The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-09-18
ADVISE BOXERS
 WEAR HELMETS
Use Would Not Stop Knock0uts, But Would
 Prevent Blindness
RY WILBIiR MOOD

Philadelphia Jack O'Brien has as many suggestions of lnto for the betterment of boxing as porcu. pino has qullls. His latest is one which he admits may cause some of tho boys to think hc is bceom' ing s.ssified. He invites any who have sueh ideas to cull at his gym nasiun, and put on tho gloves O'Brien win attempt to demon strate to any sueh callers that. de. pite his tf,y-aeven years, he still can take good earo of any one who thinks him Il slssy.
 Philadelphia Jacks latest idea is' to have boxers wear helmets some- what similar to thosc generally ugcd in training bouts.
 Anyway, it neems that Bf'eh has noted, in his wander.ng3 along the Queensberry truil that too many deyotees of tho noble art arc blind or goofy, or both. Many per- Sons less observing than Philadel. phin Jack have noticed that, Too many of tho hstle heroes of yester. year arc punch drun5 GOT blind. Among them are not only many run the. .mino geldlators. but top.notehers as well,
 O'Brlen points out that the hu- man skull is thinnest at the tenn. ples and that blows landed there, oven though they do not produce knockouts, bring about small con cussions of tho brain. When these minor eoncussions arc multiplied by thousands the result is u punch drunk state.
 Punches over tho eyes constant ly repeated serve to bring about partial or total blindness. Tho so- called rbbit punch, delivered Ut the base of tho brain, causes paralysis. Tho rabbit punch Is barred by the rules. but few referees enforce It's prohibition.
 So, reasons o'Brien. why not have all boxers In actual combat wear a head guard similar to that used in 'trnining-one that VIII tnko up the shock of punches to the temples, over the eyes and to the base of the brain?
 Still Will' Bc Knockouts
 Philadelphia Jack anticipates an argument to the effect that the use of helmets in fights will prevent knockouts which the customers so dearly love. Not ut all, he replies. The chin, the jaw and the body will still be open for the knockout wallop.
 "Then why are there so few knockouts in gymnasium bouts?' the dissenter may ask.
 Simply because in gymnasium bouts the boxers wear huge, pii- low-like sixtcen-ounce gloves in- stead of five-ounce fighting init tens. If they wore five-ounce gloves in the gymnasium and tried Tor knockouts there probably would be as many genuine hattenings as in actual fights. The customers as we'll as the fighters would be benefited if his idea were adopted, thinks O'Brien. For, he argues, many fights which under the present system must be stopped because one boxer receives a bad gash over an eye would go the route or would be ended only | by a genuine knockout.
 Most of the cuts over the eyes which so often result in the referee stopping the bout are caused by butts and not by punches. How many times have you seen two 1 lighters heads come together and lne of them back out with the | crimson spouting from a deep cut No blow was struck. yet often the | unfortunate fighter shortly there- afte ris declared the loser on what has come to be known as tech nical knockout.
 A recent example was the Pet | rcIle-van Klaveren fight. Whether it was q punch or not that opened the cut over Van Kiaveren's eye which resulted in the abrupt ter- mination of a red-hot fight. much | to the annoyance of the spectators 1t would not have happened had the HoIiander worn a helmet such as is advocated by O'Brien.. Philadelphia Jack points out that in baseball the catcher IS