Battling Levinsky
1915 article
Jewish Athlete a Foxy Boxer.
Battling Levinsky, the Jewish light
heavyweight who at one time looked like
a rising- champion of the world, will pass
his twenty-fourth milestone tomorrow.
Not so very long ago Dumb Dan Morgan,
the well-known tongue-tied two-legged
sphinx, was proclaiming the Hebrew
battler the "white heavyweight champion
of the world." and was offering: to match
him against Jack Johnson. As for Jess
Willard and Jim Coffey - well, take It
from Dumb Dan, those fighters had cold
chills whenever the name of Levinsky
was uttered in their presence. Since
those halcyon days of Levinsky's career
he has had much hard sledding and has
not lived up to his early promise. He
has even been outpointed by George
One-Round Davls, of Buffalo, who has
been whipped by most of the heavies in
the biff business. Levinsky has also been
outpointed by Tom McCarty, tho Montana
fighter, and other second-raters,
and had to travel his fastest to get a
draw with Porky Flynn.
Levinsky was born in Philadelphia on
June 10, 1S91, and, it is said, his real
name is Barney Lebaritz. He first appeared
in the ring in 1910. when he
fought under the name of Barney Williams.
The Hebrew took part in twenty five
bouts that year, winning about a
third of 'em by knockouts. In 1911 he
defeated Leo Houck and Jeff Clark,
among others. In 1912 the Hauler was
a very busy boxer, participating In about
thirty contests. He fought Eddie Mc-
Goorty to a draw in Philadelphia, outpointed
Joe Grim in the same city, defeated
Tony Caponi in Atlanta, outpointed
Dick Gilbert four times in Jacksonville,
Fla., and met many other good
men. He began the 1913 campaign by
fighting One-Round Davis and Jack
(Twin) Sullivan in Buffalo, and it was
in that year that the obscure Philadelphia
middleweight began to be touted as
a coming heavyweight champion. His
bouts with Jim Coffey and Jim Flynn in
New York showed lots of class, and the
sport writers began to dig up statistics
showing- that Levinsky's weight, which
is around 170 pounds, was no bar to
heavyweight championship aspirations.
His victory over Gunboat Smith was
hailed as a great triumph, but since then
the Hebrew has been defeated by the
Gunboat in New Orleans.
Levinsky is still young,and, in spite of
recent reverses, he may yet attain the
championship goal.. He is five feet and
eleven inches in height, is ' a natural
fighter, thinks quickly, has a fine knowledge
of the finer points of the game, a
good wallop, speed and stamina, and is
game. With those qualities he ought to
travel far, and. while alibis g-et a fighter
nothing, it must be remembered that a
boxer is a yooman being and subject to
off days like the rest of us.
Levinsky was educated in the Philadelphia
schools and started life as a clerk
in a Jewelry store. He became interested
in boxing through his friendship with a
pugilist to whom he sold a chunk of ice,
and joined an amateur club. One night
Levinsky strayed by mistake into a labor
union meeting, and came under suspicion
of being a spy. the whole bunch lit on
him, but Levinsky knocked down six men
- Dan Morgan says so - :and got away.
That put the idea into his head that
maybe he could make more money by
box-fighting than in -the Jewelry business.
'He soon 'put the idea into effect,
and made his ring debut under the name
of Barney Williams, which remained his
fighting roonaker for .three years, when
he adopted the name of Levinsky, which,
if not the name he was born with, at
least indicated his racial origin.
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