<Archive Obituary> John L. Sullivan (February 2nd 1918)
Bill Schenley
Red Stockings.>
JOHN L. SULLIVAN FATALLY STRICKEN;
World's Most Popular Ring Gladiator Dies Suddenly
from Heart Attack.
BATTLES UNTIL THE END
Romantic Career of Picturesque Boxing Character Ends
at His Home on Massachusetts Farm.
Photo:
http://flashyourstache.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/johnlsullivan-4.jpg
FROM: The New York Times (February 3rd 1918) ~
By Staff Writer
John L. Sullivan is dead. The former heavyweight
champion of the world and the most picturesque
figure the prize ring ever knew passed away yesterday
at his home, Donelee Ross Farm, at West Abington,
Mass. He was taken ill with heart trouble three weeks
ago, but his health improved and he was able to go to
Boston Friday. Yesterday he fainted and did not
recover consciousness for ten minutes. George Bush,
a friend who lived with him, applied ice bags to the
former champion's head and he rallied.
Sullivan's game fighting spirit was with him to the end.
When Bush sent for a doctor, John L. said: "I don't
want any doctor. I've listened to a lot of them in my life
and I know I am all right and I can doctor myself."
Sullivan protested when his doctor ordered him to go to
bed. "Is the bathroom warm?" asked Sullivan. "Well,
that's fine. I want to take a bath." Ten minutes later the
white-haired old pugilist was dead. At his bedside when
the end came were Dr. Rann, his friend, George Bush,
and Willie Kelley, the 15-year-old boy who was adopted
by Sullivan.
The prize ring never brought fame to any man as it did
to John L. Sullivan. For a period of more than ten years,
from the time he defeated Paddy Ryan in 1882, in a
bare-knuckle fight under the London prize ring rules,
until he was defeated by Jim Corbett in 1892, his
personality and methods of fighting dominated sporting
circles in this country.
Sullivan was born in Boston on Oct. 15, 1858. His
father, Michael Sullivan, was a native of Tralee, County
Kerry, Ireland, and his mother was born at Athlone.
Sullivan was a rough and tumble fighter in his early
days and a terror among the lads of his generation.
Knocks Out First Opponent
The first time he ever took part in a boxing match was
when he was 19 years old. A strapping young fighter
named Scannell appeared on the stage of a Boston
theatre and offered to fight any one in the house.
Sullivan, who was in the gallery, accepted the challenge
and, in the fight which followed, Sullivan knocked out
his opponent. Then Sullivan realized that he possessed
a remarkable punch in his famous right fist and took up
prizefighting as a livelihood. He was known as the
Boston Strong Boy, for he could lift heavy weights and
juggle beer kegs, and one time he is said to have lifted a
piano in a test of strength.
John L.'s first fight as a professional was against a
scrapper named Cockey Woods. In 1878 Sullivan
knocked out Woods with his terrific right. His fame as
a fighter spread to other cities and in that same year he
boxed Mike Donovan in Boston and, after Sullivan had
knocked him down two or three times, Donovan had a
hard time saving himself from being knocked out.
Sullivan's greatest fights were with Paddy Ryan in 1882,
a 39-round bare-knuckle draw with Charley Mitchell of
England in 1888, and his famous fight with Jake Kilrain
in 1889. It was largely through Sullivan's achievements
in the ring that the championship title became a great
money prize. In the early days of his career $1,000 a
side was considered a heavy purse. Sullivan received
only $53 for his fight which gave him the right to
challenge Paddy Ryan for the championship.
Won Title From Ryan
Sullivan knocked out Paddy Ryan at Mississippi City,
Feb. 7, 1882. It was a bare-knuckle fight for $5,000 a
side and the championship of America. At this fight
the expression "knockout" was coined by Billy Madden,
Sullivan's trainer. On March 10, 1888, Sullivan fought a
39-round draw with bare knuckles against Charley
Mitchell at Chantilly, France. Sullivan's hardest fight
was with Jake Kilrain at Richburg, Miss., on July 8, 1889.
This fight lasted 75 rounds, and was the last
championship fight held in this country under London
Prize Ring rules.
That fight practically decided the uselessness of
trying to beat Sullivan at his own sledgehammer style
of fighting. A 39-round fight with Charley Mitchell,
a wary, skillful boxer, showed fight managers that John L.
would be vulnerable to a man who could box and stay
away from him long enough to wear him down.
This opportunity fell to the lot of Jim Corbett, the
pompadoured bank clerk of San Francisco. The famous
fight was held at New Orleans before the Olympic Club.
For twenty rounds the agile, youthful Corbett danced and
pranced around the great John L., who became so
infuriated that he threw all caution to the winds and made
frantic efforts to flatten the youngster with his
sledgehammer right., only to tire himself until he was easy
prey for Corbett, who won the championship in the
twenty-first round.
In his day Sullivan made more than a million dollars at
prizefighting and he admitted that most all of it was
spent for whiskey. After his defeat by Corbett, Sullivan
changed from the gruff, rough-and-tumble fighter.
In spite of his dissipation, Sullivan's remarkably strong
physical constitution withstood the ravages of drink.
In later years John L. became a mild-mannered, jovial
old gentleman. He settled down on his farm in
Massachusetts and became a country squire.
Wrote of Boxing Matches
Sullivan left his farm a few years ago to go to Reno to
write the Jeffries-Johnson fight for THE NEW YORK
TIMES. His last public appearance in this city was at the
ringside at Madison Square Garden when Jess Willard
boxed ten rounds with Frank Moran. On that occasion
Sullivan was with Moran heart and soul and jeered at the
cautious boxing tactics of the big champion. When
Sullivan was introduced in the ring at the Garden that
night he got a reception which brought tears to his eyes,
and he said afterward that it was the happiest moment of
his life.
No fighter ever lived about whom so much has been
written as John L. Sullivan. He always had a fund of
interesting yarns and delighted to tell about the rough,
unchecked, wild career of his early days. They tell about
Sullivan knocking down a horse with one punch in
Boston. They tell of how he used to clean out barrooms
and subdue bullies by the dozen. He wrecked saloons
by throwing chairs and tables through the windows and
mirrors, and when John L. was at large everybody ran to
cover. It was then his delight to pay for the damage with
a lavish hand. Sullivan was a terror for policemen,
hackmen, and bartenders, and they all gave him a free
road when he was out on an expedition to paint the town
red.
For all his trouble-making, Sullivan was always forgiven
because he was champion. He was a ready spender and
scattered money right and left. When it became necessary
to place Sullivan in the clutches of the law, the Magistrates
always let him off with a reprimand and a promise never
to do it again.
When news came that Corbett had challenged Sullivan,
John L. laughed and said, "He wants to fight me, eh?
Well, all the training I need is a hair cut and a shave to
beat his head off in one round." Sullivan would not listen
to the advice of his friends to train faithfully for Corbett,
so he only went through the motions of training for the
fight which marked the end of his pugilistic career. Sullivan
never allowed any man to dictate to him. When he left this
city on a special train for New Orleans before the fight,
Sullivan yelled from the car platform to the crowd of friends
who were there to cheer him on his way, "I'll knock this
young dub out in a punch."
Everywhere that Sullivan went he was hailed as a hero.
Everywhere his train stopped there were great throngs to
cheer him. Men fought with each other to reach him and
shake his hand.
Becomes Temperance Lecturer
When Sullivan reformed in later years he became a rabid
prohibitionist and toured the country as a temperance
lecturer. In 1905, while in a saloon in Terre Haute, Ind.,
he suddenly got up and said to the crowded barroom of
men that he was going to give his greatest enemy, the
Black Bottle, a knockout punch.
It was an impressive scene. Sullivan with a whiskey
bottle in his hand then and there took an oath that he was
through with drink. "If I take another drink I hope
I choke, so help me God," said Sullivan. He never took
another, and from that day to the day he died he kept up
his fight for temperance.
For the last ten years Sullivan has lived on his little
Massachusetts farm. John L. was first married in 1882
to Annie Bates of Centreville, R.I., but she left him after
a few months, and finally got a divorce on the grounds
of desertion after twenty-six years. When he was 51
John L. married Kate Harkins of Roxbury, Mass., a girl
friend of his boyhood days. They were happy on their
farm for several years, and it was a heavy shock to old
John L. when she died several months ago.
The white-haired old man of Donelee Ross Farm, jovial,
kind, and smiling, was quite a different character from
the young rowdy who used to go on the wild rampages
in Boston in his youthful days. "I have anchored here,"
said John L. at West Abington a few years ago, "until my
time comes. There is no place like home. My greatest
battle was with the Black Bottle and I won."
His later years were peaceful and serene. Occasionally
he would run into Boston, but most of the time he was
looking after his live stock and his farm. The famous
John L., whose name was known all over the world after
that famous fight with Charley Mitchell at Chantilly,
changed into a lovable, patriarchal old sage, with a kind
word for every one on his lips, and with always a word
of advice to young men to follow the straight and narrow
path. Never has the American prize ring had such a
character as Sullivan, and never again will the fighting game
produce another man who will stamp his personality on
the world of pugilism as the blunt, gray, old philosopher of
Donelee Farm.
---
Photos:
http://www.heavyweightcollectibles.com/Post%20C48.jpg
http://www.pantagraph.com/content/articles/2007/01/07/news/122383.jpg
http://www.patriotprintshoppe.com/tn_874John%20L%20Sullivan%20Prize%20Fighter.jpg
1887 N-28 Allen & Ginter's cigarette trading card:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/John_L._Sullivan1.jpg