The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-08-16
'''''''. Today "''.''.
Sports Parade
BY HENRY McLEMORE

BY HENRY McLEMORE
Omitted Press STAFF Correspondent
New York, Aug 16-(UP)-
When I came to work today there
was little copy-paper note stuck
in my typewriter.
Mas" it read, Joe HUMPHREYS
is in Grasslands hospital. Eastview.
N. Y. He's dying. Maybe you can
do a piece on him Bill"
Yes, Bill, you can do lot OF
pieces on Joe. A million of 'em
He's been around prizefights and
prizefighters for nearly 40 years
and he's damn near a legend
There's one story, Bill, in how Joe.
who always regarded his voice as
a gift from God, nearly split with
Richard when or Tedge insisted
on installing an amplifier for the
Carpenter Dempsey fight. The
night of the fight he just knocked
it aside and yelled the weights and
names natural-like.
There's another in how he
trained his roaring voice for a job
of championship announcing-he
just sat up all night singing songs
in German, Yiddish and Italian
dialect, smoking three or four
packs of cigarets and washing it
down with barrels of beer. There
are still others in how he wor-
shipped George M. Conan and
wouldn't go to show unless the
song and dance man had the lead;
how he idolized Terrible Terry Nc
Govern whom he used to manage;
how he met the murderous situa-
ton at the Benny Leonard-Con
frey lightweight fight when an
excited Colleen jumped on her
chair and, calling to the Irishman,
yelled: Lets murder that Jew"
You could go on forever, Bill.
Joe gave at least a third of his
earnings (and they were plenty, for
Joe was all-time tops at announc-
ing and got $1,000 or more for the
big ones) to down-and-outers. It
was Joe, born and bred in the
toughest business of them all, who
had mothers day as his one hobby.
and who spent his spare time de-
signing mothers day flags. And he
didn't care particularly for fights.
Bill. He announced thousands, and
was known to every fight fan in
the country, but he watched few
bouts. He'd sit and talk, his head
turned away, while they went on.
And he never attended fight un-
less he was Their in a business ca
pacity.
Joe's biggest highland the one
he'll ask you to write about If you
were trying to catch the high mo-
ment of his long and honest career
on paper-came on that sultry eve
ming in 1927 when Sharkey and
Maloney fought at the Yankee sta
dunn. On the same night, Lind
bergh, in the little cockpit Of the
Spirit of st. Louis, was hammering
through the skies toward Paris.
1t was a mean crowd. From the
moment he stepped in the ring to
announce the first preliminary, the
10000 heckled and booed him. The
semi-final finished, Joe began
stalling until the time Shafkey and
Maloney would enter the ring. Fin
ally he had introduced every posi-
BILE ringside celebrity, and still no
sight of Sharkey and Maloney, the
two bitter Irish rivals with bitter
Irish followers. The booing turned
to angry, wild mutterings.
Someone handed Joe a bulletin.
He read it, and raised his hand for
silence.
"Lindbergh is 800 miles from
PARISH he intoned.
The crowd quieted. A deep hush
fell over the stadium.
"Let us, ladies and gentlemen,
Joe said solemnly. ''let us stand
and say a silent prayer"
AS one, the crowd of 10000
arose and faced the ring. Then
Joe said a prayer, his homely red
face bathed in the glare of the
spotlights.
MAY the Almighty God steer the
boy across the ocean and land him
safely at his destination on the
shores of our dearest allied country,
France. Amen
The 10000 stood as though
craven for fully two minutes. and
then sat down,
Joe says it was his greatest mo-
n1ent
They were like children in my
hands. Ill never feel Sc powerful
again"
lcopyrixhk 1885, by United Pxess)