What a past fw years for terrific boxing books !

"Ochs' book is going to better than just good. Its going to be a very important part of boxing history. Its amazing."

I've read drafts of many chapters of this work as well and agree wholeheartedly with the above statement.

 

There was an absolutely hilarious article about Jack Hurley by Jack Olsen in the May 15, 1961 edition of Sports Illustrated. You can access the article on the internet.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Can anybody believe that Jack Hurley has not been inducted into the International Boxing
Hall of Fame? I can't. What is the story?

- Chuck Johnston

 

There are several people not in the hall that should have been long ago and several in the hall that shouldnt have been inducted.

 

There is a new Tyson book out ("Undisputed Truth")- basically an autobiography. I heard Tyson talk about stuff from the book and it sounded absolutely interesting.

 

My copy arrived this morning. I'm holding off reading it right now because it's my December book for when I'm on leave. I'm so damn tempted to read it right now, but I'll wait.

Just thumbing through it, I was a tad disappointed that some of the photos in there are ones freely available on the 'net. There are one or two interesting ones, like one of his father, but in the main I found the photos a bit of a letdown.

One photo I found really interesting is one of him flat on his back, being counted out in the Lewis fight. Normally in Bio's, a fighter will try and downplay the losses and rather concentrate on the fights he won, so I find it very interesting that Tyson has a full colour photo of himself in this most unflattering position.

 

Two more arrived yesterday afternoon.

Come Out Smokin' by Phil Pepe, about quite obviously, Joe Frazier. I'm going to hold off reading this one for a little bit as well and save it for later.

The one I'm currently busy with is The Tommy 'The Duke' Morrison Story, by Charles H. Hood, as told by Dawn Morrison Brady, who shared 13 years with Tommy.

It tells the story as cobbled together by her diary, of which she made nearly daily entries during their time together. What's different about this book is that is focuses very little on boxing, and is more about Tommy the man and her life with him.

It's fascinating in many ways, because it tells the story of a Morrison who had a boyish grin, a kind and gentle nature, and a man generous to a fault, often walking down a street and handing out wads of cash to the homeless and anyone else in need.

It also tells of a Morrison with a hair trigger temper, who when in times of stress, was prone to bouts of verbal and physical abuse. Lastly, it tells of Morrison the playboy, who after a fight would go on benders with his 'crew' (hangers-on) lasting weeks at a time, imbibing huge quantities of alcohol and drugs, and sleeping with any and every woman he deemed attractive, boasting over 1,000 conquests.

Morrison led a wild and crazy life, no doubt about it. He had two women in his life, both called Dawn, and on weekends he'd stay with the one and on weekdays he'd stay with the other, not exactly keeping one a secret from the other. He trained hard for fights by the sounds of it, but he consumed massive amounts of alcohol and drugs in between, and he was not at all shy about sleeping with an endless succession of attractive women, having a particular fondness for strippers, even when living with the two Dawns, who were referred to as D1 and D2.

The young lady telling the story seems to be a hopeless romantic who only wanted to see the good in Tommy as she was deeply in love with him, and although from the sounds of it Tommy treated her like a princess and was very good to her, there are times when you feel like shaking her and telling her to get the hell out of there.

Funnily enough, Tommy never comes across as unlikeable at all...just as a selfish but loveable rogue who lived life on his terms. I'm less than halfway into the book, but it's been an extremely entertaining read so far. I would definitely recommend it.

 

A recent book out this year that is one of my favorite ever read is about The Saganaw Kid himself. George "Kid" LaVigne. You can get it at Amazon and really enjoy his career and the times of finish and long-distance fights. Easily top 10 of boxing bios I've read.

 

" Muscle and Mayhem: The Saganaw Kid and the Boxing World of the 1890's " by Lauren Chouinard. Great book if you like your boxing violent.

 

That's a good "heads up" about a real fighter.:good

 

I can't wait for it.

 

Just finished the Morrison book. I had no idea Tommy had it so bad during the last few months of his life; there are times that you wish that, if you could make a difference to someone's life, you would. That's how I felt towards the end of the book.
I had to choke back a few because he went through utter hell. A warrior like him deserved better.
R.I.P. Tom.

 

Darn on me! Sorry I did not reply to this sooner.

Here are some more photo gems of fistic nostalgia:



[url]http://www.vintag.es/2013/05/old-photos-of-boxing-100-years-ago.html[/url]

 

my current reading:

[url]http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/t/the-longest-fight/9780374280970_custom-7538721b9041451911a1384029bcea5b0433bbbd-s2-c85.jpg[/url]




The Longest Fight - bio of Joe Gans

 

I can see what Herb Goldman meant on both points, unless your regurgitating Ali and Co, Tyson, Jack Johnson and that period the 4 Kings Era and are an Established Newwsman Reporter type like Hauser, it is hard to get 'general' interest in Boxers Stories...

the other point MOST of them do let down, I had over 70 of them and from a Readers point and for Human Interest very few of them rated.

the most clever one I thought was Stephan Blunt's "Facing Ali" from the perspective of his opponents, with interesting mini bio's thought and feel of the times/opponents frame of mind. Clever well written and interesting.

the rest some were good as a fan, Men of Steel, Boxing Babylon and Doughty's book on McAvoy... I will be picking up JJWalcott's and Lloyd Marshall's story out of personal interest, but out side of that so many have been a let down, my days of buying them are near gone.

IF a real highly praised one comes along I will obviously consider it, but for my money it has to be a 'lesser known great' revived and full of the times, period, psyche of the fighter(s) & the times as well as injected with visual flavour and scenes of what was going on based on ACTUAL Reports and reports of life then too.

In other words well written, Fact & Interest for a proper Human Interest story worthy of the Big Screen. and I do have to say the 'we' MacFarlane and me made that our mandate in bringing Gilroy's story to life and had nothing but praise, success and applause in the doing so.

P.S its mainly because Boxing is all but dead as a mainstream sport that most of these don't go much further, as I've said before IF I had the lose change I would be making a couple of Boxing Documemtaries, I've got 2 sure fire winners that would go mainstream despite a dead sport... no spare pennies nor prper connections hard as I've tried I still can't access that one person, because thats all it takes, that ONE right party.