Cocoa Kid -A Mystery No More.

I read it and what I saw was a claim that I was disputing that "Hardwick fought in Ohio in the Freddie Miller Stable." Where did I dispute it? Asking to see a source is not 'disputing' it. My mind is wide open.

Locating the photograph of Cepero is impressive, and I congratulate you for it -but what does it prove?

DeLisa states that you and he "believe that careful research needs specific documentation" and that is agreeable -however, you seemed to get defensive when I questioned the value of a single line from a questionable source claiming that Cocoa Kid ended up a wino on the streets. Again, Cocoa Kid may have ended up that way -I don't know. But if I went and stated that as a fact, I'd be irresponsible and it wouldn't be "careful research." Most importantly to those of us who do this, it wouldn't be fair to the memory of Cocoa Kid.

Now, if there was more evidence asserting the wino claim, that's a different story. My mind is open!

The Ohio article, taken alone, can mean a few things. It can mean that there was another Lewis Hardwick who fought out of Ohio and was in Miller's stable. It can mean that Lewis Hardwick of Atlanta was in Ohio at the end of 1931 but back in Atlanta soon thereafter. Taken alone, it isn't disproving anything in "Just Watch Mah Smoke."

You and Delisa are on record claiming that you believe that the Louis Hardwick born in 1910 and died in Ohio in 1976 was the same Hardwick campaigning in Atlanta in the late 20s and early 30s.

That is wrong.

Here is Ohio Hardwick's death record:

Name:Louis W Hardwick
Birth Date:1910
Gender:Male
Race:White
Residence City:Dayton
Residence County:Montgomery
Residence State:Ohio
Residence Country:United States
Death Date:13 Oct 1976
Hospital of Death:Home
City of Death:Dayton
County of Death:Montgomery
Certificate:075794
Age at Death:66
Certifier:Physician
Autopsy:No Autopsy performed
Marital Status:Married
Census Tract:0010

This Louis Hardwick is not the Atlanta fighter of the same name in the late 20s and early 30s. This man was white. The Atlanta Hardwick was a "colored" figher on segregated, "all-colored" cards in the deep South.

My mind is open. Is either of yours?

 

Hardwick was in West Palm Beach, Florida in the winter of 1932. He was sparring and according to matchmaker Gabe Menendez in The Washington Post (6/12/40), he was fighting for $20 a fight -which was the most a black fighter can command. He was a "scrawny kid with the fastest left hand I ever saw," said Menendez.

Herbert Lewis Hardwick was 17. Cepero would have been 25.

Now if you read Part 2, you would have read about a New Haven institution by the name of Harry Durant coming down there for the winter, seeing Hardwick sparring, and luring him up north. That was in the spring of 1932. Thus Hardwick became Cocoa Kid. [Palm Beach Post, 2/21/43; Bridgeport Connecticut Sunday Herald 4/28/57]

 

Yes, the Atlanta papers referred to him as "Lew" and "Lou." Joe Louis began his career being referred to as Joe "Lewis." So we see that the papers, taken alone and in and of themselves are often not enough to establish facts.

 

I can't say it was the most pivotal moment in his career, only that it might have prevented him from having a pivotal moment in his career. There's more shadiness coming so that aspect of his story isn't over yet.

Williams is in the dressing room. He'll appear in Part 5.

 

I did not find any results from Florida -in fact, the only hint I have that he even fought down there is that piece from the Post. I found no photo of Hardwick in any Atlanta papers, though that wasn't surprising. The Atlanta Constitution didn't have too much to say about the "negro" bouts. It describes him as a busy puncher, "agile," "popular" in the black community and that he "packs a mean left and his right is equally dangerous."

Not at all. A sixteen year old kid is perfectly able to become a father -it happens in high school across America constantly.

Danny Davis may well have functioned as Hardwick's manager for that fight in Mayaguez in '30 and remained so in '31. However, that Hardwick isn't the guy who died in '76.

Like I said before, I have a Herbert L. Hardwick and an E.A. Robinson listed as passengers on a ship coming from San Juan to the states in October 1930. Hardwick and Robinson list the same address right there on Auburn Ave in Atlanta. Every other passenger aboard has a Spanish name. That is the Hardwick who became Cocoa Kid. An article from the Holyoke Daily Transcript and Telegram -circa 5/1933- confirms that this same Robinson was his uncle who first managed him in Atlanta, raised him after his parent died, and had a hand in his affairs in New Haven, Connecticut.

This Herbert Lewis Hardwick is Cocoa Kid. Any theory that would deny it is going to have to uncover a vast conspiracy discrediting many different sources. That conspiracy doesn't exist.

There is another answer. Keep reading the series and it will all come together.

 

Well, like I said before- I have been familiar with your theory for years (and your well-earned status in the boxing world!). I thought it was very interesting and sensible.

This series shouldn't be taken as a challenge to either you or DeLisa or anyone else. I only hoped to uncover the truth as best I can to honor the memory of a great and forgotten fighter.

 

Durant was a judge, a state senator, a lawyer, an angler, a manager of stage stars, a world traveller, and an author as well as a boxing aficionado.

He wrote a book of boxing stories that I believe he wrote himself as a young man. The title of it? "Wallops"