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[G1911]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Good lord! Looks like Hyland on the right, but I can't quite place the fella on the left.

I don't know how much they embellished the blood in the colorization process, but they certainly had lots of bloodbaths back then, especially among the lighter weight fighters who often wore less padded horsehair gloves then the higher weight guys. They didn't hit as hard, but would corkscrew their punches and cut each other up pretty badly.

Ad Wolgast and Bat Nelson were in several of these types of bouts. Both against each other and others.

The other gentleman is Ray Campbell (I don''t know him, because he doesn't have a T card ), in a 1913 bout. This is the original photo in B/W, so it looks like the colorization was fairly honest.

I know today's guys are the in the best shape drugs can create and are quicker etc., but man the old timers took incredible amounts of punishment and fought all the time. These guys had to be tough as nails. Baseball and boxing have the deepest histories, but boxing does not treasure or remember it's past like baseball does. I guess that kind of makes sense, a pastoral game of nostalgia vs. a sport of brutality. I have had a ton of fun looking up newspaper articles and coverage of the forgotten card subjects and learning about all the guys who weren't Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali.

[G1911]

30/50 Dixie Queen's crossed off now, this one being the most expensive of the remaining T220/T223 cards I need. 18 commons, Dempsey and Jackson are all I have left. Arrived in an SGC 35 slab I'll crack, feels like a full 1 grade point too high with the heavy staining and the corners so round that the top left is missing. I'd call it Fair if I was trading it.

[G1911]

And 3 more for my Pet run. Extra cool points because each of these men didn't appear on any other T cards.

Kelly was one of several claimants to the Middleweight title in the confusing situation after Ketchel's murder and ensuing boxing chaos.

Fireman Flynn was a heavyweight gatekeeper type who pops up all the time in sports news of the period. He tended to lose to the big names but he fought everyone and fought all the time, even by the standards of that period.

A Frankie Burns was a Bantam champion of the 1910's and great fighter, but this is a different Frankie Burns. Champion Frankie Burns mostly fought in the east and was form Jersey, the back text on this card is all about Oakland. I couldn't really tie him to a listing on Boxrec.

[Exhibitman]

Kelly was involved in some real brawls too.

Something I appreciate about the set is that the outdoor cards are very 'Western' in appearance. For those who haven't spent time on the southwest coast, we have relatively young, sharp mountain ranges due to seismic activity and large semi-arid valleys. The pyramid-like peaks and flats in the cards reflect the topography of the West really well. It is quite the contrast with the lusher, tamer, flatter backgrounds in T220.

[G1911]

A little upgrade for my main set.