The Brown Panther v The Brown Bomber ?

What just happend?

 

They got his nickname wrong. It came from Damon Runyon

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-...gc.r_pw.&fp=44042e544f956246&biw=1280&bih=907

Sharkey Needs But Little To Conquer Wills .Sport Expert Sees Brown ...

By DAMON RUNYON . NEW YORK, Oct. Over in Ebbets' field tomorrow night, ... Harry Wills, tho Brown Panther of New Orleans, meets Mr. Jack Sharkey, Lithuania, ...
By Damon Runyon.

 

McVey

All the reading I have done points to the Wills-Firpo fight as being a one-sided victory for Wills, if a boring fight.
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This is off topic, but as long as hokey old Grantland Rice has been brought up, this is an evaluation by a modern sportswriter:
He begins by quoting Rice

"A cyclone can't be snared. It may be surrounded, but somewhere it breaks through to keep on going. When the cyclone starts from South Bend, where the candle lights still gleam through the Indiana sycamores, those in the way must take to storm cellars at top speed. Yesterday the cyclone struck again as Notre Dame beat the Army, 13 to 7, with a set of backfield stars that ripped and crashed through a strong Army defense with more speed and power than the warring cadets could meet."

And his comment

The Four Horsemen now have become a cyclone full of stars in a war of some kind. Metaphors martial, meteorlogical, and celestial, tumbling on top of one another in the same sentence, and we're only a few words away from "a tank with the speed of a motorcycle" and quartet of football players with "the mixed blood of the tiger and the antelope." Calling this purple prose is to suggest he wasn't using the whole crayon box at once.
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**Rice was also a Southerner who was not likely to give Wills a break when evaluating his chances against Dempsey. It might be instructive to read what black sportswriters had to say. I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were a different point of view.

I am sorry about taking a shot at old Granny, but I couldn't resist. I find his "style" an hilarious example of over-the-top writing.

 

One of the biggest surprizes that I have had looking at old articles, is just how highly regarded Wills was during his prime, and how much media coverage he received.

It almost seems as if he was airbrushed out of history after he started to loose. As if it was not enough to remove him from title contention, and the traces of the foul deed had to be kicked over as well.

 

Who really knows? I've never seen Wills fight on film before..... I only know what I've read.... Yeah, Wills was a bad-ass of the teens and twenties, and also big for that era as well.....

As for wanting Jack Dempsey, yeah, it would've been a great fight... BUT! Wills was 6 years older and already age 30 when 24 year old Dempsey KO'd Jesse Willard in 1919.... I'm not sure a 1920 Harry Wills could've beaten Dempsey at that time..... It's possible.....

As for Wills of 1918 or so meeting Joe Louis of 1940, it's a toss-up..... I just don't know enough of Wills...... I've got clips and fights of Louis up the ass to review.....

MR.BILL:bbb

 

I'd love to hear Jack Blackburn dope this one out.

 

I'm not one to normally buy into the bull**** that a certain fighter was gottdamn bad-ass that nobody would fight him and thus, never granted a title shot.... BUT! In the case of Harry Wills and his era of fighting from 1911 to 1932, I will cut this dude some slack, cuz he was jacked around by white America in his prime....

Too bad that "I was ducked" crap doesn't fly straight with me in the case of Charlie Burley.... I never saw Burley fight, but by the 1940s and 1950s even though racism was still running high all across the USA, Burley fought in a golden era in which he should've gotten all the chances / opportunites in the world.... Bottom Line: POOR MANAGEMENT!

All in all, Wills was truly screwed over by corporate America; Burley had a shitty manager.....

MR.BILL

 

It is not just the coverage, but also how many fans he had. He was the second highest paid fighter in the world, easiley! and he drew absolutley massive crowds. Presumably white crowds.

Hard to say he was badly managed to not get a title shot really. When you are making as much money as Wills was, a title shot is less relevant. He didnt need it bad enough to really make it happen, and i doubt he was too worried that it didnt happen, as much as he would have loved the chance, i am sure.

 

Louis, by easy win. Wills is one of those fighters with a mythology about him, that's all. He stepped up and got beat easy. Joe Louis fought and beat some of best from 3 decades. No compassion