BoxRec

Possibly the biggest booming era in boxing history, at least in the Heavyweight division, was from 1908-1915. When Jack Johnson defeated Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, the world was turned upside down.

Jack London, writer for the New York Herald, and later author of such novels as White Fang and Call of The Wild, wrote these words that set a flame to the sport that spread out like a brush fire:

was with Burns all the way. He was a white man and so am I. Naturally I wanted to see the white man win. Put the case to Johnson and ask him if he were the spectator at a fight between a white man and a black man which he would like to see win. Johnson's black skin will dictate a desire parallel to the one dictated by my white skin. . . . But one thing remains. Jeffries must emerge from his alfalfa farm and remove the smile from Johnson's face. "Jeff, it's up to you . . ."

-- New York Herald, December 27, 1908


It was a promoter's dream. Every man and his brother came out of the wood work and put on boxing gloves to become the "white hope" the world was searching for. Circus freaks, lumber jacks, miners, cowboys, you name it, there was someone in mind that fit the bill.

Several men tried to dethrone Johnson, even Middleweight champion Stanley Ketchell tried and failed. Here is a list of the 'great white hopes' that tried and failed to either defeat Johnson, or faild to make their mark on the division:

"Agile" Andre Anderson
"Sailor" Jack Carroll
George "One Round" Davis
Tom "Bearcat" McMahon
Ed "Gunboat" Smith
Carl "Freight Train" Morris
Frank Moran
"Fireman" Jim Flynn
Al Kaufmann
Soldier Kearns
Jack Lester
Tony Ross
Jim Stewart
Victor McLaglen
Dan Daily
Joe Cox
Bill Brennan
Jim Coffey
Bob Devere
Sandy Ferguson
Joe Bonds
Al Benedict
Fred Fulton
"Denver" Jack Geyer
Charles Horn
Tom Kennedy
Jim Savage
Billy Miske
Dan "Porky" Flynn
Al Reich
George "Boer" Rodel
Tom Cowler
Al Pazer
Arthur Pelkey
"Bombardier" Billy Wells*
"Lucky" Luther McCarty

*Billy Wells was English, and though considered a white hope, the white hope craze was more rampant and the talk of the media in the United States, so it is more an American phenomenon than a British one.

The press by and large considered Luther McCarty to be the best of the "white hopes", though ironically he himself was Native American, as his father was a Chief.

The white hope era ended on April 5th, 1915 in Havannah, Cuba when 6'6" 230 pound giant Jess Willard managed to defeat Jack Johnson. It would be virtually almost 20 more years before another black man would hold the title.

The best of the bunch, in my opinion, are in bold.

Other "white hopes" after the official "white hope era" are named here:

Duane Bobick
Tommy Morrison
Gerry Cooney
Randall Tex Cobb
Chuck Wepner

and....to a lesser degree Jerry Quarry and Andrew Golota. The Klitschko's can be argued over and over whether or not that they, too, were and still are "white hopes" to the general public, but as they have held title(s) you can't really dismiss them as being one so easily.

There are countless other "white hopes" to be mentioned, as I can't name down every single one, but you could make an argument that guys like Lou Savarese and Scott Frank were "white hopes", among others.

So if you have anyone in particular in mind, drop your comments here.

It was a rather sad era in my opinion. It seemed like every single town in the United States had the "next great white hope," which usually just amounted to the biggest and roughest white man in each area being given a liscense to fight, but they were quickly disposed of. It was a very active period in heavyweight boxing, but for all the wrong reasons. Of the supposed great white hopes those that could really fight were only a select few:

Ed "Gunboat" Smith
Carl "Freight Train" Morris
Frank Moran
"Fireman" Jim Flynn
Bill Brennan
Jim Coffey
Fred Fulton
Billy Miske
"Bombardier" Billy Wells*
"Lucky" Luther McCarty

It could be said that those guys were the actual contenders of that group...maybe a couple others as well. Plus there were a few light heavyweights to make a mark, such as Battling Levinsky!

Apparently there were no other weight classes other than heavyweight according to the geniuses who wrote this crock.

Funny, in everything I've ever read about McCarty, I never heard him called "Lucky" before.

Cap

Cap wrote:Funny, in everything I've ever read about McCarty, I never heard him called "Lucky" before.

Cap

BECAUSE HE NEVER WAS.

But what does that matter to a self-proclaimed boxing "expert" with an agenda?

The self-proclaimed boxing "experts" are crawling out of the woodwork and saturating the media currently.

They ALL sell the very same currently politically correct agenda:

Black--good

White---bad

Not a one of them ever had a fight with his own sister.

Their incompetence when it comes to boxing REEKS.

.
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The book "The Great White Hopes" by Graeme Kent is a great read which deals with this era of heavyweight history.
I highly recommend it.

-KOKid-

-KOKid- wrote:The book "The Great White Hopes" by Graeme Kent is a great read which deals with this era of heavyweight history.
I highly recommend it.

-KOKid-

The book "The Great White Hopes" by Graeme Kent is a load of crap written from the all-pervading, modern politically correct agenda
of Black--good White--bad.

Written by someone who has no background in boxing

and repeating in every page that

the world revolves around Jack Johnson.

Pathetic.

.

I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong here but leading up to the Jack Johnson - Stanley Ketchell Title fight Gunboat Smith worked as a sparring partner for both fighters.

granberry wrote:

-KOKid- wrote:The book "The Great White Hopes" by Graeme Kent is a great read which deals with this era of heavyweight history.
I highly recommend it.

-KOKid-

The book "The Great White Hopes" by Graeme Kent is a load of crap written from the all-pervading, modern politically correct agenda
of Black--good White--bad.

Written by someone who has no background in boxing

and repeating in every page that

the world revolves around Jack Johnson.

Pathetic.

.

Obviously we differ as to the impression it had on us.
As far as I know, Graeme Kent has at least written two other boks on boxing history, so a background in boxing he does have.
"The Great White Hopes" has also received favorable reviews from credible sources, including Ring Magazine.
I still stronlgy recommend it.

-KOKid-

Thr RING magazine ended when Nat Fleischer died.

Since then it has been a sick joke

under drunken Bert Sugar and his idiot editor Herb Goldman

under Fleischer's worst enemy Stanley Weston and his pathetic editor Steve Farhood

and under the editorship of 1960's radical and burnout Nigel Collins.

.

>>>I'm no fan and no friend of Barry, but he's never had a racial agenda in his posts. It's silly to imply that there is one.<<<

Thank you for that much...and although I too do not care for you that much... a lot of the time you understand me, whether I am being sincere, or just being an asshole...now I kind of feel bad and had to go back and erase most of the other post that I had written. But as to the racial agenda, it would be rather silly for a white man, like myself, to take the route of Black Good, White Bad, but at that point in history, for anyone who who really knows about the time period, the generally consesus was Black Bad, White Good...anyone saying otherwise simply has not done much reading on the time period, or they are just too prejudice to admit the truth of the issue...that is just plain fact...not just in boxing, but pretty much in all of America and to attempt to deny it, hell might as well try to deny the holocaust!

>>>under drunken Bert Sugar and his idiot editor Herb Goldman<<<

Seems you have a grudge...lets not forget to mention that Herb Goldman edited the single, most important and accurate boxing record book in the history of boxing with the 1986-87 RRB...sounds more like jealousy...who are you anyways to try to come down on some of the people that have kept boxing alive, what have you done that would make those you speak of pale in comparision?

And for the record Ring magazine of the 80s was a very good, the 70s Ring sucked as did part of the 60s, but the 80s Ring was probably the best boxing publication in the U.S. and then late 80s Ring started to really suck again, but BI picked up where Ring left off printing excellent articles and the most and very best fights results from around the world in print!