1939-05-29 — Page 21

THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 29, 1939.

FROM PIN BOY IN BOWLING ALLEY TO TRIPLE CHAMPION

By Leo Fuller

L'IL PERPETUAL MOTION,

S

HENRY

ARMSTRONG

and at a tender age worked as a pin out.

Overnight Sensation

trail

a

had

INARLING deadly defiance, like, tougher fights, and when he started native city of St. Louis. It was a trip the end, and Henry blazed his

a cornered cougar, little Henry the killing drives that were to take that still brings nightmare memories, nearer and nearer to the featherweight him through sensational fights, few Twice they were almost killed, when title. Armstrong recently belted Ceferino realized the wealth of bitter experience they fell asleep on the 'rods' of a For the next few months it was an Garsia into a bloody defeat. He that was behind the blows of the little goods train; the second time when a up and down life for young Henry, railroad cop fired on them. They stag-and it wasn't until he was boxing in thus kept his welterweight crown brown man.,

In the first place he originally call- gered into a hobo 'jungle' after days Hollywood that a great change came as dramatically as he won it from

Out in front that night Barney Ross, as sensationally as ed himself Melody Jackson. He was of freezing and starvation, but even over his luck. he took the lightweight champion. the thirteenth child of a poor family,/ then the hobo king had them thrown were Al Jolson, George Raft and

well known fight manager named Eddie Henry smashed Dave Abad ship from Lou Ambers, and

The two Sepia kids eventually stag- Meade. as boy in a bowling alley. He learned to

they into a pulpy mess in four rounds of fiercely as he gained the feather- set up ten pins in two motions, and gered into Los Angeles, and

City of Sunshine was the fastest fighting Hollywood

as weight title from Mike Belloise. the 'spreading' with both hands gave found the

him fists tougher than teak. He can bleak as any other when a man hadn't seen, Last week he outpointed Roderick still split an inch plank with one wala dollar in his pocket. Weak and ex- the British lightweight champion, lop!.

hausted, they looked for work, and it Henry had a few amateur bouts, and wasn't for several days before their in a memorable fight.

he was trained by another coloured luck slightly turned. They met Leroy boy. These two were so friendly they Haynes, the negro heavyweight, and claimed to be brothers, and adopted he staked them to a few dollars and the same name as Armstrong. Both the free use of, a gymnasium.

wanted to go of them

to college-

Henry got three dollars for his first Harry to learn to write, Henry to semi-professional bout, and he was to study medicine and the piano. have nearly a hundred similar contests before be began to show that dynamic offensive which rocketted battering him to fame.

In 1932 Henry was still fighting under the name of Melody Jack- son, a diminutive load of dynamite, but still without a fuse. Eventually Henry's contract was bought for fifteen pounds by a ager named Wirst Ross, and it about this time that his killing, tering, bruising assault began to velop.

Li'l Henry Armstrong is the miracle man of boxing. He is the first fighter in the history of glove warfare ever to have held three championships at the He is one of the most co- same time. lourful battlers the ring has even seen, and one of the most likeable lads în the game.

Henry came up the hard way. was case hardened in tough time

Nightmare Memories With three dollars between them inl the pair set off to California from their

He

Norman Yardley, the Cambridge University captain of last sea- son, scored 140 not out against Lis old University for Yorkshire in a match which concluded in a victors. för Yorkshire on Friday. Photo shows Yardley practising at the nets at the beginning of the month. (Fox Copyright),

First By Fight

thousand dollars to buy the little ne- That same night Al Jolson lent five gro's contract. It must be remember- ed that at this moment Armstrong was looked upon merely as a fairly good fighter. Yet suddenly Henry_develop- ed. Overnight he became a fistic sen- sation, and no one has ever been more greatly shocked than Mr. Wirt Ross when he went East to Chicago to see a sensational 'newcomer' named Henry Armstrong defeat Tony Chevez, in seven rounds.

I

From then on Hustling Henry be- gan the era of killing knock-outs, which has made him indisputably one of the greatest fightmen of all times. man- He knocked Mike Belloise clawing to was his knees in four rounds, settled Petey bat-Sarron, the Birmingham Buzz Saw in de-six sessions-these two were rival

claimants to the featherweight title.

Next Henry went gunning for Bar- ney Ross, welterweight champion of Henry's first big fight was against the world. The little negro beat the non-stop Baby Cazanova, in Mexico City. Ross big welterweight in fifteen

Short weeks after this he arrived wearing his ten gallon Stetson rounds. hat, three inch check suit, blinding; faced Lou Ambers for the lightweight shirts and incredible shoes.

championship of the world. At the end

Everybody knew Mr. Ross was in town, but nobody knew much about Li'l Henry.

A vicious, slashing, murderous fight. ing machine, Henry pounded the Mexican to the canvas in a few rounds. Cazanova actually crumpled on what looked like a foul, and the Latin fans went berserk.

Henry nearly cried, as he and his manager waited all day outside the offices of the Commission, who. were deciding whether or not they should be paid their money.

"Maybe I done murdered him," Henry suggested fearfully.

of three quarters of an hour's unbe- lieveable punching 'Li'l Perpetual Mo- tion had added his third titulous scalp to his belt!

This unassuming little negro with the huge shoulders and wasp waist is the first man in the his- tory of pugilism ever to hold three titles at one time.

Now Henry has given up the fea- therweight title, but he is defending the other two against all comers, in- cluding Len Harvey, Britain's "hope." It's a far cry from the tough times suffered by Melody Jackson, but Li'l Henry certainly-deserves his golden.

"I hope not," Ross replied with feel-days. ing. "If you did we won't get our end of the game.

Everything turned out all right in|

(COPYRIGHT)

To-morrow--Two Ton Tony, the fighting Falstaff,

Correct Swinging

By BEST BALL

Many golfers, trying to incor- porate into their swing the long backstroke arc, think they have achieved their purpose by adapt- Such a ing a sway to the right. movement creates the false im- pression in their mind that their swing has lengthened appreciably. Actually their arms and hands have taken the club back in the same fashion as they have been used to before but the shifting of the body to right carries the head with it and creates the illusion of correct performance. The correct swing requires the head to be an- chored in one position, the body may turn freely beneath it of course, but it should be the cen- tre of the swing. This fixes the hub of the circle, the straight left arm acts as the spoke which keeps the rim or edge in a constant posi- tion.

It has been definitely proven that the wide are allows greater down- awing momentum to be created but this are should be made along. orthodox lines. Bobby Jones sets a perfect example in the above illustration of the start. The straight left arm pushes the club back, the body revolving to the right with it. The head remains stationary. Try a golf exercise in- corporating this simple turn this winter and observe how well the

GRAPHIC GOLF

TO GAIN LONG

BACKSWING ARC

TRY TAKING CLUB BACK

LIKE

·BOBBY JONES

actual golf swing will react next spring.

Wednesday Follow-Through.