Any thoughts on Hurley, who managed from Billy Petrolle all the way up to white hoper Boone Kirkman? He did some promotion, also, including one of the Zale Graziano bouts. Of his notable heavies, Rademacher, Matthews and Kirkman, he sure seemed eager to throw them to wolves. Other than that, any insights?
That was the set that Klompton was going on about, right? I'm doing the Shelby Foote Civil War series right now. Don't know if I'll have that kind of commitment in me again anytime soon.
Right, I ve just read Sutree again,Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by K Dick ? and Stalin's Ghost by Cruz Smith ,halfway through A Good man In Africa by Boyd .Due to begin a history book after that.Catastrophe Europe Goes To War 1914 by Max Hastings.
Blood Meridian for me, that and then All The Pretty Horses,I enjoyed reading Sutree again. Yes I'm retired,going to Lisbon Wednesday until Saturday,my Partner's birthday.
I thought that Sutree was a significant divergence in style. Blood Meridian is great but much in the line of his other works. I'm a big fan of his earlier works, Child of God and the Orchard Keeper. If I still lived in Lisbon I would offer to buy you and yours a beverage or two. Sadly, I am far away.
Yes you told me, I just thought I'd mention it because I know you were based there for a time.I'm looking forward to it I love fish and have been given the names of a couple of good restaurants to try and the Gulbenkian art gallery is supposed to be excellent.We went to Porto a couple of years ago and enjoyed it, but the food was basically either cod or sardines and the houses are drab grey unless you are around the harbour.Not sure how I will negotiate all the hills,[I've recently had blood clots in my leg and lungs,]but we won't be in any hurry and I can use the funicular.
Jack Hurley was one of the greatest all-around boxing men ever and a fabulous character. John Ochs' massive three-volume biography of Hurley may be best one that has been written about a boxing figure. As far as I know, Hurley has not been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, a very glaring omission. - Chuck Johnston
Seamus, I have to take issue with Hurley throwing his fighters to the wolves. Rademacher was not Hurley's fighter. He managed himself and he orchestrated the Patterson fight entirely by himself. He, in fact, was the one who hired Hurley to handle the details of the Patterson fight. Hurley laughed at Rademacher and tried to discourage him from fighting Patterson, but Pete raised the money from some investor friends and was determined to go through with the fight. Rademacher told Hurley that if he wouldn't stage the fight, Pete would find someone else who would. I talked with Matthews and he was grateful to Hurley for everything he did. I asked Matthews if he regretted fighting Marciano in an elimination for the heavyweight title instead of fighting Maxim for the light-heavyweight title, and he said absolutely not. He received what were considered huge purses at the time for his fights with Marciano, Layne, and Cokkell (3x). He had been fighting for peanuts for 12 years before he met Hurley and was about ready to chuck it all at the time It is more than likely than except for Hurley's management of Boone Kirkman that Kirkman would have gotten knocked off before he ever made it to the Top Ten. Hurley's job was to give his fighters a chance to succeed. He came within a whisker of obtaining a heavyweight title fight for Kirkman with Joe Frazier right after Joe's defense against Manuel Ramos, but Boone broke his collarbone in training at the time the match was being negotiated and was effectively out almost two years (except for one fight with Bill McMurray after which he broke it a second time). Up until the time of his collarbone injury, Boone was fighting at the highest level he would ever achieve, IMO. After Kirkman finally recovered, Hurley decided to take the most direct approach possible to the big time because of Boone's fragility. After four tune-up fights, Hurley was able to land Boone the shot against Foreman at the Garden. If Kirkman had defeated Foreman, he would have been in line for a title shot. We all know that Foreman stopped Kirkman in two rounds, but if you look at George's record around that time, he was in the middle of a run of 24 straight kayos, of which 15 were registered within two rounds. Two of those two-round kayos came in title defenses against Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, so it can be argued Kirkman did no better or worse than either Frazier of Norton against Foreman at that time. Hurley and Kirkman parted ways after the Foreman fight, and what happened next? Kirkman returned to his training after a few months and immediately broke his collarbone again, resulting in another lay-off of over two years and thus vindicating Hurley's judgment in pursuing the Foreman so quickly. After Boone continued his career in 1973, he never came anywhere near as close to a title shot as he did with Hurley. You can read the entire story about Hurley's management of Matthews, Rademacher, and Kirkman in Volume Three of my Hurley trilogy. I am selling hardbound copies directly, or you can buy softbound copies from Amazon. Each volume is complete in itself so you can choose the period in Hurley's life which you find the most interesting. You don't have to buy the full set to understand what is going on. Each volume is as much a history of boxing during the relevant time period as it is a biography of Hurley's life.
Awesome. Thanks so much for the response. I only know the superficial facts of Hurley, seeing his name over and again for decades. Between you and the other folks here, I am sold. After slogging thru 3,000 pages on Civil War, I will move on to Hurley. Now, I just need to be Burgess Meredith in my bank vault.
If I wanted to be a fighter, there wouldn't be any hesitation on my part to be managed by Jack Hurley. Yes, Hurley demanded fifty percent of his fighters' net earnings, but he mastered every facet of the boxing business and worked incredibly hard for his fighters. - Chuck Johnston
