Gypsy Joe Harris

[yancey]

Anyone have any stories about this '60s Philly fighter, with the style all his own?

He sure was a pretty hot story for a while, even made the cover of SI.

[Expug]

Gypsy Joe was one of a kind.
He was a little before my time but a couple things I remember.
Fought most of his career blind in one eye. It only got "detected" after he got beat by Emile Griffith. Maybe his stock had gone down.His liscense got yanked after that. He quickly went down physically after that and died young.
He was the first non heavyweight fighter ever to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Didnt train real hard as he was so talented. Went right from the pool hall to the gym. Couple weeks of frenzied sparring and he was good to go. Flashy exciting fighter to be sure. I might have some of that wrong but thats what I remember reading and hearing about Gypsy Joe.

[raylawpc]

Managed by Yank Durham.

[jaclem2]

...expug's summation is good. i saw him fight a couple of times. had a style of his own...aggressive and also slippery and clever. he was joe frazier's favorite fighter. in fact, joe thought he was the best pound for pound fighter when he was active.

[clubberlang]

Tell me about this cat, I heard he was a box of tricks that didn’t bother to train, he would just turn up for fights and box the ears of anybody they put in front of him (including Curtis Cokes who he shut out), then he was forced to retire when it was discovered he was blind in one eye following his one and only defeat to Hall of Famer Emile Griffith. After which life took a turn for the worse for the gypsy

[Brutu]

here is an article from EBONY January 1969.
What will become of Gypsy Joe?


http://books.google.com/books?id=LuIDAA ... pg=PA78&dq

[Brutu]

There was also a biography published about him in 2006.
Gypsy Joe Harris:Son of Philadelphia
by Anthony Molock.
(220 pages).

[Knucklez]

I believe it was Harris that gave Joe Frazier the nickname "Smokin" but I may be wrong. He said that Frazier used to spar at such a ferocious pace that you could almost imagine smoke coming off his gloves.