Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-03-23
When Butte Had 3 Worlds
Title Bouts in Single Week

q resident Of Butte, out-talked and
out-maneuvered the other managers,
so he landed the holiday date,
The first and second bouts listed
were held at Sutton's Broadway
theater, while the July 4 bout was
staged at the old baseball park, not
the one then used by the Butte club
Of the Pacific Coast league.
All Knock0uts
The win-nahs and champ-eens,
Ryan, Walcott and Cans won their
bouts by knockouts. The Ryan-WIlte
bout was called a fake"
Abe Cohen was manager Of the
Silver Bow club. Billy Nolan was
matchmaker for the Montana Athletic
club. Nolan later became famous as
manager Of several champions. James
r. Murphy was manager Of the Broad
way Athletic club Murphy refereed
the bout between Ryan and Willie.
Dune" Macdonald was third man"
in the other two championship
matches.
Jack johnson, who was to become
worlds heavyweight champion a few
years later, was with the Wolcott en-
courage. The late Billy Gibson, man
ager of Gene Tunney and many other
great boxers, was in Butte as manager
of Willie. Jerry Mccarthy was training
Nose LaFontiSe; Cans was managed
by Al Hereford; his opponent, Buddy
King, by Joe Lucas: Cans and King
were colored boys.
Just three weeks previously, two
stellar ring attractions were staged in
one day when OKeefe-Britt and
Herrera Broad furnished the milling.
That year Butte had plenty of boxing,
good baseball, wrestling, trotting pac-
ing and running races as well as dog
racing. Butte was the most sports
minded city in America Big shots in
all lines of sports were constantly ar
irving and departing.
Leads Coast League Clubs
Besides basking in the pugilistic
spotlight, Butte was also prominent
on the baseball map. The Butte club
during boxing week" was leading the
Pacific Coast league. The circuit was
made up of teams representing Butte,
Helena, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Port
land. Walter Wilmot was manager Of /
the Butte club. Pete Bowling, Roach, |
Bandelin and Thomas were the pitch |
the n1ainStayS. Piggy Ward was play
ing second base for Butte and he was
B great idol with fans all over the |
circuit.
That well-dressed man of today, |
Jack Flannery, was manager Of the !
Helena team. He resigned the pilots I
Job In June, but IN July he received a |
call from the Tacoma club and fin |
shed the season parading the outfield /
for the lumberjackS. Jack is now an |
Inspector for the Montana liquor board. |
For many years he was Butte fire
man. Whenever he stepped to the plate |
In any city league, the fans always
yelled fire For 10 years he was chief |
Of police at Helena and later was fire
chief at the Great Falls smelter for
eight years. Old-time fans will tell you
that Butte had great baseball team
hat year and that the Pacific Coast
eague was the fastest of all minor
Met by the Band
When Ryan came to Butte, the
Boston and Montana band was en-
gagged to Serenade him at the train.
This was considered good publicity, de-
signed to create as much interest as
possible in the first of the three sched-
lled championship bouts: Willie had
arrived a week before Ryan, when
The three clubs were all figuring ON
staging shows on the holiday date.
Ryan trained at the Nine-Mile and
confined his activities to road work
and shadow boxing Willie set up camp
1t P1peStone Springs. Willie, q 1856
FOUNDER, had wins over Young Peter
Jackson, AL Weinig, and drew with
Kid Carter. They were the high spots
If his record sheet before he tangled
With the champion. Ryan, holder Of
he middleweight title, was really a
never scaling above las
pounds. He was a great, even fancy
Boxer and had gained prominence by
Jeffries the fine points Of
he game.
Incidentally, Jeffries and Corbett
we're scheduled to fight in August for
he heavy title. Jeffries, the champion,
7yan's former protege, was not picked
~ Tommy TO win that bout, as he
favored Corbett's cleverness to be the