The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-04-09
TALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

NEW YORK, April 9-The boys
L ' we're sitting around chattering
about William Harrison Dempsey
and with him. You may remember
the gentleman better as Jack Demp-
sey, the prize fighter.
Some one asked Mr.. Dempsey
what was the funniest experience
he ever had in the prize ring.
I was in a show once" he re-
piled, and what 1 read and was
told, that must have been my fun
nieSt experience.
Not not that Il Is entirely apropos. but
time the outcome was 50 SURPRISING ano
accepted The suspicion that the champion
A MAGAZINE article. semi-hctional in
SnsIacter. sought 70 portray the back stage
having received the title on carved
ep0ny serving trav.
a. Your eorrespondent happened to be IN
ane COMPANY OF Mr.. William Gibson. man
aeer Of Tunney. the dav the magazine
came pounding on the press. His char
acteristic comment sized up Dempsey. the
lighter. so perfectly that I And nvseIf
rewriting II much too often:
~ Inat pig guy couldn't throw a fight II
:. And ! don't believe he could. though it
Is, mater TER Of record that he did take one
wears ago The books credit tn Fl yxlV With iGns
one round knockout. Actually, it was the
o oid. MicG s Dempsey explained the in
-" That hat was the only way !, could get
Sne ngnt me ne s ss5d II vas busted and
money in the world to me then"
flush TO the DEMPSEY iowis or an aching
lW1nUr
.. 1t was a real knockout" he insisted.
u made sure Of that I put my law where
4iynn couldn't miss"
GETTING back to the show in
" which Dempsey was starred,
the stooge was supposed to go out
in the second round. Naturally, it
was up to Dempsey to pull his
punches. 1t meant nothing to him
to knock out stage hand.
An odd thing happened a few
nights before the show closed.
Ralph Smith was on the stooge.
An old ball player, if you remem-
Der. They used to print pictures
of him biting nails, bending horse
shoes, and all that sort of stuff.
They called him the iron man of
baseball.
Well. Dempsey hooked him to the chin IN
I the second round Il didn't seem TO be
good theatrical grunt behind it to make
everything look all right for the customers
IL developed. though. that there was much
s ssy power yer ,Penalho the punch than Demp-
Our Pal Smith was supposed to 20 out
few, seconds, after the second round
Smith was still on his feet swinging
punches, Another minute passed and he
was still standing up fighting with both
He was strictly against the manuscript.
Pretty well winded himself BY now. Demp-
on down. this IS the second round. Don't
YOU know you are supposed to drop" But
TO throw punches until the bell sounded.
smelling salts. He had been Knocked out
out on, his feet by real left hook.
Smith had no recollection OF lighting the
second round. SO the dramatic action of
Dempsey and the challenger went through
the motion OF Knockout in an extra round
DEMPSEY still thinks he could
~ have whipped Tunney in his
earlier days. This is a point on
which expert opinion of the ring,
such as it is, is sharply divided.
Group A insists Tunney would have
whipped Dempsey at Toledo, then
admittedly at his peak. Group B
thinks otherwise, If at all.
Dempsey was at the ringside the
night Tunney fought his last fight
against Tom Heeney. 1t was the
first heavyweight championship
fight Dempsey had ever looked at,
and the first one of its species since
1919 in which he wasn't a principal.
-, Dempsey rarely comments on any fight.
something Of a professional diplomat But
he professed to be shocked that guy
IKE Heeney could hang around as long as
didn't stop him in two or three rounds
TuinIney q course was not that kind of
a fighter. He didn't 60 in for quick knock
voted to those chaste intervals Of feint-
ing and holding that, the boxing guild en-
phasizes And ! might add. If he had
have flattened Dempsey in two or three
rounds that night in the rain at Phila-
Tunnev wrote recently that he was at
his height In battling with Heeney; that
never before had he reached such high
Tunney could have looked lust as impress
sive against a large punching bag, mean
to say ANYBODY could have looked very
I agree with Dempsey then. when he says
that he was surprised that battler OF
Heeney's mediocritv could qualify as
finalist in heavyweight championship.
''Rickard asked me to go out to Heeneys
tdr 2i Ing camp car, one day SAYS Dempsey.
II liked Tex and l wanted to see the
show 20 over. l had never seen Heenev.
| took one look at him and turned my
head. No kidding. 1 did. The guy had
Dempsey was reminded that he had said
he thought he could have whipped Tun-
"of course, can't be sure about that"
Still the way I look at it is that all
] needed was a good pair OF legs against
him. and I didn't have them the two
times we fought I always was a harder
puncher and think. could stand up under
II am pretty sure I would have got him
in Chicago in the eleventh round II I
could have moved around on my legs.
Placed in the same situation back in my
earlier fighting davS-Sav at Toledo against
Willard-and I am positive would have
knocked him out"
terp II was Willard that Dempsey fought
at Toledo. not Tunnev, And II Dempsey's
legs we're bad at Chicago. can that be
held against Tunnev? or ziegfeld? or Babe
Ruth? or what have YOU. and who cares
~ IN