Pete Ehrmann
57 articles · Boxing.com
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The incredibly shrinking Harry Wills
By Pete Ehrmann
“I have had strange eating habits since I was a boy. It is nothing to be proud of, ashamed nor alarmed about. Bears don’t eat all winter and Harry Wills fasts a…
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?An odd character in the boxing world?
By Pete Ehrmann
For someone determined as the man called Doc Lunt was to keep his real name a secret and his face out of camera range, he was not exactly a shrinking violet. In…
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One tough hombre
By Pete Ehrmann
The last boxing saw of Leo Lokovsek, he was sitting on a windowsill in a Seattle, Washington gym, staring into the abyss that had just opened under him when his manager, Jack…
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Boxing?s inconsequential Rickard
By Pete Ehrmann
At the same time a gambler and saloonkeeper named Rickard was coming to the fore as a boxing promoter in the first decade of the 20th century, a pug by the same…
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The champion of Belleau Wood
By Pete Ehrmann
From 1921 up to the last newspaper mention of him I found four years later, he was billed as ?Young Wolgast, World?s Champion One-Legged Boxer.? It was variously reported that his proper…
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Boxing?s Robinson Crusoe
By Pete Ehrmann
What prompted him to take up boxing in his early twenties isn?t known; what is known is that initially he was pretty bad at it? If he hadn?t craved fresh air and…
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Mr. High Life and Mr. Lowlife
By Pete Ehrmann
Charlie Metrie fought some of the best lightweights of his era, including world champion Benny Leonard in 1919 (TKO by 7)? Charlie Metrie fought some of the best lightweights of his era,…
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The greatest sparring partner story ever told
By Pete Ehrmann
In a 61-fight career during the Great Depression, the only title Mickey Misko won was the light-heavyweight championship of Michigan? Old-time boxing fictioneers like Robert Howard and Jim Tully cottoned to thunderous…
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A blow for human consciousness
By Pete Ehrmann
It?s been a long time since a boxer towered over the local landscape. Hurrah for Emil Kayer, whoever he was? Of the wide range of emotions triggered by boxing, empathy (the action…
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When badass Leo Gordon upstaged Sugar Ray
By Pete Ehrmann
In 1943, he held up a tavern in Los Angeles, took a policeman?s slug in the gut, and did a four-year stretch in San Quentin prison? When Sugar Ray Robinson defended his…
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The irresistible spell of King Tut
By Pete Ehrmann
On a perfect night 89 summers ago, 9,000 fans were lured to the ballpark called ?The Orchard? by the irresistible spell of King Tut? From the first one on July 27, 1926…
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Happy King Levinsky Day
By Pete Ehrmann
?King Levinsky was a gladiator of the first order until he ran into (really away from) a youngster known as the Brown Bomber?? Since nobody at Union County College has gotten around…
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Noble Art, ignoble son
By Pete Ehrmann
I met James J. Braddock when he came to our house prior to an appearance at the local Eagles club where my dad, Art Ehrmann, was a poohbah? Fifty-three years ago on…
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The downward spiral of the Kansas Cyclone
By Pete Ehrmann
The sudden public emergence of Brooks as a heavyweight colossus was undoubtedly the handiwork of his manager, Mickey Curran, nicknamed ?Ballyhoo?? Located in south-central Kansas just above the state line, the city…
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The trials of Curley Lee
By Pete Ehrmann
?The battle of David vs. Goliath came out the way you?d logically expect last night when Curley Lee was bombed into submission by gigantic Cleveland Williams? When the Los Angeles cops arrived…
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Gus Christie?s last fight
By Pete Ehrmann
Several generations of Milwaukee youngsters learned to box from him, among them Spencer Tracy, later one of the greatest actors in movie history? Who hasn?t heard about Billy Miske?s last fight? The…
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Local hero
By Pete Ehrmann
Dempsey wasn?t taking any risks on the exhibition tour he?d kicked off. His opponents were strong, willing but limited bruisers like Pat McLaughlin? About 125 miles north of Milwaukee, Waupaca, Wisconsin, pop.…
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Family feud
By Pete Ehrmann
The trial prompted a terse editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: ?When you are drunk don?t form the habit of adopting pugilists. You may regret it?? November 18 is National Adoption Day,…
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The multiple mysteries of Orlando Trotter
By Pete Ehrmann
?He can do a lot of fighting on his own account, rather than selling himself as the brother-in-law of Champion Joe Louis who married his sister, Marva?? Orlando Trotter was already an…
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Soft name, hard man
By Pete Ehrmann
Tillie?s previous involvement with law enforcement included arrests for beating up his pregnant and enchantingly-named spouse, Laverna Taverna? That dude?s name was ?Tillie? Taverna. Imagine me, the great big, strong man, being…