While reading John Och's terrific three-volume biography of Jack Hurley, I learned quite a bit about Tommy O'Loughlin, who had success as a promoter and a manager during the 1930s and 1940s. I knew that he was the manager of Charley Burley, but I didn't know much more than that. However, I later found out that he also managed Elmer "Violent" Ray, Jackie Graves and Jackie Burke of Minnesota. Ray and Graves seemed to be far better gate attractions than Burley despite the latter being a far better fighter. It appears that O'Loughlin managed Burley from late 1941 to 1946. O'Loughlin failed to get Burley highly lucrative bouts during the entire time that he managed him. But one should not conclude that O'Loughlin was not a competent manager solely based on such evidence. In fact, there is other evidence showing that O'Loughlin was quite competent as a boxing promoter and manager. While Burley was a truly great fighter, it was going to be a tough task for even the best manager to get him lucrative bouts or a shot at a world title. Burley had a tendency to "stink out the joint" with his boxing style and didn't have a colorful personality. These two factors probably played a far larger role in Burley not being a good gate attraction than his race. After all, there were quite a number of black fighters who got lucrative bouts or shots at a world title while Burley was active, but such fighters usually had more crowd-pleasing fighting styles or were colorful. - Chuck Johnston
