The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-10-15

IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

NEW YORK, Oct. Isl looked
IN UP from my desk and there
stood a round-faced gentleman with
a quizzical smile, blue eyes that
danced and a nose that tilted up
ward a trifie at the end.
Where are those gray hairs
you've been Dragging about" he
cracked. You can't take it, EN-. I
always said this was weakling's
age"
The gentleman took off his bowler
hat, laid his cane across a chair
and sat down
You know will be 81 in a couple
Of months and I never felt better
In my life. I'm even thinking
about coming back in the ring"
II was Jack McAulne taking. the
County Cork Irishmsn, who won the
lightweight championship OF the world in
me way-back days and then retired I'M
McAulins laughed. Imagine me coming
back after what happened TO Leonardo
! agreed laugh was in order. There
e a slight difference in their ages. Leonard
And besides" continued the dapper
little man who in some odd way re-
minds you Of an English bookmaker, I've
regained my old distinction and so I
guess I had better hold to it with hooks
Of steel"
BY this he meant he is again the only
undeieated lightweight champion in cap
tivity. Technically. Leonard who also re-
tired indicated, may beg to differ. but
the Jewish boy came back at a heavier
weight and was knocked out McAuliffe
look better in the ledger Of time
n
4 WAS curious to know why
Il McAuliffe had never come back.
Many champions retire, but prac-
tically all of them come back.
Wasn't he ever tempted to come
back? Didn't the fight fans of his
day urge him to come back?
Wasn't there that persistent entice-
ment to take one more f1ing-to
rake in one more pot-that ulti-
mately lures all of them back?
mo, I never seriously thought about
coming back" said McAuliffe. when I
hung up the gloves after meeting Kid
Layigne in 1896 knew 1 was beginning
to slip, SO said to myself: Young
fellow Il was young once, no kidding you
had better get out Of here before some
one Ne 3 aai,T you r out And SO out got +"
allurements to come out of retirement
we're much easier to resist in those days
than they are now. There we're no big
Sometimes you fought for hours and got
nothing.
People are criticising Leonard for com
900, said McAuliffe. "Can you imagine
what they would have said about my in
telligence II I had come back for cup Of
coffee-and with no real assurance of
getting even that?"
The records show McAulife never was
defeated. But the records are incomplete
THESE things are no longer important TO
McAulffe. He is much more interested
in how the bosses are running Frankly
and with vast good humor he admits that
on more than one occasion he got away
The Englishman. Jim Carney, for in
stance, was giving him a rousing beating
when gentlemen who had bet on McAuliffe
broke into the ring and stopped the fight.
In those days 1t was the custom of fight
ers TO carry gangs with them. If the
fighter couldn't win maybe his gang could.
IT WISH to state" said McAuliffe,
Il that when 1 was in the bust
ness had the best gang in Amer
lea With due modesty, must say
that I was that kind of a champion.
Nothing but the best in anything
would do"
The Carney fight was the longest
and the hardest McAuliffe ever had.
He astonishes you when he says he
went into the fight to win by
Knockout in ten rounds or stay up
all night" What manner of men
were those old timers who could
gear themselves both for a sprint
and marathon at the same time?
McAulffe failed to tag Carney in ten
rounds. The fight was in the seventy
fourth round when the mobsters began
TO function. Something happened in that
fight that is still a mystery to McAuliffe
He couldn't hit Carney with a left hand.
II was his best hand and Carney was
Il would sit in the corner and say to
tmyself, You can hit him with your left
It's easy. just walk out and do it And
then l would walk out and miss The
original Jack Dempsey was in my corner
ing: What If he thought I was Yellow"
McAulif1e paused to adjust his multi
colored cravat and to wipe his hands with
Yes, what if my friend thought I was
yellow? Well. do you know l got to wor-
rying so about that that I practically
quit fighting altogether and from then
on 1t was all could do to keep Carney
IL was fortunate circumstance that my
gentlemen admirers broke down the ring
when they did otherwise"
McAuliffe got up to 60.
two hundred years from now" he laughed
raising the ante you will note, an even
hundred.