Harry Wills Articles

Here is one chapter of a harry wills series of articles (i hope i can find the others). This one has him discussing a Jim Johnson fight as well as others. His take on his series with Langford is especially interesting noting that he won nearly every round except those where he was knocked out cold. He also confirms easing up on Langford a little in their later fights. I find it also interesting that he mentions (albeit briefly only) that there were only a really small number of top classed coloured figthers as opposed to white fighters. I think this is often forgotten today when people think of the coloured line.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60967658?searchTerm=mcvey langford &searchLimits=

Chapter 10

 

These are going to be out of order. Here is chapter 2 in the series.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60968098?searchTerm=harry wills &searchLimits=l-title=97

I never knew that Harry was a former Racehorse Jockey!


Here is Chapter 4 of teh series.

It includes Harry Wills professional debut, as a lightweight, in 1907 4 years before the commonly reported 1911 debut! against Congo kid.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60957644?searchTerm=harry wills &searchLimits=l-title=97

 

Here is chapter 8.

Janitor, if you dont like the pro harry wills movement, this one is going to upset you. This does sound like Sam was given a heavy beating in this one. And i wonder how much is in the long count story.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60969096?searchTerm=harry wills &searchLimits=l-title=97

And here is Chapter 3 which deals mostly with Wills continued involvement in horses.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60968678?searchTerm=harry wills &searchLimits=l-title=97

 

Chapter 7

This one has wills talking of his early langford fight as well as the easy time he had in his short 4 round move up north.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60961202?searchTerm=harry wills &searchLimits=l-title=97


Chapter 5 is a good one. it Covers Johnson's sparring session with Wills. And it seems Wills didnt like McVey or johnson very much at all.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60961684?searchTerm=harry wills &searchLimits=l-title=97

 

here is chapter 1 of the series. It is obviously a little biased, because Harry is still trying to get a shot at Dempsey, which does explain a few things, but still, nonetheless he is very scathing of Dempsey. Although it is interesting that he sees Dempsey's decline as playing into his own hands, when in reality Harry Declined equally as quick.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60915766?searchTerm=harry wills &searchLimits=l-title=97

 

missing 9 and 6

Chapter 9
This one is the start of the Jim Johnson story above in chapter 8. It is interesting that Jim Johnson was quite a bit stronger than Wills also, seems to be quite a bit bigger which i didnt realise, before. I dare say that the comments about Johnson beating Jack Johnson might cause a bit of a war between Mendoza and McVey, if either reads it.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/art...imits=l-title=97|||l-decade=192|||l-year=1926

I think that this is the missing chapter 6. It tells of the start of the first Langford fight.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/art...imits=l-title=97|||l-decade=192|||l-year=1926

 

This one is really good. Wills suggests that his KO of Fulton was his second KO of Fulton. It does paint a very easy time of Fulton. I am not sure what chapter number it is.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/art...=97|||l-decade=192|||l-year=1926|||l-month=12

 

Chapter 12

This one discusses his KO of Bill Tate and also a No Contest with McVey who was getting on in age by this time.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/art...=97|||l-decade=192|||l-year=1926|||l-month=12

 

Chapter 13 of the story is here. It is interesting that one of the fixes in the Wills Johnson fight was to give Wills smaller than usual gloves! This resulted in Wills apparently hurting both hands.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/art...=97|||l-decade=192|||l-year=1926|||l-month=12