Some of our readers may not know what happened at Madison Square Garden last Friday night. Here, then, is all the dope, plus what a guy who has been around, like Benny Leonard, has to say on a matter of this sort.
The fights last Friday night at the Garden were the usual soporific affairs that the Garden has been staging for the past three years. The house was asleep. Occasionally the smack of a glove as it hit the canvas would reverberate through the arena. The cries of a few energetic beer and hot dog hustlers, to say nothing of the peanut vendors, could be heard every now and then. The click of the telegraph keys was absent because the press reporters were over in Barney’s. A drunk in the sixteenth row rose to his feet along about the third waltz and tossed a beer bottle into the ring.
Instantly bedlam reigned. The crowd was on its feet. Everybody was looking for beer bottles. In the wild excitement, the bell rang and when the fighters came out for the next fight they were wearing masks and chest protectors. Because there was no fun in throwing beer bottles at protected fighters, the crowd went home disgusted.
RECALLS BOTTLE THROWING AS AN ART DE LUXE
But we’ll have to take it from an old timer like Benny Leonard, that the bottle tossing episode of Friday night was small time stuff, nothing to get excited about, and just so much pop.
“Why, they only threw one bottle,” scoffed Benny, who has seen many of the most important ring engagements of the last twenty years. (Likewise, he has participated in one or two bouts that were rated pretty good.) “For something fancy in the beer bottle throwing line you should have been out in Colorado Springs in 1916, the day Freddie Welsh defended his lightweight title against Charlie White. I was there to get a slant on this Welsh guy.
“Left Hook Charley had his sleep producer working pretty well about that time and he had been putting many good boys to bed for the count. A big crowd had come on from Chicago for the championship match, and this included a number of the gambling element who put their respective bankrolls on White to win.
“The champ was too clever for the challenger and Charley’s dynamite left was turned into a blank cartridge. At the end of the twentieth round the hand of Welsh was raised as the winner beyond all question. I was in the first row, so I ought to know. But gamblers, whether from Chicago or any other place are poor losers. In this case the bet-on-fights gang took it very badly indeed. Hardly had the decision been rendered when the beer bottle barrage started and there was so much beer bottle ammunition you’d have thought they were heaving a brewery into the ring.
“Fortunately, the throwers, like most of the bottles, were loaded and their aim was poor. The idea, making all the fuss they did in the Garden last Friday night,” snorted Benny, “and over one bottle ### Benny, there’s nothing ### old days of sports.
YESHIVA COLLEGE IN SPORTS FIELD
Coach John Mitchell, the basketball mentor of the newly organized Yeshiva quintet, is coaching the court-minded students of the Yeshiva College gratis. Mitchell was formerly the coach of Stevens Tech, in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Yeshiva lost to the City College junior varsity last Saturday night. Nothing daunted, however, they tackle the Manhattan frosh tonight in the Jasper gym at Spuyten Duyvil.
The Yeshiva basketball team has scheduled games with many of the leading freshman and jayvee outfits of Greater New York. They will not play St. Francis College as stated in the Bulletin last week.
KAMINSKY PLAYING GREAT HOCKEY
Max Kaminsky, of the Boston Bruins, is playing great hockey this year. Max played with the Ottawa Senator’s last year and was one of the twenty-five high scorers in the Canadian division. He is one of the few Jewish players in professional hockey … Nels Stewart, the husky center of the same team was reinstated by Prexy Calder, of the National league. Stewart had been suspended after he cracked Dede Klein of the Star Spangled Americans over the head with a hickory stick, precipitating a free-for-all at the Garden last week … Dave Kerr, new goalie for the Rangers, made his debut in New York last week and showed up to perfection. He made forty-one saves during the evening … Les Patrick, manager of the Ranger stick wielders, is highly satisfied with the work of Alex Levinsky, another Jewish speed demon. Alex has been playing inspired hockey all season … Joseph Cooper, one of the youthful Canadians who joined the Crescents this season, recently played against Bill Morton, former all-American backfield ace of Dartmouth University. During the heat of conflict Morton checked Cooper with considerable force. “Say,” said the son of the Dominion, “That’s the hardest body check I ever got in this country. Why don’t you try out for football in some college. A tough fellow like you would do well in that game.” Morton thanked the Jewish lad for his compliment and never cracked a smile.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
