Claude 'Humphrey' McBride

[scartissue]

I know the guy was one of those barnstormers from the Pat O'Grady stable in Oklahoma, but a name on his record had me scratching my head. McBride was a behemoth of a heavyweight, so I was curious seeing former middleweight and light heavyweight contender Henry Hank on his record on February 10, 1972 in Ardmore, Okla.. Couldn't find anything on that but did find McBride winning a 10 round decision over one Chief 'Sonny' Hanks on February 5, 1972 in Ardmore. It said Hanks record was 8-8 going into this fight. Also on this card was an exhibition of local amateur John Barger fighting two two rounders each with Brian Kelley and Pete Knight. Also 6 amateur bouts were on the card (one of them being O'Grady's son Sean - furure lightweight champ). Also the article mentioned the fight card in Oklahoma the following Tuesday with McBride fighting Mel Harris, which boxrec correctly lists. Long story short - I don't believe it was Henry Hank, but Sonny Hanks.

[wouter]

I guess you are correct, but let me doublecheck first.

[scartissue]

If it's any help, I looked all over boxrec for any variation of Chief Sonny Hanks and he doesn't seem to exist. Must be one of those Oklahaomo stiffs O'Grady was noted for bringing in to beef up the records of some of his fighters. i had always understood that Henry Hank fought Andy kendall after a two year layoff.

[DaveyMac]

I do a lot of work on Oklahoma stuff and so Wouter asked me to check this out. The Henry Hank win has always been a big part of the Humphrey story so it's hard for me to believe it isn't true. That being said I can find no mention of the fight in The Daily Oklahoman on 2-11-72 or any of the dates surrounding that.

That doesn't necessarily mean it isn't true. The Oklahoma City paper was notorious about not covering any sporting event that didn't happen in the city.

Boxrec use Raylawpc trained McBride for a period of time and may be able to shed some light on this.

I'll keep looking for references to the fight in The Oklahoman.

Scartissue can you send me copies of the story for the fights you do have on 2-5-72 in Ardmore so that I can add them to the record for the various fighters?

[DaveyMac]

An example of how unlikely The Oklahoman would have been to cover a fight in Ardmore.

I just checked Feb 6 1972, the day after the Ardmore fight Scartissue found. There is a short article in the paper on McBride's upcoming fight on 2-8-1972 with Melvin Harris in Oklahoma City, but there is no mention of him fighting the night before in Ardmore.

[DaveyMac]

There is definitely nothing around those dates in The Daily Oklahoman about McBride fighting anyone in Ardmore, so I'm not sure how much value that has.

JohnShep put this fight in in 2010, and then Deepak added the weigh-in amounts later, and that seems like it probably did happen. I just don't think there would be any way Deepak would get weights for the fight unless it happened. But, I guess I don't really know.

Maybe Shep and Deepak will remember their sources.

[John]

sorry, I have no idea, often from a newspaper report but I usually add those as refs in the wiki