Yesterday’s Heroes: The story of Eddie McGoorty, a thrill-seeking tough nut who went 10 rounds with Harry Greb

By Miles Templeton

ONE THING that boxing has a lot of is characters. Promoters, trainers and managers are often bigger than life, with the boxers typically extra so. One such character was Eddie McGoorty of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Eddie would battle anybody, wherever and he barnstormed his means all over the world in doing so. The (*10*) even recognised him as World middleweight champion.

I’ve chosen him for this column as a result of of his fascinating document in opposition to British fighters, each over right here and within the States, and since of the calibre of the lads that he fought in opposition to in a 20-year profession that resulted in 1922.

His most well-known opponent is, undoubtedly, the good Harry Greb. The two clashed in 1918, with McGoorty popping out on the fallacious finish of a 10-round choice. Greb appears to have acquired an virtually legendary standing lately amongst boxing followers, many of whom are contextually younger. In an age when little regard is given to nice boxers of the previous, Greb appears to have transcended this bias, with many referring to him as the best boxer that ever lived. This can’t be confirmed as a result of there is no such thing as a footage of the good man within the ring, which I discover exceptional.

McGoorty first crossed the Atlantic in 1909, when he beat Nutty Curran in a 20-round contest in Dublin. He remained in Ireland for 4 months, profitable 4 of his 5 contests there. His solely loss got here in opposition to Tom Lancaster of Spennymoor, a actual arduous nut who claimed the Pitmen’s middleweight championship in 1909 by advantage of a 10^th spherical win over Tom Stokes of Mexborough. Stokes was thrown out for butting, however this didn’t trouble Lancaster, who was as tough as they got here. Victory over McGoorty was, undoubtedly, Tom’s most interesting victory in a 56-bout profession with solely 9 losses.

McGoorty recorded three extra wins in England after which, in 1912, be flattened Jack Harrison, the British middleweight champion, in a single spherical at Madison Square Garden.

In 1918, McGoorty represented the United States within the Victory event that happened on the Royal Albert Hall.  This occasion was held to have a good time the Allied victory within the First World War, and males from everywhere in the Commonwealth and the United States took half, together with Harry Greb. McGoorty misplaced out to eventual winner, Bombardier Billy Wells, within the heavyweight semi-final.

Throughout 1919 and 1920 McGoorty boxed many occasions within the UK assembly most of our main heavies and light-heavies. Among these he defeated have been Tom Gummer, Harry Reeve and Bandsman Rice. He was then matched to battle Joe Beckett, the British heavyweight champion, in a 20-round contest at Olympia. Per week or so earlier than the competition McGoorty was to be discovered “drunk and incapable” in Tottenham Court Road, for which he was fined 10 shillings at Bow Street magistrates court docket. Realising that he had upset the promoter, Charles B Cochran, and that curiosity within the contest might need been affected by his behaviour, McGoorty tried to make amends by telling the press: “I must have been the victim of the heat wave. I knew that I was not drunk. I pleaded guilty in the court because I wanted to escape publicity, but I was unlucky.  Don’t be alarmed Mr Cochran I shall be fit to fight the fight of my life against Beckett.”

McGoorty put in a respectable efficiency in opposition to Beckett, taking place within the seventeenth spherical of a hard-fought duel. Among many different nice fighters that McGoorty clashed with in a profession that commenced in 1902 have been George Chip, Battling Levinsky, Mike Gibbons, Les Darcy, Jeff Smith, Frank Klaus and Jack Dillon. His last battle within the UK happened at Windsor Conservative Club, of all locations, when he stopped Jack Stanley in three rounds.

He died in 1929, aged 40, from a throat ailment.  He was a hard-living, hard-fighting scrapper of Irish descent, the like of which is never seen in American rings at this time.