Johnson & Jeannette's Common Opponents

All three if them deserved a title shot. You could argue Jeff Clark. You could argue Gunboat Smith. Smith cold clocked Johnson when he was a champion in 1909 in a 4 round exhibition match in addition to beating men that Johnson gave title shots.

 

This tired ass story again...atsch

 

The topic of the spelling of Sam McVea's (or MacVea) last name came up in this thread. While thumbing thru some old Boxing Collectors Newsletters the other day I came across issue number 109 in August of 1997 that addressed this subject. Here's part 1 of the content of that article titled 'The Colored Globetrotter, Sam MacVea Discovered at Last' The next two parts will follow:

"The muscular black man in the tailored suit pauses midway in his stroll across the bridge and thinks of home. This place is on the other side of the world but it has become his entire world now. Free of the prejudices that assaulted him in his native land, he now free to associate with whomever he wants. His friends include Pablo Pacasso, Gertrude Stein, Arthur Craven, Leon See and the popular cyclist, Major Taylor, another black expatriate.

He muses that he is considered the most popular boxer in France. When he fights, and fight he does, thousands come to see him. He remembers his last fight and that 3,000 came out to meet him at the train station after the fight. He remembers that he has not shared that experience with his beloved sister back in his native California. At the end of the bridge here in Orleans, there is a souvenir stand with color postcards. He stops and writes his recollection on the back of the card. Later he will mail the card to his sister with some others he has saved in an envelope to avoid damage in the mail. He signs it, "Sam Mac Vea Paris."

Sam Mac Vea was born a lion in a time of lions but also in a time of racial turmoil and distrust in this country. His birth date is given as 1885 and the place of his birth was Oxnard, California. His very first listed fight was with the great Jack Johnson in 1903. Mac Vea lost that 20 round decision but he was recognized as a rookie who was in against a consummate pro and that loss did much for his reputation. JOhnson was severely tested.

Jack Johnson would be a part of Mac Ve's life from that day to Sam's death in 1921. After Johnson gained the heavyweight championship in 1908, he promptly refused to fight Mac Vea, Sam Langford or Joe Jeannette. These were the top three heavies of the day and his refusal was based, ostensibly, on their poor drawing power. Since all were black. But Sam and Jack remained friends. Mac Vea was a Johnson sparring partner often and including Jack's ill-fated defense against Willard in Cuba. When Mac Vea died in 1921, it was Jack Johnson who raised the money to give Sam Mac Vea a proper burial (but it was collector Ben Hawes who would see to it he had a proper headstone).

MacVea beat Kid Carter and Denver Ed Martin (in less than a minute) after that first loss to Johnson and suddenly his name was all around the sport. But the big white guys were getting leery and that spelled inactivity for Mac Vea.

 

Part II:
"He had 20 round loss to Johnson and a ten round loss to Martin the latter of which he then avenged with a four round kayo in 1906, just before setting sail for the continent.

France was particularly ripe for black athletes, especially boxers. Frank Erne had popularized the sport at the turn of the century in that country, starting a boxing club there. The French had no history of racial prejudice and while blacks were seen as somewhat "exotic," were apparently treated very well. These things made France attractive for Sam Mac Vea.

But Sam would not limit himself to France during his career. He could be found boxing or wrestling in Monaco, Portugal, Australia, South America, Cuba and Panama. He earned his name, "The Colored Globetrotter," honestly.

France was also attractive to Joe Jeannette and Sam Langford and, while the local competition was pretty thin, these two fighters of color made for some very interesting fights on the continent for Sam Mac Vea.

The most interesting of these fights was the legendary fight between Mac Vea and Jeannette on April 17, 1909. The two had scored an earlier draw and received criticism that the affair was more an exhibition than a real fight. This fight, then, was to be a fight to the finish. It turned out to be the longest fight in the twentieth century.

Mac Vea started strong and floored Jeannette repeatedly but Joe would rise before counted out. Once the bell saved him from a knockout. But Jeannette's manager had prepared for a grueling battle and had oxygen available in the corner. The fight eventually turned and Mac Vea, arm weary and unable to see through puffy eyes, was unable to answer the bell for the 50th round!

Sam had his eyes shut, his nose broken in two places, a dislocated shoulder and two cracked ribs. There were 46 knockdowns in the fight, 29 of which were scored by the loser, Mac Vea."

 

Part III: "Mac Vea was recognized as the heavyweight champion of Europe several times between 1907-1911 and in 1911, went to Australia and beat Bill Lang for the Aussie title. Overall, between 1908 and 1912, Mac Vea fought 33 times and lost only 5 times. One loss was to Jeannette (who he had previously beaten and with who he drew in a rematch) and four losses to Langford (who he had previously beaten and with whom he would start 1913 with a draw). Mac Vea would arguably have been the number one contender for the title from his 1911 victory over Langford until his defeat by Langford four months later. Langford and Jeannette wouldn't get a title shot either, of course.

Mac Vea was always the toast of Paris and was an extremely talented personality on the pre-III social scene. He owned an automobile which he loved to drive very fast and learned to fly an airplane which he also owned. Was he the first black man to fly an airplane? Maybe not but he was highly regarded in Paris as an aviator. He also played the piano and banjo.

As the war clouds gathered in Europe Mac Vea returned home but eventually settled for most of his remaining years in Panama. As his talents waned, he remained a warrior until his retirement in 1920, the year before his death, of pneumonia.

Truly, Sam Mac Vea was one of the most talented fighters and extraordinary personalities ever to enter the squared circle.

The scenario in the very first paragraph of this piece (in part I) is fiction but the postcard is real. It is one of a small collection I have of postcards written to Mac Vea's sister and constitutes a rare find since there were absolutely no verified signatures of Mac Vea in the hobby prior to this. You may remember the earlier controversy concerning a signed fight pose postcard.

The postcards in this collection are vintage picture postcards, not post-marked but obviously quite old. It was not uncommon (and still isn't) for folks visiting Europe to place cards in an envelope before sending them home. In one of the postcards he asks his sister to remember to send Uncle John his postcards, a reference to some cards also included that she was to have forwarded. Apparently she did since they aren't in the collection.

Mac Vea wrote on the right hand side and continued on the left in the card shown. I have another card where he has dropped the "a" in "Mac" to "Mc." The longhand signatures match those on page 6 of issue 92 of BCN which were drawn from ads in French magazines of the time. In that article, we announced that the Mac Vea signature mystery was over, now there is concrete evidence from Sam himself.


My thanks to Ben Hawes for many of the facts about Mac Vea herein. If there are inaccuracies, I didn't get them from Ben."

 

So Cmoyle, what would you wager the proper spelling of his name was?

 

I'm still not entirely convinced one way or another between McVea and MacVea, but after reading what Chuck found and everything else so far if I had to wager I think I'd still go with McVea. The only spelling I'd comfortably rule out is McVey at this point. I can't remember the specifics as to how I arrived at that conclusion now, but I remember convincing myself somewhere along the way years ago that McVey wasn't correct.

 

"His momma named him Mcvea, I'ma call him Mcvea!"

 

As I have noted before, I have had a very tough time tracking down information about the early life of Sam McVea. Within the past few weeks, I found that one Katy McVey, a domestic worker from Pomona, California born about 1880, married one Alexander Hamilton, a West Indian born about 1870, in Pomona, California during 1907. According to the marriage record, Katy's parents were Andrew McVey and Annie Riley (Annie's maiden name). On two of his passport applications, Sam listed his father's first name as being Andy.

I have been able to find some more information about one Katie/Katy Hamilton. She became a widow by 1920 and had two sons, Philip/Phillip, born about 1908, and Elwood/Ellwood, born about 1912. According to California Death Records, one Katy N. Hamilton was born on November 15, 1885 in Texas and died on April 14, 1968 in Alameda County; one Phillip Alexander Hamilton was born on September 3, 1908 in California and died on March 4, 1983 in Alameda County; and one Ellwood Hamilton was born about 1911 and died on February 18, 1927 in Sonoma County.

It appears that Andrew McVea died in Kern County, California during 1929 while Annie McVea died in San Bernardino, California during the early part of 1899. Around the time of Mrs. McVea's death, her husband, Andy, was tried and convicted of hitting a daughter on the head with a chair. Andy was given a choice of paying a fine of $60. or spending two months in jail. He chose the latter.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Thanks for sharing this information Chuck.

 

One thing to keep in mind here is that the late 1800s and early 1900s was still pretty early in terms of standardized spelling particularly among the lower classes and uneducated across all walks of life in America. Its entirely possible the family, or members of the family used McVey, Mac Vea, and McVea interchangeably and that none are "wrong" or "right" ways to spell the family at this time. The only way to really nail it down would be, in this case, if Sam McVey was descended from slaves owned by a white McVey family that did have a long established "correct" spelling of their name then that would be the way to track it. However, its equally possible that they took that name for themselves and in so doing spelled it phonetically (and hence the changing spelling) which would make it impossible to establish a "correct" spelling for the name until later generations (and even that wouldnt be correct because it would be taking Sam's use of spelling out of context).