PLUCK {John L. Sullivan}

Throughout the 20th century, those living in Irish-dominated Boston grew up being told all about the popular pugilist who became the world’s most celebrated boxer. Irishman John L. Sullivan (1858-1918), during his heyday, erupted into an iconic celebrity much in the same way Mohammad Ali did in the 1960s. Idolized as The Boston Strong Boy, 1882-1892, his peak years were 140 years before anyone living today was born (see Christopher Klein’s Strong Boy, published, 2013).

Mr. Pluck grew up in Boston’s South End/Roxbury jurisdiction, where so many Irish offspring born after him were nurtured. The author of this sketch recalls a time in 1950 when, as a 14-year-old Boy Scout from Boston’s rough Roxbury/Dorchester neighborhoods, he went one Spring day with several Boy Scout cohorts to clean up a backyard that winter had rumpled. The owner, Mrs. Alice M. Morse, was still enjoying life at 90 years. Politely, she went out of her way during the cleanup process to tell me that John L. Sullivan used to live just down the street from her and that he used to stride regularly past her 8 Folsom Street house, the same property I was cleaning up. She said John L. Sullivan always tipped his stovepipe hat (see cigar box image below) as he

By Charles J. Humber

strode past her veranda, always strutting and promenading with his rattan while puffing cigars. She claimed Mr. Sullivan habitually nodded to her as he passed her by, greeting a young Miss Alice with “Good Day, ma’am.” She stressed that John L. Sullivan brandished the largest handlebar mustache ever worn!

Over the last 70-plus years, this author has never forgotten this genial memory about John L. Sullivan, fittingly nicknamed Pluck by the well-known liquor and cigar merchant John S. Bowman (Bowman & Company) located at Factory No. 178, 1st District, San Francisco, California. [See next article John S. Bowman on page 25] Bowman trademarked a number of different names and brands for his cigars and was responsible for crafting and retailing a rare Pluck wooden cigar box that once held 50 Pluck cigars in the 1890s. (See Fig. 1)

John L. Sullivan was born to parents whose families had endured the 1850s Irish Potato Famine. In addition to the tens of thousands of Irish folks who had no choice but to flee their beloved

January 25, 1883. His approval rating was so high John L. could have run for any political office and easily won! Especially in Irish-dominated Boston!

His initial coast-to-coast tour began in 1883, lasting well into 1884, a timeline in which he traveled with five other boxers aboard cross-country trains transversely touring America. Between them, they had 195 fights in 136 different cities, stopping in places like Madison Square Garden on May 14, 1883; McKeesport, Pennsylvania; St. Paul, Minnesota; Butte, Montana; Astoria, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; both Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia; San Francisco; Galveston, Texas; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee among many other places. No question: The Boston Strong Boy became a household name! John L. Sullivan is the first champion to hold the heavyweight

A trade card from the 1890s advertising Allen & Ginter’s cigarettes made in Richmond, Virginia that depicts a most muscular John L. Sullivan.

Orange-amber “John S. Bowman Jewel Old Bourbon Sole Agents” cylinder fifth and old amber “Jewel Bitters A. Fortlouis & Co.” bottle. There is also a super-rare version of the bottle that is embossed “Jewel Bitters John S. Bowman & Co.”

Ireland, it is guesstimated some 40 million Americans living today can claim their Irish ancestry to lineages who had suffered from that devastating Irish food crisis. John L. Sullivan’s father came from Kerry County; his mother from Westmeath County. A young John L. grew up in Boston gravitating, first, to baseball, pursuing the Red Stockings. This was after he tentatively had planned to attend Boston College, where he unstably had ideas of entering the priesthood. These details took place before Mr. Pluck turned twenty.

The illegal “underground” boxing world totally climaxed his interest. By 1878 he had earned his nickname, The Boston Strong Boy, a term that became a national moniker, especially after his first bare-knuckle fight at Roxbury’s Dudley Street Opera House, where he knocked out his opponent with the bout’s first punch. Although John L. Sullivan was acclaimed America’s heavyweight champion by 1878, full recognition, de facto, didn’t come his way until 1882 when newspaper headlines declared him the World’s Heavyweight Champion, an accolade turning him into the boxing world’s first idol if not the sporting world’s first superstar!

Headlines were followed by lively stories that aggrandized John L. Sullivan and his colossal Pluck in the ring, whether boxing in Cincinnati, 1880; New York City, 1881; Philadelphia, 1881; Mississippi City, 1882; Buffalo, 1982; Tacoma, Washington, 1882; or in Rochester, New Hampshire, 1882, where John L. fought “Battling Archie” Labbe, the grandfather of Paul Labbe, this author’s boyhood buddy from Dorchester; or in Toronto, title under the Marquis of Queensbury Rules, recognized today as the start of modern boxing. He was as well the last heavyweight champion holding the prize under the London Prize Rules that governed bare-knuckle fighting. He first won this championship by defeating Paddy Ryan, another Irishman, in Mississippi City on February 17, 1882, a bout that lured such personalities as Oscar Wilde to travel from Ireland for the match. Some claim outlaw Jesse James, three months before his murder, traveled incognito to watch this clash. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (see Vol. I, page 141) is alleged to have watched this clash of two titans. Sullivan’s most famous fight over his 10-year career as heavyweight champ occurred when Boston’s Strong Boy fought still another Irishman, Jake Kilrain, a bout giving Pluck the official American Heavyweight Championship. This July 8, 1889 match lasted 75 rounds. Newspaper headlines around the world reported the results. One could claim, with qualified buoyancy, that Sports Journalism originated with John L. Sullivan.

After losing his title to Irishman “Gentleman” Jim Corbett, New Orleans, 1892, John L. ceased drinking and joined the Temperance Movement. In ongoing speeches, John L. even claimed that Jim Corbett never beat him, asserting that it was alcohol that beat him! He and his second wife retired to Abington, Massachusetts, in 1906. After his death in 1918, Mr. Pluck was honorably buried in Roslindale, a Boston suburb. One of his pallbearers was Jake Kilrain, the one who lost the 75-round bout to Mr. Pluck in 1889.