Miami. Fla, Feb. %. up From the
British point Of view last nights fight
was a most pitiful and lamentable
affair. The English public had high
hopes Of their champion. and many
believed rightly OF wrongly that
SCOTS fight with Sharkey would
definitely place their chosen repre-
sentative in the most exclusive of all
circles in the realm of fistiana, the
valhalla of heavyweight champions.
But in valhalla there must be no
fouls.
Even now the Gods must be sitting
on high shifting, a. the odor Of sa-
~crifice, the foul miasma waited up to
high heaven from that hard steel ring
with the blood-red ropes.
Setting Fittingly Tragic
1.-THE tragedy Of Phil Scott" was
staged in a fittingly tragic setting of
impending disaster-an oppressive
overheated atmosphere. The air over
perfumed with the scent of Miami's
semi-tropical flora and the winedark
colour of the sea outside in the bay.
TO an Englishman it was q heart
rendering spectacle to see the British
heavyweight champion cropping his
feeble way along those red ropes like
a partridge fluttering on the ground
with q broken wing. The laurel and
the rose of victory and fame We're
x,,<L1acclVS %4p~ fp1~o Iivo
Beneath the horrid glare of 40 arc
lamps his face was contorted like
that of a man undergoing the delicate
ministrations of a professional tor
turer. But what mortal man can say
what the recording angel was writ
ing in his book? Did he write down
this fight as a traversity of sports
manship or as the action of one who
cried wolf? In other words should
Sharkey have been instantly disqual-
flied for hitting low or was Phil not
hurt at all and just a gutter?
AS it may be a long time before we
get a peep inside the celestial ledger,
one can only speculate. Speaking
frankly, but without any desire to be
dogmatic about 1t, 1t seemed to me
that the first blow that felled Scott
in the black third round was low and
therefore a foul, and I don't doubt for
one moment that If the fight had
been staged In London, Sharkey
would have been disqualified.
Herod Was Outheroded
On the other hand, a. I said before,
only the recording angel can tell us
if Scott was really hurt. One doctor
said thing, one another. Hand
lers, seconds and officials outheroded
herod with charges and counter
charges.
Scott told me in his dressing room
afterwards, where he lay stretched on
q grimy cherries bench, he had been
fouled six times at least. Certainly
Phil appeared to be in agony when a
doctor tried to raise his right leg
from the thigh.
Lou Magnolia on the other hand
declared positively that he had seen
no foul blows struck at any time.
Last Tuesday I had q talk with this
kindly faced courteous referee who
was called upon last night to make
such a momentous decision. I asked
him II he could promise the British
public that Phil would get an abso-
lutely square deal in an American
prize ring. MI. Magnolia said to me:
Absolutely, Phil will be given every
chance. When I'm in the ring I call
them as I see them"
After the fight last night I again
spoke to Magnolia. He said:
"You saw. I gave Phil every posi-