The Gods of War

dpw.

 

You're welcome. Nine ghosts and one fat man thank you all.
..............
Faces from The God of War

Below is Mechanics Hall in Boston. It was demolished in 1959 to make way for the Prudential Center. I was there just a couple of weeks ago, paying tribute to the site of of where Greb faced Kid Norfolk.

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Up the street and to the right was the Sunning Restaurant where they served "Chinese and American food" and across the street was the Boston-Albany trainyard.

William Ward, AKA Kid Norfolk:

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He whipped....

Big Bill Tate (from CBZ):

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Battling Siki:

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Siki was "choking on his own blood" after Norfolk got done with him. But look at those biceps. Damn.

 

Two Gods of War itching for a fight. One was in his prime, the other half-blind and past it.

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Yes, I know that both Wills and Norfolk were fixtures over at Grupp's (and had a hand in Robinson's development as I wrote), and it sounds like they would drift over to Stillman's too and why not!

 

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Greb's actual personality is murkier because of time. Therefore his essence was somewhat open to interpretation. Thus, "great and terrible."

The details of this and all of the fight accounts are as accurate as possible. I took poetic license only rarely and only when it could be done without mucking up the record. For example, the image of Greb walking back to his corner looking "menacingly over his shoulder" is my own assumption. It was inspired by... Hagler at the end of round 1 against Hearns. What a beautiful image.

Every shot described is a confirmed one. So isn't the color of his "trademark trunks", Norfolk's "bowing low" to the crowd, the African-American crowd awaiting him at South Station (and their walking down from the South End which was predominantly black in the 20s), the prevalence of "fedoras" and Model Ts on Huntington Ave.

All true.

 

Both you and Pete the Prince are imagining things. Look again.