Part IV. Claiming the Lightweight Title

They loved me, because they found out I would fight every second of every round and never give up.

Beau Jack

11. Stolz Stands Between Beau and a Title Bout

Beau Jack was rapidly approaching his first title fight, but the rugged, heavily favored Allie Stolz (1918–2000) stood in his way. Stolz was ranked as the number one lightweight contender by both the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) and the National Boxing Association (NBA). The winner would be in line for a title match against the champ, Sammy Angott. Seeking a title bout for Beau, Chick Wergeles pulled some strings to bring Stolz’s camp on board for the contest. Chick had to guarantee Stolz $10,000, and a $2,000 forfeit should Beau not come in under 135 pounds. In essence, Beau would be fighting for free. Although he would get 50 percent of the gate, he had to pay Stolz and his camp out of that amount. If the amount fell short of $10,000, Beau’s camp would have to come out of pocket to pay the difference.

Stolz’s manager, Willie Ketchum, was unyielding on the terms. Ketchum sternly expressed to Chick, “Not an ounce over 135, Wergeles, or the dough is mine. The Boxing Commission allows a pound leeway, but not me. And no sweatin’ in phone booths or running around the block. If your man don’t weigh under 135, I collect.”1 Unfaltering, Wergeles agreed to Ketchum’s demands, optimistically hoping to assure Jack a title fight with the lightweight champion Sammy Angott. On October 16, with the concessions agreed to by Beau’s team, promoter Mike Jacobs announced that Jack and Stolz had agreed to terms and signed to meet each other on November 13, 1942, at Madison Square Garden with the winner assured a title fight with Sammy Angott.

Mike Jacobs

New Yorker Mike Jacobs (1880–1953), often referred to as “Uncle Mike,” was the predominant boxing promoter of the 1930s and 40s. At a young age, he started scalping tickets for Coney Island boat excursions. Along with three newspaper reporters, Jacobs organized the Twentieth Century Sporting Club (“Twentieth Century SC”) to promote boxing matches in the New York area. In 1935, Jacobs also signed Joe Louis to an exclusive contract which would prove to be a financial gold mine. On September 24, 1935, in Joe’s first fight at Yankee Stadium, two hours after he was married, Louis defeated former heavyweight champion Max Baer in front of 84,831 paid spectators, grossing $932,944. Even when Joe lost to Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium on June 19, 1936, the 39,878 fans produced a gate of $547,531. Jacobs was well on his way.

Mike Jacobs with Joe Louis, c. 1941 (author’s collection).

In 1937, the Twentieth Century SC secured a lease for Madison Square Garden. To ensure a title match for Joe Louis, Jacobs matched him with heavyweight champion James Braddock in a title fight on June 22, 1937. Allegedly, Braddock was contractually promised a percentage of Joe Louis’ earnings for the next 10 years if he lost the fight. Louis emerged victorious and crowned the new heavyweight champion.

In 1938, Mike Jacobs became the sole owner of the Twentieth Century SC and entered into a partnership with Madison Square Garden. In an ­incredible ­money-making contest between Joe Louis and Billy Conn at Yankee Stadium on June 19, 1946, Jacobs raked in a gate of nearly $2 million. Over the years Jacobs promoted boxing matches, it is estimated that he made over $25 million in gates.

Jacob’s fame was so prominent that the block on West 49th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue in New York became known as “Jacobs Beach.” It was there that Jacobs’ ticket office was located and the biggest boxing deals negotiated. The boundaries were somewhat fluid depending on where Mike Jacobs was on any given day. Generally, Madison Square Garden anchored one corner of ­Jacobs Beach with the other corners being defined by other pugilist hang­outs, such as Stillman’s Gym, Lindy’s restaurant, Jack Dempsey’s restaurant, and the Forrest Hotel. Jacobs Beach is where the managers, trainers, and box­ers hung out, as well as sportswriters and bookies. Jacobs ruled boxing during the forties, pro­moting three matches grossing over $1 million each. Acknowledged for his contributions, Mike Jacobs was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1982 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

Grantland Rice, c. 1920 (Library of Congress).

Grantland Rice

In addition to the publicity guru, Chick Wergeles, Beau had an admirer and friend in renowned sportswriter Grantland Rice (1880–1954). They had met several years earlier when Beau began working at the Augusta National Golf Club. Grantland was one of the Club’s original members and a close friend of Bobby Jones. Rice admired Beau’s work ethic and referred to the “Augusta Ambuscade,” as Rice frequently called Beau, as a “quiet, simple, modest kid willing to work and work hard.”2

Grantland Rice’s columns and writings were legendary. After graduating from Vanderbilt University in 1901, Rice worked as a sportswriter for several Southern newspapers including the Atlanta Journal and the Nashville Daily News. As his career progressed, he worked for the New York Evening Mail, the New York Tribune, and the Herald Tribune. His sports columns, especially “The Sportlight,” became immensely popular. One on the most famous sportswriters in America during the thirties and forties, Rice’s columns became nationally syndicated in 1930. Referred to as the “Dean of American Sportswriters,” Rice mastered the “­Gee-Whizzers,” a breed of sportswriters that wrote in “the most florid and exciting prose.” He was relentless in his use of metaphors to depict athletes and sporting events.

Some of Rice’s ­well-known works will live forever. Following the Notre ­Dame–Army football game on October 18, 1924, Rice referred to Notre Dame’s offensive backfield as the “Four Horsemen.”

Outlined against a blue, gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore, they were known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley, and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice of the Polo Grounds this afternoon.3

Today, the “Four Horsemen” term remains a storied tradition at Notre Dame University.

The week before Jack was scheduled to enter the ring against Allie Stolz, Grantland Rice set forth the tenacious allure of Beau Jack in his column “The Sportlight.” “He is a ­fast-moving, ­rough-and-ready kid who can take and give his full share of punishment,” wrote Rice. “He also is one of the few who actually likes to fight.”4 Rice knew Beau was a fighter and possessed the fortitude to make it to the top. “If Beau defeats Allie Stolz,” Rice declared, “he should earn a shot at the lightweight title.”5 Moreover, Georgia was used to champions and was home to two of the greatest, Ty Cobb and Bobby Jones, penned Rice. “If Beau Jack can slug his way by Stolz and Sammy Angott before the army calls him in … it will add another chapter to Georgia sporting history.”6 Rice was confident that if Beau could make it past Stolz, Georgia might possibly end up with another great champion.

Allie Stolz (1918–2000), a ­24-year-old blond, curly haired New Jersey boxer, was the fighting pride of his hometown Hoboken, New Jersey, with a record of 49–5–2. After winning New Jersey’s ­112-pound championship as an amateur, he debuted his professional career on November 12, 1937, reeling off twenty victories and two draws before his first loss. Stolz was proud of his Jewish heritage and turned his head to anti–Semitism. In his last twelve fights, he had only lost one split decision, and that was against the lightweight champion “Slammin” Sammy Angott in their May 5 title bout. According to the scorecards, Stolz would have won the title, but for penalties, received for low blows in two rounds. The decision was highly controversial as most people witnessing the fight, as well as boxing commentators, thought Stolz should have been awarded the decision and crowned the new lightweight king. Regardless, Allie Stolz took Sammy Angott to task, flooring the champ for a ­nine-count in the third round.

After Stolz and Angott’s first match, Mike Jacobs quickly arranged for a rematch, but Stolz backed out due to an injury to his right hand suffered in his July 7 victory over Bob Montgomery. The two top contenders to take Angott’s crown were Allie Stolz and Tippy Larkin. With a win over Stolz, Beau Jack would emerge as the top contender.

Making for a title mess, on the day of the ­Jack–Stolz bout, Abe Greene, president of the National Boxing Association, announced that he had received a wire from Sammy Angott’s manager Charley Jones declaring that Angott had retired from boxing. “Sammy Angott has decided to retire from the ring and plans to take a job in a defense plant and therefore announces his retirement. Thanks for everything the NBA has done for him in the past.” Angott further explained, “I got all I could from the game and now I feel like doing something for my country.” He planned to start work in a steel mill in his hometown.7

Sammy underscored that his injured hand figured in his decision to retire. In his first fight with Montgomery, Angott suffered a partial bone dislocation in his right hand when he landed a hard uppercut on Montgomery in the eighth round of the bout. “It’s never been right after I hurt it fighting Bob Montgomery nearly two years ago,” he said. “And I hurt it again fighting Montgomery in Philadelphia a few months ago.”8 With Angott’s retirement, the lightweight title was now vacant. Interestingly, others speculated that he had been forced to retire because he wouldn’t “do business” with gangsters in the ring.

As fight night approached, weight became a concern for Beau’s camp. Stolz’s manager Ketchum was unwavering that Beau not weigh “an ounce over 135 pounds.” The day before the match, however, Beau weighed 137 pounds, two pounds overweight. Chick Wergeles had a lot of work to do to ensure that Jack came in at the proper weight. He put Beau through an arduous routine, which included “drying out, no food, extra road work, shadow boxing, and hard and heavy rubbing.” Surprisingly, Beau not only reduced his weight to the contracted fight weight, but he came in lighter than expected at 132¾ pounds. With this news, the odds grew in Stolz’s favor, 18 to 5, on the belief that Beau had weakened himself by making weight for the fight. The oddsmakers appeared to be right. Beau barely had enough energy to walk to the scales for the ­weigh-in.

Based on his punching power and unorthodox style, the skeptics rallied for Beau. “He weaves, bobs and jumps and is liable to throw a punch from any angle.”9 Some of the gym followers also opined that Beau was by far the heavier puncher as well. Beau was respectfully confident before the fight. “All I know is this,” said Jack. “He can’t hurt me and I can hurt him a lot.”10

A boisterous crowd of 14,249, producing a gate of $34,786, waited with zealous anticipation and excitement for the clash to begin, as did people all across the country, who were gathered around the radio to listen to the match broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System. As the opening bell sounded, the two men stormed out from their corners. Wildly rushing at Stolz, Jack almost wrestled him down and nearly lunged through the ropes himself. As the oddsmakers predicted, Stolz gave Beau a boxing lesson in the first round with some shrewd boxing, walloping Beau’s body and head with vicious left hooks and keeping Beau at a distance. Beau again dashed out at the sound of the bell in the second round, but Stolz had a left waiting for him which he dug into Beau’s body. As if Stolz’s punch hadn’t fazed him, Beau bounced back, landing a stunning wild right bolo punch to Stolz’s head. Jack pugnaciously swarmed and charged the dazed Stolz, evening the bout at one round apiece. Although Stolz fought back and won the third round, that shatteringly painful punch Beau landed to Stolz’s head in the second weakened him and took the wind out of his sail.

In the fourth, Jack opened a bloody cut on Stolz’s left eyebrow and eyelid with a sharp overhand right. The cut would prove to be Stolz’s downfall. Jack continued to reopen and lengthen the wound until it became virtually impossible for Stolz to see. In distress, Stolz tried to counter Jack’s attack with left hooks and right crosses to no avail. His fate was sealed “because he had nothing with which to stem the tide of ­piston-like punches from the tireless Negro lad from Georgia.”11 At the end of the seventh round, Beau caught Stolz on the left eyebrow once again with a stiff right, further damaging Allie’s wound. With blood streaming from the cut, the NYSAC’s physician, Dr. William H. Walker, immediately went to Stolz’s corner to examine his eye. After a swift evaluation, Dr. Walker stopped the fight. Stolz’s manager, Willie Ketchum, was furious, adamantly contesting that he could close the cut on Stolz’s left brow, but Walker refused to listen. With Dr. Walker’s stoppage, Beau was conferred a TKO victory.

In what was one of the largest gambling fights of the year for the New York metropolitan area, the Associated Press scorecard had the fight even before Beau gashed open Stolz’s eyebrow in the seventh round. With his thrilling TKO victory, Beau enlarged his fan base, captivating the 14,249 fans with “his ­hell-for-leather primitive pummeling”12 of Stolz. The win over Stolz was enormous. Beau was now the number one lightweight contender.

Following the fight, Jack shared his ­post-weigh-in strategy. After making weight, he “put away something like a gallon of soup, chops, a steak and a few potatoes.”13 The oddsmakers simply overlooked “the native, raw ability of a fighter having a fighting heart.”14 United Press correspondent Jack Cuddy depicted Beau’s tenacious fighting ability: “Beau Jack, his body hardened by toil since his orphan days, treated the fans to a night of savage and primitive lambasting,” wrote Cuddy. “He threw punches from all angles…. He missed a lot of them, but he kept coming in—swinging—as Stolz melted before him.”15 James P. Dawson of the New York Times described Jack’s as “[a] rushing, tearing type of fighter, making up in punching quantity what he lacks in quality.”16 Like many opponents before, Beau simply overwhelmed Stolz with his ­never-ending flow of punches.

As usual, following his incredible victory over Stolz, Beau was invited to spend time with his Syndicate supporters, sip lemonade, and converse with some of his millionaire patrons. After dropping in to visit with the Syndicate, Beau engaged in his customary ­post-fight routine with the $5 (increased from $1) he received from his fight purse. He went to a Broadway shooting gallery. On this occasion, following his defeat of Stolz, Beau was also able to buy a watch because a supporter who had gambled correctly on him awarded Beau $40 to buy a watch.

Within the next couple of days, Bowman and Beau headed back home to Augusta for some rest. While in Augusta, Beau jubilantly worked at the Augusta National. When he made tip money working at the club, he got to keep it all. At night, he enjoyed hanging with his friends and fans at his favorite nightclub, the Palmetto Pond. Playing tunes on the jukebox, Beau proudly showed his friends the latest newspaper clippings chronicling his defeat of Allie Stolz and the latest fashion in zoot suits.


1. Harold Parrott, “Both Sides,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 18, 1942, 17.

2. Grantland Rice, “The Sportlight,” Atlanta Constitution, November 2, 1942, 15.

3. Grantland Rice, “Four Horsemen of Notre Dame Ride to Victory Over Army Team,” ­Courier-Journal, October 19, 1924, 60.

4. Grantland Rice, “The Sportlight,” Asbury Park Press, November 2, 1942, 11.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. “Sammy Angott, ­135-Pound Ring King, Quits Game,” Morning News, November 14, 1942, 18.

8. “Sammy Angott to Quit Ring for War Job,” Altoona Tribune, November 14, 1942, 6.

9. “Beau’s Wallop Worries Odds Sharpshooter,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 12, 1942, 14.

10. Grantland Rice, “The Sportlight: Lightweight Beau Jack Windmill Type Fighter,” Valley Morning Star, December 22, 1942, 19.

11. James P. Dawson, “Beau Jack Stops Stolz in Seventh When Referee Intervenes in Garden Bout,” New York Times, November 14, 1942, 19.

12. Jack Cuddy, “Sports Parade,” News Journal, November 14, 1942, 17.

13. Grantland Rice, “The Sportlight: Rise of Beau Jack Grabbing War’s Waning Ring Spotlight,” Akron Beacon Journal, November 23, 1942, 18.

14. Ibid.

15. Jack Cuddy, “Sports Parade,” News Journal, November 14, 1942, 17.

16. James P. Dawson, “Beau Jack Stops Stolz in Seventh When Referee Intervenes in Garden Bout,” New York Times, November 14, 1942, 19.

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