Claude "Humphrey" Mcbride

[Dart340]

Anybody able to weigh in on this somewhat mysterious 70's heavyweight out of Oklahoma?

I know he was either a fringe contender or close to it for a brief period of time and fought Buster Mathis for some strange sort of Super Heavyweight title. Anybody have a picture of him?

Duce, take some time away from antagonizing everyone with your Ali threads and add in on this one.

[klompton]

Unless Im mistaken he was a big, bald, obese fighter who entered the ring wearing polka dotted trunks that went down past his knees and were pulled up to his armpits. He was a clown fighter sort of like a cross between Ray Windmill White and Butterbean.

[DaveyMac]

I saw him fight when I was a little kid so he must have been on a Sean O'Grady undercard, and I think he was affiliated with the O'Grady's.

He was definitely not a contender, and although was really fun to watch was pretty much like the fella above described.

[DaveyMac]

August 13, 1972.

Btw, this article refers to him as 35, and I think he was born 28 May 1936 (not 100% positive), Boxrec still has him listed as 1932.

[DaveyMac]

Sep 5, 1972. This didn't come out very readable, that's Mathis clowning around pretending to be napping on McBride's shoulder in the press conference for their fight.

[DaveyMac]

I think this is him, sure looks like him in the picture, especially the teeth.
However, it is odd if it is him that they never mention his fight career.

http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignit ... id=4416682

[DaveyMac]

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?

[DaveyMac]

I don't doubt that he could have gained weight. I mean Doyle Brunson was a high school track star. :)

My problem is that the Humphrey McBride in the Fresno story I just don't think can be him for a number of reasons.

1) in those days you lost all athletic eligibility if you played a sport, so he couldn't run track at Fresno St for four years and then go play football for four more

2) I am pretty sure the boxer is the guy in the obit which would mean he was born in 1936 (which jives with the ages the Oklahoman gives him as well) and so he would only be 15 in 1951, not a sophomore in college

3) The Humphrey McBride in the track story was a graduate of Lodi High School in California, and in fact I found an earlier story about him where he was class president as a Freshman in 1947. None of that fits right with the age or being born and raised in Oklahoma.

4) Why would there be Lodi stories about him being class president and track but not about playing high school football? I mean skinny or not he was still 6 foot 5, I would think someone would mention that about the Lodi-Fresno Humphrey McBride.

5) Also I found another story from 1964 in Fresno where Humphrey McBride was a teacher there and moderating a panel discussion on "change means progress" which was apparently about a new style of report card (must have been fascinating). Even if we believe that McBride went to California some time before '47, to still be there in '64 and never have a California connection mentioned in any newspaper story about him while he was fighting? Seems hard to believe.

I think McBride was born 29 May 1936 and lived his whole life in the Oklahoma City area except maybe his time in college.

ETA- later after this found another story from Fresno Bee about Mrs. Humphrey R. McBride. I think this is the wife of TrackStar McBride and conclusive proof they are different folks.

[DaveyMac]

I just found this on Columbia Christian College in Wikipedia.

Cascade College was a private, four-year, liberal arts college associated with the Churches of Christ. Located in Portland, Oregon, United States, it was a branch campus of Oklahoma Christian University. Its mission was to emphasize spiritual growth and career preparation. Because of Cascade's ongoing financial problems, Oklahoma Christian University closed Cascade at the end of the 2009 academic year.[1][2]
Contents


History

Cascade had been founded as Columbia Christian College in 1956.[3] For several years, Columbia had serious financial difficulties. Partially as a consequence, its regional accreditation was revoked. The school's board sought help from other colleges affiliated with Churches of Christ. Oklahoma Christian University agreed to fund the college as a branch campus.

The Claude Herman McBride in the obit belonged to the Church of Christ. I think he went to Columbia Christian College through that connection and the rest of his life lived in Oklahoma City.

Unfortunate that his obit doesn't have more info.

[DaveyMac]

Found something else, which makes me definitely think the fella in the obit is our Claude "Humphrey" McBride.
Here is the obit McBride's ssn info.

Name: Claude H. McBride
Last Residence: 73127 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma
Born: 29 May 1936
Died: 20 Oct 2010
State (Year) SSN issued: Oregon (Before 1951)

As you can see he got his SSN card while in Oregon, which is where Columbia Christian College was. This leads me to believe Obit McBride is the one who attended CCC and that Trackstar McBride is 4 years older and attended Fresno St.

The only hitch is the "before 1951" but I've seen that mistake on a lot of SSN's and don't put much stock in it. There is no chance he got a SSN when he was 14, especially not back then.

[Dart340]

Ask and Ye Shall Receive....

Thanks to DaveyMac and my good friend Il Duce for the research and details!

[DaveyMac]

Yeah I've seen them claim he had 34 amateur fights. Not sure about when and the dates.

Pat O'Grady sure was a character. I grew up just outside of Oklahoma City and even before Sean was a star Pat really captured people's attention there for a bit. It was always something with him. But to be fair to him he did really bring back the sport for a while in OKC.

Sean of course was just the biggest thing ever down there. When he fought it was all anyone could talk about. We lived in Norman and so I would see Billy Sims and Barry Switzer, the Selmon brothers, all those folks all the time. We didn't even stop and think about it any more. My father and I see Pat and Sean at the airport once and I'll never forget it.

[DaveyMac]

Lol, could have happened that way. I found several stories with Daniels complaining.

Found a hilarious story about McBride and Oscar Bonavena. Seems Bonavena had been in OKC training for some fight and if he won it he was supposed to get a shot at foreman. McBride was one of his sparring partners and I guess he hit Bonavena a little hard and then clutched him and called him stupid. Bonavena was pissed and suddenly wanted his next fight to be against McBride.

The story was in The Daily Oklahoman and was remarkable to me for a couple of things. One was that Bonavena just kept saying he wanted to fight McBride and the writer was like you have a shot at Foreman and you want to mess with McBride??? The other thing was how incredibly racist the story would have been considered today. The writer lampooned Bonavena's accent so for instance he had Bonavena saying things "stupeed" instead of "stupid" and on and on. The whole interview sounded like the old "beisbol been berry berry good to me skit". Then if that wasn't enough Bonavena called Foreman a "monkee" and the writer seconded it. :)

[Dart340]

Duce, isn't posting on this thread more fun than working the "marks" on the Ali threads lol?

[DaveyMac]

Hank was old then too, but to be fair even then Hank was a much better fighter than anyone else McBride had fought until then.

[Chuck1052]

Oklahoma has had a Wild West-type atmosphere when it has come to professional boxing over the last forty or so years. It seems that Blackie Ramon with his active stable of stiffs had a field day providing extremely soft opposition for Pat O'Grady's charges during the 1970s and 1980s. Take a look at the ring records of Claude "Humphrey" McBride, Sean O'Grady, Tony McMinn and Monte Masters if you want to have an idea of what it was like when Pat O'Grady was staging shows featuring his fighters in Oklahoma City when there wasn't a state athletic commission. It was said that the imported opposition had to mix it up with Pat O'Grady's charges or they didn't get paid.

- Chuck Johnston

[Chuck1052]

According to his record, Monte Masters passed away in 1996. I didn't know that until now. Masters was Pat O'Grady's son-in-law and Sean O'Grady's brother-in-law at one point in time. I remember that Benny Georgino, the manager of Danny "Little Red" Lopez and Alberto Davila, was very critical of Masters' abilities during the early 1980s.

- Chuck Johnston

[Dart340]

I, for one, was impressed McBride went 10 competitive rounds with Terry Daniels when he did. Daniels may have not been a legit contender, but he was still a very solid main event Heavyweight with skills and stamina. The fact McBride could last ten rounds, nevertheless be competitive with him, was pretty surprising to me. He couldn't have been a complete sideshow act or he would've blown up and got whacked in a couple rounds.

[Chuck1052]

- Chuck,

How about those 'opponent names' in Oklahoma City......

* BoBo Bash
* Baby Hughie
* Johnny Sandman
* Earl Emhoolah
* Country-Boy Haybale
* Count Basey
* Shorty Long
* Jim Black {aka; Half-Ton Tony} '360 lbs.'
* Mack Truck

hhttp://boxrec.com/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&f=4&p=3745100#ttp://boxrec.com/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&f=4&p=3745100#

That's funny, Il Duce!

- Chuck Johnston

[Chuck1052]

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

[HomicideHenry]

Despite his limitations I can say this man was better than Butterbean, Richard Carmack and Lamar Clark. After all he went a few rounds with Mathis, etc. I'm glad Chuck brought up Monte Masters, which is a guy I heard of for many years--- think he only had one loss, or he retired undefeated. Rumor had it he retired because his promoter wanted him to marry his daughter so he could hold on to some minor championship belt or some crap like that.

[DaveyMac]

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!

[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)