The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-19
TALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

NEW YORK, Nov. 1s.-One of
4 v the few Republicans who sur
viyed the recent tidal wave of let's
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS was Warren Bar
bour Of New Jersey. For better or
worse, for laughs or tears, Barbour
was sent back to the senate.
OF interest to us in sports is the
fact that Barbour used to be prize
fighter. AS an amateur heavy
weight, he drew down such prizes
as belts, medals, watches and what
viii the little boy with the blue
Windsor tie have tonight.
Barbour was the son Of a very wealthy
unread manufacturer. He didn't have to
BEht. He fought because he thought IT.
was fun. He was before my time. but the
boys who saw him say ne was good. They
even say he was good enough to make a
go OF II in the professional ring.
can imagine this was true. At the
same time. ! think it Is unkind. Barbour
was OF the period which produced the
Palzers and the Carl MorriSes, any one of
whom | am sure Mahatma Gandhi could
estill II would hsve been i1 ~ ls, N
see him make a try Of IL. There have
beer, so many promising amateur heavy
weights and there have been so many who
failed To my knowledge only one ever
reashed the top That was James Cor
hctt All the other great heayyweights
we're professionals practically from the
And even in the case Of corbett. there
we're extenuatinR circumstances He was
a member OF an industrious. ambitious
Irish family. family that insisted that he
become business man. At heart Corbett
eo a aT pb NJ Snsy mai H ne kneT Re
wanted to do. He knew he could lick
Sullivan.
amateur in sports has a monopoly on
spirit. and there is no sport with the pos
sible exception Of football that places a
higher permium on spirit. For that rea-
osn, 1t has always been a puzzle to me
that the amateur heavyweight has always
fallen short when put to the test.
THIS brings me up to the news
4 of the day.
read that Steve Hamas has
signed for a fight in Newark against
a pop-over. Hamas is making
come back. I think he is about "a
years old. He is product of Penn
State, where he was in all around
athlete. About year ago he cleo
trif1ed the boxing world by knocking
out Tommy Loughran.
l saw the night. It was a finished per-
torrance UP to that time the Broadway
hangers-on didn't know much about
Hamas. To them he was lust big
healthy guy who was never late for his
There was concerted rush to muscle
IN IT developed he had already signed
contract with Charley Harvey They
call Harvey one of the three honest men
in the racket. Ask them to name the
other two and-well, the answer is Lets
zee now, there is what's his name"
Anyway, the kid had decided he wanted
TO be a prize fighter He looked over
the field. He decided Harvey was the
man he wanted to be with He sought
out Harvey and asked him to take him.
BY degrees, Harvey worked him up to the
Loughran match, talked to Harvey be-
fore the fight
:. Don't be surprised if this fight doesn't
last a round ne warned
rs he that bad" / demanded
Harvey was almost right 1t didn't last
much longer. Hamas knocked Tommy cold
But since then Hamas has done very
little. An old football injury came back
on him He had to retire. During his re-
tirement he lost Is pounds. That Indicates
to me that the injury is not superficial. I
doubt that he can come back I'm afraid
he Is through Just when he was starting
So what? Well, 1t appears that even
when you have a good amateur heavy
weight something is bound to stop you.
Either he has millions like Barbour, or
else he, carries grim heritage from the
football fields.