vol 5 no 4 - Harry Wills

[robert.snell1]

The Boxing Biographies Newsletter
Volume 5 - No 4 11 Aug , 2009
www.boxingbiographies.com

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Name: Harry Wills
Career Record: click
Alias: Black Panther
Nationality: US American
Birthplace: New Orleans, LA
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Born: 1889-05-15
Died: 1958-12-21
Age at Death: 69
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 6′ 2″
Manager: Paddy Mullins


Sunday State Journal Lincoln, Nebraska
24 Aug 1924

Methods of Negro Boxer Are Totally Opposite From Wild Bull's Ideas—He Weighs 224.


At Harry Wills' camp at Rose Point, a beautiful spot on Peconic Bay, Southampton, L. I., we learned that Wills' training methods are almost totally opposite from Luis Firpo's. Whereas Luis takes his steak and meat daily, Harry's special training dish is cream cheese of his own making. Harry eats little meat and no steaks or beef until the day of a fight.

Firpo is taking his training fairly easy just now, working gradually more and more up to the fight, he says. Wills has done thirty-three days of hard work until he has got himself in shape to enter a ring today, so has let up in order not to go stale.

Wills eats only two meals a day. Firpo the regulation three. Wills jogs eight miles a day thru heavy sand along the beach. Firpo does but five miles of road work and not much running to it. Instead of punching a heavy bag Wills pulls on a rowing machine.

Can You Answer This?

And while Firpo is losing weight Wills finds the harder he works the more he gains! Luis has lost eight pounds, Harry has gained fourteen, now weighing 224, one pound more than Firpo says he weighs. In one respect only does Wills training idea agree with Firpo's. Harry thinks that every man should train himself according to "his own individual requirements. (This is the idea which the Finnish athletes who proved so redoubtable in the Olympics have given to our own Olympic athletes.) Therefore, both Wills and Firpo are their own trainers.

"Of course these big professional trainers know their business and more about training athletes than I do," Wills admitted. "But I figure I've been in the game long enough now to know just what it takes to get me In condition. I don't think they could help me any. While a trainer can tell a man's condition on the outside by looking at him, he don't know how the man feels on the inside. Some days that eight miles along the beach doesn't bother me at all and I can box five or six rounds and work all afternoon and never feel It. But other times I know that I'm just wearing out my energy inside, and nobody but me knows it."

Wills' boxing arena is indoors, on the former dance floor of Jones casino, a hotel restaurant owned and operated by a well known Southampton character, William H. Jones. Wills lives in a cottage furnished by Jones, a few feet down the beach from the Casino, with his wife, two sparring partners and a cook. Harry says he chose this place to train in order to avoid big crowds of spectators. He says he can't train playing to the gallery. And yet from twenty to thirty persons a day, many of them fashionable and wealthy people from the Southampton summer resort, visit him daily.

When we dropped in at Wills cottage we found him and two negro sparring partners, Jeff Clark, the "Joplin ghost," and "Battling" Owens, sitting idle at a time of the afternoon when we expected they' be working in the ring.

"First afternoon off in thirty-three days.'" Wills explained with a contented look. "I'm trained down now to the point where I'm liable to go stale. So I'm giving myself a vacation for a few days. I mean, I'm trained up so fine, for I weigh more now than I did when I started." Wills looked in better condition than we ever saw him, much better than before the Madden fight.

He said he gets up at six every morning for his road work, and doesn't eat till ten. Then it's fruit, hominy or cereal of some kind, ham and eggs and whole wheat bread without butter most of the time, accompanied by his favorite dish, cream cheese with sugar and sweets cream over it.

His work in the ring comes from three to four, shadow boxing, rope jumping, five or six rounds with his two sparring partners, and gymnastic exercises afterward on the mat. At 5:30 p. m. he eats his big meal, lamb or pork with plenty of vegetables and whole wheat bread. We asked him about the cream cheese dish.

"It's the best training stuff in the world. I learned that from my mother in New Orleans. She sends me the cheese mold and I make my own. I get the best cream from Mr. Jones; let it stand until it gets thick, then pour It in the perforated mold so that the whey runs off and leave the cheese. Let me show you," and Harry got up to get the mold. At this point his wife came in and nothing would do but she should prepare a dish of it to prove its merits. And it was good! But we made a mistake by saying so, for in their good natured hospitality we almost had to fight Wills and the whole camp to keep from eating three or four more platefuls.

There is an air of good natured jollity about Wills' camp that we missed in the Argentine outfit. When "Battling" Owens—he insisted on the "Battling"— gave his weight as two hundred and forty, Wills and Clark laughed him down. "Two hundred and sixty, you mean."

To settle the argument they insisted on taking the barrel-chested giant to the scales, tho he didn't want to go. Behind his back Harry put his foot on the scales, so that the weight went up to 294. "Battling" let out a roar, declaring that the scales were wrong or else he'd never eat again. The rafters shook for ten minutes as they laughed at "Battling's" bewildered expression, but they never told him what was the matter.

End

San Antonio Express
11 September 1924
Will Firpo’s Right beat Wills Left To The Punch

NEW YORK, Sept 10.—Within the next 24 hours the huge, untutored right fist of Luis Angel Firpo, all studded with knuckly knobs like a prehistoric cave gentleman's walking stick, will cut furrows in the ripe atmosphere of New Jersey, speeding on an errand of commerce and conquest.

If Luis Angel docs not fracture his wrist on the thick glue-factory odors and other fragrant elements, in the Jersey oxone, which is extremely strong at times, he should knock Harry Wills, the slat-shaped colored man, into a position parallel to the horizon. Of course, he may ruin his fist on some wandering zephyr from the glue refineries.

Babe Ruth played a game or ball in Jersey one autumn In the course of a barnstorming tour, and broke a bat in a healthy swing that missed the hall by a yard. The Babe said the air of the place was so strong that he couldn't risk his very personal bludgeon any further and so he confined himself to hunting the rest of the afternoon.

Firpo’s Right His Only Weapon.

However — Luis Angel Firpo, at the time he quit the training compound at Saratoga Lake, was a better athlete than he had ever been before. He was in far better condition than he was the day he bounced Jack Dempsey through the ropes a year ago and his right walloper was hitting harder and faster. It was almost incredible to see such an awkward fist lash out with much speed and still carry the drive of his clumsy body behind it.

Firpo's right hand remains the only hand. His left is no better than it was when he first strayed into the fight business and it couldn't possibly be any worse, he hasn't learned to box, but somehow, as he drilled himself into the best physical condition of his career, he seemed to speed the right smash. He can now toss three punches from one plunge whereas, under his old plan of brawling, he had to reorganize himself and left fly all over again, each time he pitched that mauler

Wills' Left His Hope.

Harry Wills has been confiding to the universe that he will poke Luis Angelo in the face with straight lefts until Luis Angelo is fatigued and dazzled and then will chop him on the chin with a right cross. Mister Harry is hereby reminded that two other left hands, two of the greatest left hands In the trade, both better than his own, tried the same undertaking. Jess Willard almost pushed Firpo's face out through the back of his head but Luis Angelo roared and rushed with the right and Mr. Willard was knocked all the way back to the farm. Jack Dempsey also offered a series of lefts and was upended for the first time and only time since 1917.

End

The Lincoln State Journal
12 Sept 1924
FORMER STEVEDORE TAKES EVERY ROUND
Bout Fails to Show Class in Either Boxer — Jack Dempsey Leaves
While Principals Paw Around in Sixth.

NEW YORK, Sept. 12.—With a big pair of brown hands that spread out in front of him like a fan and that pumped into action like an air hammer, Harry Wills, former stevedore of New Orleans took all the wildness out of Luis Angel Firpo in Jersey City last night and gave him a severe beating in twelve rounds.

No decision is permitted by the boxing law in New Jersey but a decision never was so unnecessary. Not even the partisan followers of the South American champion who sat with the 80,000 in Tex Rickard's arena felt that Firpo could win after he had been dropped in the second round with a long right to the jaw.

Holds Wild Bull Powerless.

Wills completely smothered the attack of the South American. He spread his big hands, caught the arms of Firpo as they swung in at him and held him powerless. When the ponderous right of the South American did penetrate the perfect guard and reached the jaw it had no more effect than to produce a wide New Orleans grin.

There was no steam in the punches that had dropped Jack Dempsey twice and knocked him out of the ring once last summer.

Wills saw Dempsey and Firpo fight last summer and he learned a good lesson. He didn't try to swap punches with the South American and he saw to it that Firpo didn't get enough room to get his club swings into action. Wills fought from the first like Dempsey did in the second round and he had the South American just as helpless. Wills had many chances to win by a knockout but he lacked the power of punch toted by Dempsey.

Paddy Mullins, Wills' manager, said after the fight that Wills hurt his hand in the fourth round.

Drops Firpo In Second.

Firpo was stepping back from a clinch in the second round when Wills crashed over a long right to the jaw and Firpo flopped to the floor for the count of six. He came up fighting just as he did in the Dempsey fight and kept Wills from pressing the advantage. In the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth and eleventh rounds Wills had Firpo in distress from rights to the jaw and the body but he couldn’t finish the job.

Firpo didn’t win a round. One might have been called even as a courtesy to a foreigner. The South American’s left side, from the fourth round on, was a mass of bruises and in the late rounds the hard rights to the ribs that Wills landed continually broke the skin and puffed the flesh.

Among the many spectators at ringside was Jack Dempsey, who left while the fighters were throwing each other around the ring in the sixth round. Dempsey’s lack of interest was typical of the feeling of the big crowd at one of the poorest exhibitions ever seen at a big fight. It was also a tip off on the situation resulting from a bout that was arranged to decide the next opponent for Dempsey.

Wills did prove that he was better than Firpo but did nothing to distinguish himself as a challenger for Dempsey’s title. Dempsey probably could lick them both on successive nights.

Firpo said after the fight that he had been bothered in his trainers by the reformers and that he was worried when he entered the ring. Wills said it was just a good work out for him.

End

[BoxBuzz]

Nice Read! Thank YOu!

[The Great John L]

Another great read. Thanks.

[robert.snell1]

thanks to you both it is much appreciated

[Robinson]

I have printed this off. You know I love to read your stuff...
and when its about HW's :) I smile that bit more.

Awesome.

[robert.snell1]

Hi , Its using up a lot of ink for me as well printing them all. this is the link to the pdf file so you can check out the images which go with it.

http://www.fileden.com/getfile.php?file ... 20no4a.pdf

[Robinson]

Thank you.

You are excellent :)

[SteveO]

I have printed this off. You know I love to read your stuff...
and when its about HW's :) I smile that bit more.

Awesome.

Me too!

[donnellon]

Great read as always. regards, Matt

[BroughtonRulesRefuge]

thanks to you both it is much appreciated

- Greatly appreciated, so I bump this outstanding article.

Whets my appetitite for finding out more about Wills who seems like the proto-Charley Burley with his out of the box mental makeup and boxer/thinker ring style. Always read that the Firpo bout was a stinker, but sounds like Wills laid a Hopkins/Pavlik master class on Firpo who seems out of sorts with new trainers trying to change his Sam Peter style into a boxer/puncher.

Interesting crossroads bout shrouded in the mysticism of the result, alternately a draw or NC for many years. Also Wills seems to have shrunk, going from 6-3 or 6-4 to 6-2 now. Are the powers that be trying to shrink his legend?

Bout time for a definitive bio on Wills. The guy was in talks with Jack Johnson and actually signed to face Dempsey, and seems to have been offered a spot in a tourney to fight Dempsey in his return from Hollywood, but always the bridesmaid.

Then we get into the Sam Langford series, perhaps enough material for two bios!

Bumpity~bump....Things that go bump into the night........

[Robinson]

What Wills footage is available ?
I have only clips of him sadly, and they are when he is
past his best.

I wish he and Dempsey had of fought.

[raylawpc]

What Wills footage is available ?
I have only clips of him sadly, and they are when he is
past his best.

I wish he and Dempsey had of fought.

I wish Oswald has missed, but it is what it is.

[Robinson]

Very true mate

[granberry]

Thanks for this, Robert.

Wills was a physical culturist who fasted for one full month of every year.

It's a pity Rickard wouldn't let him have his chance against Dempsey.

Wills didn't have the chin to stay in there with Dempsey or the punch to bother Dempsey (compare their fights with Firpo), but he should have gotten his chance.

Wills is the (very tall) referee in the exhibition filmed between Joe Jeanette and Jack Johnson when both were in their late 60's.

The only films I have seen of Wills are his getting flattened by Uzcudun and losing badly to Jack Sharkey (who was terrific as a young fighter) but he was older in both those fights.

His chin was not impressive against Uzcudun.

[Robinson]

That is all the film of him I have seen also.

I suspect Dempsey would have won also, and
he would have no doubt beaten every man put in
front of him leading up to Tunney...maybe Grebb
would have bested him in that period ?

BUt it would have been nice had Dempsey fought
ANYONE in that 3 year period he held the belt and
never entered the ring.

[dempseyfire]

There is no film of Wills-Sharkey.

To suggest Wills didn't have a punch to hurt Jack is ridiculous.

Wills was an old 38 vs Uzcudun.

I'm a big Dempsey fan but Wills was a great heavyweight and a prime Wills circa 1920 vs Dempsey would have been a great fight. I favor Dempsey but don't count the New Orlenian out.

[Robinson]

DF, how would you imagine a Wills-Dempsey fight ?

I have seen the Uzcudan fight, him as a ref as an old old man
and I am sure I have seen him fighting in another bout, merely
a clip, as an older man.
Nothing of him in his youth or prime.

[raylawpc]

In my opinion, this is a fight that was greater in anticipation than it would have been in real life.

Everything I've seen and read of Wills was that he was big and slow. Big and slow boxers were meat to Jack Dempsey. I can see Dempsey stopping Wills circa 1924 to 1926 within 5 or six rounds.

[granberry]

There is no film of Wills-Sharkey.

To suggest Wills didn't have a punch to hurt Jack is ridiculous.

Wills was an old 38 vs Uzcudun.

I'm a big Dempsey fan but Wills was a great heavyweight and a prime Wills circa 1920 vs Dempsey would have been a great fight. I favor Dempsey but don't count the New Orlenian out.

They made newsreels of every important fight in those days and ran them in the theaters.

The US Archives has a huge supply of those newsreels. That's where I saw the Sharkey-Wills newsreel.

As for your lack of knowledge of Dempsey's chin, that is strange for someone who calls himself Dempseyfire.

Wills was a top contender and should have had his chance.

As bad as that is, a far greater injustice is that Jack Johnson kept Sam Langford from ever getting his rightful chance at the title.

That is a terrible blot on Johnson's level as a champion and a fighter.

[dempseyfire]

There is no film of Wills-Sharkey.

To suggest Wills didn't have a punch to hurt Jack is ridiculous.

Wills was an old 38 vs Uzcudun.

I'm a big Dempsey fan but Wills was a great heavyweight and a prime Wills circa 1920 vs Dempsey would have been a great fight. I favor Dempsey but don't count the New Orlenian out.

They made newsreels of every important fight in those days and ran them in the theaters.

The US Archives has a huge supply of those newsreels. That's where I saw the Sharkey-Wills newsreel.

As for your lack of knowledge of Dempsey's chin, that is strange for someone who calls himself Dempseyfire.

Wills was a top contender and should have had his chance.

As bad as that is, a far greater injustice is that Jack Johnson kept Sam Langford from ever getting his rightful chance at the title.

That is a terrible blot on Johnson's level as a champion and a fighter.

Dempsey had a great chin but it was no undentable. Carpentier, Sharkey, and Firpo were all able to hurt him a little bit. Wills was greater or equal the puncher of them.

Wills in press clippings in his prime is described as fast for his size. Not until post-Firpo do I see anything about him being relatively slow. He defeated a large number of very fast men so he couldn't have been too slow (and his size of 6'2 3/4, 210 lbs was no giant for that era, so it's not like he was simply destroying much smaller men)

[raylawpc]

Not until post-Firpo do I see anything about him being relatively slow.

And that is precisely when he would have fought Jack Dempsey. Dempsey the winner inside 5 rounds would have been my prediction.

[Robinson]

I have always read that Wills was a fast big man, that used his
size well. He seems from what I am assuming, to be more than
just a black Willard.

Dempsey's crouch and explosiveness would have been hard to
deal with for any man at this time. But Wills should have gotten
his shot. Had he lost or won we would never go on to find out..

Langford vs Johnson would have been good as well, sad for little
Sam that he was of the wrong complexion to justify Johnson
'risking' it against him. Its an a shame really.

[Ezzard]

I have always read that Wills was a fast big man, that used his
size well. He seems from what I am assuming, to be more than
just a black Willard.

Dempsey's crouch and explosiveness would have been hard to
deal with for any man at this time. But Wills should have gotten
his shot. Had he lost or won we would never go on to find out..

Langford vs Johnson would have been good as well, sad for little
Sam that he was of the wrong complexion to justify Johnson
'risking' it against him. Its an a shame really.

I'm not sure complexion was why Johnson didn't fight him. Like many champs Johnson just wanted the most money for the least risk. If the money was right he'd have fought him.

Wills was a great fighter. It's a shame this didn't happen because it would have locked either man into the top 5 IMO.

[Robinson]

I suppose in the case of Johnson-Langford it was a "been there, done that"
mindset...

Unlike the great Burns and his multiple title defences against Bill Squires.

[BroughtonRulesRefuge]

Langford vs Johnson would have been good as well, sad for little
Sam that he was of the wrong complexion to justify Johnson
'risking' it against him. Its an a shame really.

I'm not sure complexion was why Johnson didn't fight him. Like many champs Johnson just wanted the most money for the least risk. If the money was right he'd have fought him.

- Never could figure out the appeal of such a safety first fighter as Johnson was. Makes Wlad look like Mike Tyson.

Johnson did defend against black journeyman Battle Jim Johnson with poor results. Lucky the French judges gave him a draw after he pulled out after 10 rds of a 20 rd fight. Jack Johnson willing to fight Battle Jim because he represented little threat, which was what Johnson was all about, maintaining his top dog status.

There was big money available to defend against Langford in England and France and also against Jeannette in France. They represented threat and usurption of status Johnson could not live with. Willard represented little threat, more comfort, and put him close to home.

Wills was a still green newcomer but supposedly in talks with Johnson. Would love to know more about the nature and timing of of those talks.