Tom Finan

Name: Tom Finan
Hometown: Manistee, Michigan, USA
Birthplace: Manistee, Michigan, USA
Died: 1929-09-05 (Age:69)
Pro Boxer: Record

Family Letter

From a letter from his son to his niece 4-27-1977:

“The Finan that boxed was my father, Tom Finan. When he was thirteen he went to work in the woods. After he quit the woods he opened a men’s furnishing store in Manistee. He had always worked hard and in the store didn’t get the exercise that he was used to so he fixed a gymnasium in the back of his store. Word got around that he did lots of boxing and Pat McHugh, the heavy weight champion of the western states, came to Manistee and wanted to fight my Dad. My dad told him that he just boxed for exercise. McHugh stayed around Manistee and boasted that if he couldn’t whip Finan in four rounds he’d jump in Lake Michigan. This made Dad mad, he hired someone to run his store, went to Grand Rapids and trained under One-eyed Connelly for two weeks. You must remember my Dad had never seen a prize fight so he had a lot to learn in a short time. He came back to Manistee and took One-eyed Connelly with him to see Grandma Finan. She saw he only had one eye and thought he lost his fighting and wanted Tom to back out. He wouldn’t do but promised her that he would only fight the once and then quit. They were going to hold the fight in Manistee but word got out that they would arrest everybody connected with the fight. They went out of town to the Fairgrounds and held the fight there. Uncle Mike, Uncle Jim and Pa bet a lot of money as they were getting good odds, nobody thought he had a chance to win. The night of the fight they had $3,000 yet they hadn’t bet and they bet this money at the fight before it started. The fight went seventeen or eighteen rounds and Pa had eighteen knock downs and the last time he hit McHugh, he knocked him thru the ropes and into the crowd ending the fight.”