Claude "Humphrey" Mcbride

[Chuck1052]

I saw Sean O'Grady fight Danny "Little Red" Lopez in person at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California. Sean took the fight to Danny, which was the wrong thing to do and resulted in Sean's corner stopping the bout after the fourth round. Yet I felt that Sean had talent as a fighter after seeing him in action.

It is true that Sean faced extremely soft opposition before fighting Danny. Of the early opponents Sean fought, Simmie Black is the only one I know about. Simmie was one of the best-known "tomato-cans" of 1970s and 1980s, losing several times more bouts than he won. Remember Flash Gordon, the renegade publisher who put out the extremely informative and entertaining weekly boxing publication, Tonight's Boxing Program (TBP for short), during the 1970s and 1980s? He wrote a hilarious piece about Simmie, sort of a "Stiff of the Month" profile. According to his record on BoxRec, Simmie had 35 wins (8 by knockout), 165 losses (98 by knockout), 4 draws and a total of 204 bouts.

- Chuck Johnston

[HomicideHenry]

It is ironic that the subject of Pat O'Grady using soft opposition for his fighters came up at a time when a former "fighter" named Exum Speight was arrested on a murder charge on September 25, 2013 after DNA results linked him with the murder of his then-manager, Douglas Stumler in 1987. After Stumler's death, Speight was in the notorious boxing stable of stiffs managed by James Holly of Ashtabula, Ohio. Take a look at the records of Speight, Holly (Yes, he was a "fighter" in addition to managing a stable of stiffs), Mario Hereford and George Harris. Looking at the records of those fighters, it looks like Holly gave Blackie Ramon and Jimmy Montoya a run for their money in terms of managing stables of very active stiffs.

- Chuck Johnston

I remember James Holly pretty well. Was a huge investigation in the mid-late 1990's which lead to Holly's license being stripped, as well as several others. The problem wasn't that he was a manager of stiffs, but a manager of dive takers. Holly himself said his fights were legit only for a minute, then he would sit his ass on the canvas. Then his stable would fight eachother, get 'wins', and then be recycled again as dive takers. Was huge money being made in Holly's operation, many 'legit' managers were just as guilty doing business with Holly when everyone in the business knew it was the true garunteed win with Holly's guys.

Mixing up stories Henry. Monte Masters, another HW, did marry Pat O'Grady's daughter, and was the HW champion in O'Grady's short lived group. When Masters divorced Pat's daughter he was stripped of his title. :P

Which sounds stupid and incredibly petty but is pretty funny. What father in law hasn't wanted that kind of power?

To be fair to Pat O'Grady on the quality of competition and what not,yes it was silly, but it wasn't like he had a lot of options. You have to remember this is a very different Oklahoma than the one today. We couldn't support even minor league teams. The OKC AAA baseball team sold all the time and for amounts that were less than a nice house. My father would take me to the games and we could sit anywhere we wanted there wouldn't be 100 people there. I knew every player's family because that was pretty much who was there. One year the minor league basketball team won the championship and then folded.

There were no Indian Casinos then. Oklahoma University Football was the only thing that drew and everything else lived in its shadow. The OU Baseball team would win and win and win and slowly got pushed right out of the athletic facility because football was so big.
Pat O'Grady was trying to bring boxing back there which had been gone for 15-20 years and hadn't been that strong before. It was an uphill job. You aren't getting Frazier-Ali to come to Oklahoma City. He had his guys and he set them up with chumps to build up their records in the hopes someone would care and actually go to the fights. Guess what, it worked :)
I'd never have the love of boxing I do now if my Father hadn't taken me to that early Sean O'Grady fight, and he (who couldn't care less about boxing) would never have taken me if Sean O'Grady hadn't been on the local news all the time, and Sean can't get on the local news unless his father builds up his record and those around him enough for the local news to stop talking about Billy Sims for a few minutes and take an interest.

So it was a very hard job Pat O'Grady had. Character yes, lots of mismatched fights of low quality yes, did the most with what he had, absolutely!

Thanks for clearing the story up. However, I will say this, the Texarcana area is THE place to really start a career in boxing. Especially Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Up until a few years ago the scene was really popping with shows happening every month between people from all walks of life who probably had no business in athletics, but the shows were so entertaining. Now the boxing scene has cracked down a bit, and its in mma we see the same thing taking place there.

[DaveyMac]

$5000

For anyone that can give the 'details' and circumstances regarding the Tuesday Night, June 5, 1973
bout between Humprhey McBride vs. BoBo Bash in Oklahoma City......

Very interesting. The simple answer is nothing happened. :)

The fight didn't occur on the 5th it happened on the 8th.

What happened on the 8th seems to be Bash shoved McBride who was knocked out when he hit his head on the canvas. But it was scored as a KO for Bash which is not how the boxrec record has it.

Here is a story from the 17th June 1973 about a rematch (from The Daily Oklahoman)

[DaveyMac]

Although this story from the 5th does say the fights are supposed to happen that night. Both stories were filed by Skip Bayless.
Amazingly, and this is the kind of thing O'Grady had to deal with, I can't find any reporting on the actual fights the day after. Not on the 6th or the 9th. (or even the 7th or the 8th for that matter). They were just ignored by the local media. There is a fascinatingly timely story on whether or not the Bible described what God looked like, but nothing on the fights the night before.

[DaveyMac]

I don't remember this but I guess O'Grady would use amateurs, even small children, to fill out his cards. I assume it was cheaper.
Anyway the only coverage of the June 5th fights, which definitely happened June 5th is the editorial below about the children by Bob Hurt. It does mention McBride though it doesn't say who won or loss.
The best part of the story is the picture of the kid at the bottom, he's like wth have I got myself into!

[DaveyMac]

I can't find much of anything on the Bo Bash controversy. I'm in The Daily Oklahoman files yeah.

If you know the answer tell me lol :)

[DaveyMac]

I was wrong Skip Bayless did file a story on the 7th, it was just hidden.
This is it.

[DaveyMac]

Definitely seems that the boxrec page is wrong on this and it should be Ko-2 win for Bash not McBride.

[Dart340]

No one had really explained the O' Grady/Oklahoma phenomena before this thread and now I have a much better understanding of why and how he did what he did. I have a much greater respect for him as a result.

DaveyMac, thanks for adding your recollections to this thread. I had no idea what would come as a result of throwing Humphrey's name out there on a thread. I got way more than I expected. (Davey, if you have any Tony Gardner memories, we're always open to bringing back a thread on him...) Duce, you already get enough props from me, lol.

[DaveyMac]

I can correct it, just wanted to hear someone else say it was a good idea :)

[DaveyMac]

I saw Sean O'Grady fight Danny "Little Red" Lopez in person at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California. Sean took the fight to Danny, which was the wrong thing to do and resulted in Sean's corner stopping the bout after the fourth round. Yet I felt that Sean had talent as a fighter after seeing him in action.

It is true that Sean faced extremely soft opposition before fighting Danny. Of the early opponents Sean fought, Simmie Black is the only one I know about. Simmie was one of the best-known "tomato-cans" of 1970s and 1980s, losing several times more bouts than he won. Remember Flash Gordon, the renegade publisher who put out the extremely informative and entertaining weekly boxing publication, Tonight's Boxing Program (TBP for short), during the 1970s and 1980s? He wrote a hilarious piece about Simmie, sort of a "Stiff of the Month" profile. According to his record on BoxRec, Simmie had 35 wins (8 by knockout), 165 losses (98 by knockout), 4 draws and a total of 204 bouts.

- Chuck Johnston

You know the amazing thing here from the O'Grady perspective is he was only a few days past his 17th birthday when he went up against Lopez.

[Chuck1052]

I didn't have any problem with having a fighter with Sean O'Grady's ability fighting Danny "Little Red"
Lopez. Despite taking some punishment from the hard-hitting Lopez, O'Grady made the bout interesting
before his corner got it stopped after the fourth round ended. Moreover, I feel that O'Grady did better
than Art Hafey when fighting Lopez. Of course, Hafey took a brutal beating, far worse than O'Grady did, in his fight with Lopez before the referee halted matters early in the seventh round. After seeing that bout, I asked myself why Hafey's corner didn't make an effort to get it stopped much earlier.

- Chuck Johnston

[DaveyMac]

BTW, I'd really like to have a good picture of Humphrey McBride if anyone has one from a magazine or anywhere.

[DaveyMac]

Yeah I know, but that is the one I got from the newspaper and it's not in action it's from the press conference. The other I pulled out of the papers at least has him in shorts with gloves on but the quality is horrible.

I'm hoping someone has a still or a picture from a magazine that can be scanned.

[DaveyMac]

Yeah, they are hard to locate. He didn't have any children and his first wife died before him, haven't been able to locate the 2nd one.

[raylawpc]

Are you sure that is the same fella? 10.1 in the 100!

I'm dubious :)

I found stories about the Columbia College and playing football (added it to his boxrec bio) but no mention of him running track at Fresno. Hard to believe Pat O'Grady would not remind the press of something like that.

Curious, do you think that is him in the obit?

That's him in the obit. I worked his corner for many of his fights including Terry Daniels and Buster Mathis.

Humphrey never mentioned going to college, but he did play football. And he did spend a good part of his life in the Pacific Northwest. I don't remember him ever saying anything about running track. Humphrey loved working out in the gym (he was the first one to show up and the last to leave), but I've never known a fighter who hated doing roadwork more than Claude.

He was also one of the nicest people, most honest people I have ever known. I never knew him to tell a lie. And if Humphrey was your friend, you had a friend for life. I was honored to call him my friend.

[raylawpc]

He knew the 'deal', and played it for all that it was worth..........No Harm, No Foul.

Humphrey took it very seriously. He was in the gym every day and trained harder than guys half his age. Until he lost to Mathis, he believed he was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I was in his corner the night he beat Terry Daniels. It was a very good fight, and Humphrey deserved the win. Humphrey didn't smoke or drink. Although he weighed 340 pounds when he started out, he was down to about 250 when he fought Daniels and Mathis.

We had some very good fights in Oklahoma City, and Pat O'Grady brought in contenders that fans in Oklahoma City would never have seen if it wasn't for his efforts. George Foreman, Mando Ramos, Ron Lyle, Carlos Ortiz and Kenny Norton are just a few of the names that came to fight in Oklahoma City.

[raylawpc]

Yeah, they are hard to locate. He didn't have any children and his first wife died before him, haven't been able to locate the 2nd one.

Humphrey didn't have any relatives. He was an only child. His wife Virginia had a very hard childhood and was not close to her family. The only relative I ever met was his Dad, who lived with them.

[raylawpc]

I don't remember this but I guess O'Grady would use amateurs, even small children, to fill out his cards. I assume it was cheaper.
Anyway the only coverage of the June 5th fights, which definitely happened June 5th is the editorial below about the children by Bob Hurt. It does mention McBride though it doesn't say who won or loss.
The best part of the story is the picture of the kid at the bottom, he's like wth have I got myself into!

The kid in the picture you mentioned won that fight. I know because I was the guy in the corner, whose profile you can barely see in the photo. All of the fights in Oklahoma City were Pro-Am cards. We would start with about ten three-round amateur fights, then move to the pros. The Pee-Wee fights were also three rounds, but they only fought rounds that lasted one minute or less. (Sometimes just 30 or 45 seconds, if I recall correctly, for the five and six-year-olds.) The little guys also wore big 16-ounce Everlast gloves. They were fun to watch, and nobody ever got hurt. And everybody got a trophy!

We had a number of good amateur clubs in Oklahoma. I remember kids coming down from Enid, Blackwell, Midwest City, and I think Hennessy to fight, in addition to the kids who fought out of our gym in Oklahoma City. A couple of the state reformatories sent fighters, as did one of the Indian Schools - Concho, I think.

[DaveyMac]

Thanks Ray! I was so young then that many of my memories have faded. Great to hear you talk about these guys they were all heroes to me as a kid.
Is there any chance you have pictures of Humphrey or Monte Masters that you could scan? All I have are pictures from the newspaper which aren't very good.
Hard to believe I don't remember the amateur fights. I suspect my Father intentionally brought us after they were done knowing that otherwise I would have pestered him forever to get to be one of those kids.

Great to read your posts!

[raylawpc]

Thanks Ray! I was so young then that many of my memories have faded. Great to hear you talk about these guys they were all heroes to me as a kid.
Is there any chance you have pictures of Humphrey or Monte Masters that you could scan? All I have are pictures from the newspaper which aren't very good.
Hard to believe I don't remember the amateur fights. I suspect my Father intentionally brought us after they were done knowing that otherwise I would have pestered him forever to get to be one of those kids.

Great to read your posts!

I have some pictures of Humphrey in a box somewhere. If I run across them, I'd be glad to scan and post them. Monte Masters came after I was finished in boxing. I began law school in 1978 and devoted all of my energies to that. In fact, I don't even recall meeting Masters.

You could fairly divide Humphrey's career into two phases: Pre-Mathis and Post-Mathis. Before the loss to Mathis, Humphrey was a pretty solid fighter. He had some talent, and a good punch. (Pre-Mathis, I saw him kick Jack O'Halloran's butt in the gym, and a couple of his sparring sessions with Ron Stander were wars.) Most importantly, he had a ton of confidence. He thought he was invincible, and he was sure that he'd be heavyweight champion of the world someday. The loss to Mathis followed by the loss to Jimmy Cross destroyed his confidence and he was very uneven after that. The low point was the loss to Bo Bo Bash. The high point - if you want to call it that - was the loss to Al "Blue" Lewis. Blue came to Oklahoma City and fought after that fight, and he told me that Humphrey really had him going, and that he felt fortunate to win. Lew Eskin saw that fight and told me the same thing.

[crib73]

Thanks Guys for an excellent thread, this is how boxrec used to be - Informative.

[Dart340]

Ray, love your firsthand accounts of OKC boxing and appreciate what you shared here and in the Tony Gardner threads awhile back. Interesting that Blue Lewis says McBride "almost got him" as other reports of that fight, as documented in a book on Halifax boxing specifically, claim that McBride made a complete non-effort. Other reports suggest he "started doing business later in his career". He's an intriguing character and I wish there was some footage on him.

[raylawpc]

Ray, love your firsthand accounts of OKC boxing and appreciate what you shared here and in the Tony Gardner threads awhile back. Interesting that Blue Lewis says McBride "almost got him" as other reports of that fight, as documented in a book on Halifax boxing specifically, claim that McBride made a complete non-effort. Other reports suggest he "started doing business later in his career". He's an intriguing character and I wish there was some footage on him.

I wasn't there for the fight, Dart. So all I know is what I was told. Blue might have been just being nice. (It was clear watching him and Humphrey together that he liked and respect Humph.) Another guy who told me the same thing was the fellow who went with Humphrey to Halifax for the fight, and this fellow . . . well, you had to take some of the things he said with a grain of salt. But Lew Eskin was there, and he used the Blue Lewis fight to make a point while in the process of chewing me out (a long story), so I don't know if he had any motivation to stretch the truth . . .

And to be precise: Lewis never told me that Humphrey "almost got him." He said that Humphrey had him going, which I took to mean was giving Al all that he wanted for a while.

[Dart340]

BoBo Bash is even a more mysterious character than McBride. He knocks out the gargantuan McBride in his third pro fight as a small heavyweight, gets obliterated by Terry Krueger in his next fight in 19 seconds and then drops 30 lbs a few months later to fight Middleweight Jimmy Claar in New Castle, Indiana of all places and then disappears from boxing. Keep digging, Duce.