[Boxing Illustr. May 1971]: Sandy Saddler: Prejudice Keeps Me Out of the Hall of Fame

Interesting read.

“Prejudice Keeps Me Out of the Hall of Fame.” Says Sandy Saddler Retired Undefeated World Featherweight Champion. As told to Peter Heller. (pp. 30-33)

Each year more than 30 sports writers and broadcasters cast their ballots and elect new members to the Boxing Hall of Fame. Election to the Hall is considered a great honor by most fighters, second only to the winning of a championship. Election to the Hall is supposed to be based on each man’s greatness as a fighter. Yet one man, unquestionably one of the best fighters of all time in his division, is conspicuously absent from the Boxing Hall of Fame—Sandy Saddler, retired, two time, undefeated featherweight champion of the world.

Sandy has been retired since 1957. In that time, numerous featherweights and lightweights have been chosen for induction, yet Sandy, for unexplained reasons, has always been bypassed. Since Sandy became eligible for selection in 1959, two years after retirement, men like Lew Tendler, Billy Petrolle, Willie Pep, and Lou Ambers have been inducted but Sandy Saddler still waits for this reward most certainly due him. No one connected with the Hall of Fame, either as officers or electors, has ever offered a valid reason for bypassing Saddler, but now, Sandy himself has spoken out on the matter.

Born in Boston in 1926, Sandy fought as an amateur until he developed a reputation that mad it difficult for him to get opponents. He turned pro in 1944, beating Earl Roys in his fight outing on an 8-round decision. IN his next fight, he lost on a TKO when he was outclassed by the more experienced Jock Leslie. It was the only time in more than 160 pro contests that Sandy failed to go the distance. “Jock Leslie TKO’d me in my second professional fight. He didn’t knock me out. He had too much experience for me, and the referee stopped the fight,” said Sandy in a recent interview. But from there, Sandy went on to become on of the most feared and devastating punchers in the featherweight division. Most often, he had to meet lightweights because the feathers wouldn’t get into the ring with him.

“I had about 66 or 67 fights before I got a shot at the title. Today, a guy has 16 fights, and there he is, a title contender already. But then, you had about thirteen clubs going in the New York area. I knocked out Joe Brown. I fought him in his hometown, New Orleans. He was a very good fighter. Then I fought Jimmy Carter in Washington. I remember that well. We fought a ten-round draw. The majority of my fights were with lightweights.”

Sandy captured the featherweight crown for the first time on Oct. 29, 1948 in a stunning upset, when he knocked out Willie Pep in New York.

“At the time, I was number one contender and he had to fight me. I got right on top of him. Archie Moore went to camp with me, and I would box Archie, and he would make moves, and slip, and make clever moves. Archie Moore had a lot to do with me winning that fight. “Sandy,” he said, “Pep is a very clever man, and very fast mover. Now, being that you can punch, stay on top of him. Give Pep no leverage.’ And I stayed on top of Pep, and as he relaxed, I would punch I actually knocked him out, knocked him stoned in the fourth round, laid him out, you could have counted fifty, pal, I’m telling you. He was really clever. I really admired Pep, had a lot of respect for him.”

Then came the second fight in which Pep won the fifteen-round decision on Feb. 11, 1949, when Saddler lost the title.

“It was just one of those things. He put on a very good boxing exhibition. He fought a very good fight, and beat me. Then that third fight (when Sandy became champion for the second time, on Sept. 8, 1950). I stayed on top of him. I was punching more now, doubled up on my punches—dug him to the body, dug him to the head, dug him to the body, didn’t give him no leverage, and I stopped him in the ninth round. I just banged him something terrible.”

There was a fourth fight, in which Sandy retained the title on Sept. 26, 1951, by stopping Pep again. The four-fight Pep-Saddler series is one of the great series in boxing history, and unquestionably the greatest series ever between two featherweights. Among the lightweights Sandy met were Terry Young, who he stopped in 10 rounds, champion Paddy DeMarco, whom he stopped in nine, then dropped two decisions to, champion Lauro Salas, whom he stopped twice, and Charley Riley, whom he decisioned.

He also beat bantam champ Harold Dade, and following a hitch in the Army, defended the featherweight crown against Teddy Davis by decision and Flash Elorde on a 13-round KO, plus beating Ray Famechon by KO in a non-title contest. “Your determination to win makes you a champion,” said Sandy. “You have to lead a clean life. I never drank, never smoked. I lived boxing.”

IN 1956, still at the height of his career, Sandy was ina taxicab accident that resulted in an eye injury which brought on his retirement. He laid off for several months after the accident then early in 1957 announced his retirement as undefeated world champion. But even here, Sandy feels he didn’t get the credit due him. “Pep and I will be a at fight at the Garden, and they’ll say, ‘One of the greatest featherweight champions, Willie Will O’ The Wisp Pep. Then they’ll just say, ‘Here’s another retired champ, Sandy Saddler.’ They never say I’m an undefeated champion.”

Regarding the puzzle over why he is not in the Boxing Hall of Fame, Sandy speaks his mind: “I beat Pep three out of four. I can’t understand how come Pep is in the Hall of Fame and I’m not. I beat this man three out of four fights, yet Pep is in the Hall of Fame, and I’m not. Now you tell me if that isn’t out-and-out prejudice. This country’s just built up on that sort of stuff, and that’s all there is to it. I’ll lay my cards on the table. The black man in this country has to do twice as hard as the white man to gain anything, and when he gets it, for Christ’s sake, they don’t give him the recognition a man should get. That’s the whole thing in a nutshell. What else is it if it isn’t prejudice? Nat Fleischer has a lot to do with this whole affair. He runs the Hall of Fame. I’m angry, because this doesn’t make any sense. I retired before Pep (not counting Willie’s brief comeback—ED. NOTE) and he’s in the Hall of Fame before me. I don’t know what we can do about it. We can just talk on it, that’s all. I don’t understand Fleischer at all, I don’t understand that man at all. What makes him an expert on boxing? Just because he’s old? See I’m not angry at Pep at all. I’m angry at these other people who’re pushing this thing. Pep and I are great friends. He doesn’t have anything to do with it. But one thing, though, he’s white. And when you’re white, you’re right. When you’re black, get back.”

Sandy’s record in the ring was outstanding. He won 144 of 162 bouts, 103 of those wins coming by knockout. He lost just 16 contests. He has never been in any trouble, served his country in the Army, and, in 1968. Along with B.I. Editor Lew Eskin and Carlos Ortiz, Sandy travelled to Vietnam to visit American troops. Today, Sandy still works for the National Maritime Union in New York, as physical director of their beautiful new gymnasium facility. Sandy has been with the N.M.U. since retiring from the ring. Every day he works with youngsters from the Maritime Union school, teaching them how to box, or just how to keep in good physical condition. He guides these youngsters, and serves as an example for them. After all, it’s not every kid that gets a chance to be taught by one of our greatest champions.

Sandy also remains active in boxing, both amateur and professional. He trains the N.M.U. amateur team, and works int eh corner with several fighters at the Garden. His cousin, Dick Sadler, manages heavyweight George Foreman, and Sandy is a trainer for George, whom he calls the next heavyweight champion, and is in his corner for all of the Fighting Corpsman’s Madison Garden main events.

In terms of performance, Sandy has accomplished everything a fighter could want to: a great record, two titles, retiring undefeated, a clean liver, and now a teacher, imparting his boxing knowledge and knowhow to young fighters. All that is missing is his rightful place in the Boxing Hall of Fame. But that is out of his hands. All he can do is keep pushing, and hope that enough closed eyes and minds are opened, by stories like this and by the fans around the world, so that a place in Boxing’s Hall of Fame will be his when the next vote is taken.

 

I wonder if the article generated enough buzz in boxing circles to force Fleischer et al. to act?

 

What are the most plausible alternative explanations for Saddler being treated like a second-class stepchild by the boxing establishment?

 

Was his sparring with Archie Moore common knowledge? Kind of cool that he credited Moore with giving him the advice that helped him knock Wille Pep out cold. Seems rare to see boxers give other boxers such kudos.