The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-07-18
Talking
IT OVER
By JOE WILLIAMS

NEW YORK, July 18.-In re-
IL spouse to a steel engraved in
vitation to attend a barbecue, I went
out to Mickey Walkers training
camp Wednesday where the toy
bulldog is getting in shape for his
fight with Jack Sharkey next week,
and 1 will say that the place was
treat for sore eyes and parched
threats.
mean it YVES a throw back to the
old days when champions were champions,
when the Police Gazette was the boxers
Bible and the sheriff of the county was
much more important citizen than Yale
professor or a Wall Street millionaire.
There was an old time atmosphere
about the place that suggested woodcuts'
ironhats, surreptitious arenas ana sloe
bets. Sitting out there in the sun unoer
leafy boughs watching the squatty little
Irishman 90 through his routine OF swings
and scoWls, his face unshaven and smeareo
with oils. you felt somehow that the
shades of Sullivan and Dixon and Cans
couldn't be far away.
IT. was obviously q show. 1t was
obviously, too. an attempt TO inject ne"
kind of old virility into sport that mas
become softened up and atrophied under
the unnatural influence of the better
element.
Altogether. I think it was grand ges-
aure and know of no persons. aside from
Aimee Semple Mcpherson or Billy sunday
1vho could have staged such revival WIN
better effect than the two gents VINO olo'
namely. DR.. Jack Kearns and MT James
I Johnston. a couple Of come-on artlsVS
of superior skill
From the moment you arrived until the
moment YOU left the whole scene was one
of loose formality. catch-as-catcn-can So
ciab,litv and general all around hllarlIy'
There was nobody of any great soclaI Oh
rivic Importance on the premises ana 'eiS
feu who did not seem to have an IN
+,meta interest in the fighter or MS man
ager. 44o-,,o If
To be sure there was scattering oil
office holders including Florida mayor
who simulated an official hauteur ana
wbose hand shake was reminiscent OF hsh
an the flesh but these persons by CONTRAST
merely served to emphasize the Ray' recA-
less spirit of the camp-a splrlt winch
seemed to say, here is fighter gettlhR
ready to fight another fighter. II ne WINS
ali right and if he loses, who cares'S
I imagine what I am trying to say Is
that there is a camp where no exaggerated
values are placed on the business or the
principals where there are no illusions OF
superior position where a left hook Is a
left hook and nothing more. To the ola
Colonel 1t was refreshing relief and tor
the first time in years / experienced
reborn sentiment for this peculiar species
of suorts whose future seems definitely TO
lie In its return to happy. carefree' dis
solute past.
UT was a delight, for instance, to
hear DR.. Kearns speak in no
mincing terms about the manifold
deficiencies of Sharkey. There was
no attemtp to be nasty-nice.
DR.. Kearns simply stated that IN MS
opinion Sharkey was rat. mug, a no
good gee and that his man Walker woulo
make him jump right out of the ring In
fact" added DIR. Kearns. Il am not al
all sure that the bum Will nave courage
enough to show up"
OF course. all of this is strictly the
hooey. but it Is so different from the
artifcially- polished gents who go In for
fluff and CUFF that 1t is grand to hear.
And Walker himself is attuned to the
same swashbuckling key. He does not
cali himself boxer. but fighter. His is
not q profession, hut racket. To him.
sharkey is not an opponent. but lust
another guy to take care Of" When I
called he was lying down reading book
Don't get me wrong" he pleaded. This
is hot stuff" The title of the book was
"A Passionate Rebel" Walker had read
only a few pages. There was something
about the title that interested him.
walker will be outweighed by thirty
pounds the night he steps into the ring
against Sharkey. For all the build up the
Glib DR.. Kearns has given him in the
public prints, he is stiu a middleweight
Yet he strikes you as supremely con-
fident. Say I've trained for this fight
and when I train I can whip anybody.
he says.
Generally speaking Walker never trains.
BY his own admission he has trained for
only two other fights in he past five years
the fight with Milligan in London and
the fight with Hudkins in Chicago. Il
had to train for this one" he explains
'Sharkey is a big fellow. and I need the
dough"
DR.. Kearns insists the difference in
weights will mean nothing. 1T would
mean something" he admits. IF Mick was
fghting a good fighter. but who is
Sharkey?
The doctor stands in a corner with his
chin hanging over the top rope. while
walker goes through his PAGES. He
doesn't look like the same doctor that had
Dempsey. He has grown gray around the
temples and middle-age sedateness has
moved in to replace his old cockiness and
insouciance. I thought he looked a little
squirting through the sun at his fighter
weary and forlorn as he stood UP there
but that may have been the heat.