Philadelphia promoter Herman Taylor was determined to stage a title fight between the current lightweight champion, Ike Williams, and Beau Jack in Philadelphia. Ike acquired the NBA lightweight crown in 1945 and the New York crown in 1947. On Monday, June 7, Taylor and managers for both fighters met with Leon Rains, chairman of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, to negotiate terms for the fight. Managers for Ike Williams, Frank “Blinky” Palermo and Frank Palumbo agreed to accept 37½ percent of the gate or a $30,000 guarantee, whichever was higher. Chick Wergeles, on behalf of Beau, agreed to take 22½ percent of the gate. Each side also posted $1,500 as a forfeit if their man came in over the 135-pound contracted weight. The only contingency was that Ike had to get past a rematch with Enrique Bolandos on Tuesday night, May 25th. It didn’t appear to be a daunting task as Williams had previously knocked Bolandos out in the eighth round on April 30, 1946.
Promotional poster for Ike Williams and Beau Jack title fight at Shibe Park, 1948 (courtesy John DiSanto, Philly Boxing History Collection).
Bolandos, however, was ready for Williams this time, making him work extra hard. Unlike their last match, there would be no early knockout. In a bloody, action-packed fight, the contingency was eliminated as Ike defeated his Mexican challenger by split decision. With William’s victory, the 15-round title fight between Beau Jack and Ike Williams was finalized. The lightweight title bout was scheduled for July 12 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.
Born in Brunswick, Georgia, Ike Williams (1923–1994) moved to Trenton, New Jersey to pursue his boxing career. Ike stood five feet, nine inches tall and his usual fighting weight was around 135 pounds. He was an impressive lightweight boxer with remarkable hand speed and a ferocious body puncher. Williams, with fists described as “veritable blackjacks,” possessed power in both of his hands, especially his right.
On April 18, 1945, at the young age of 21, Ike won the NBA’s lightweight belt, knocking out Juan Zurita in Mexico City. A riot virtually erupted among the 35,000 fans after seeing their champion go down for the count in the second round. More than a dozen policemen had to clear the area around the ring before Ike could make it to his dressing room.
Ike, the “Trenton Thunderbolt,” had an outstanding year in 1947. He won the undisputed lightweight title on August 4, 1947, knocking out Bob Montgomery, the New York titleholder, in the sixth round, after spinning his head around with a thunderous right to the chin. After going nine and one in 1947, with knockout victories over Bob Montgomery and Tippy Larkin, Ike was honored as The Ring’s Fighter of the Year. Since he dropped a nontitle bout to Gene Burton on January 27, 1947, Williams had won 15 straight bouts. Ike boasted a record of 93–1–4, with 43 knockouts. Jack was his second title defense in seven weeks. Jack’s record was 73–12–4.
Against common opponents, both Williams and Jack had defeated Juan Zurita, Johnny Hutchinson, and Tippy Larkin. Ike had knocked out Bobby Ruffin, whereas Jack had lost by unanimous decision. Jack, on the other hand, had defeated Willie Joyce, whereas Ike had lost three of four bouts with Joyce. Jack had two victories and two defeats in his matches with Bob Montgomery. Ike had been knocked out by Monty and conversely, knocked him out.
Beau prepared for his fifth title bout, conducting preliminary training in Hot Springs, Arkansas, before heading to Stillman’s Gym. He finished his pre-fight training in Philadelphia at the Christian Street YMCA, while Ike trained in Grenloch, New Jersey, at Jersey Joe Walcott’s training site, outbidding Beau for the same location.
Beau’s trainer, Sid Bell, prepared Jack well, perfecting his techniques and endurance necessary for the fifteen-round title bout. Bell also added an effective left jab to Beau’s arsenal of punches. “He’s been using his left that way more and more since returning to the ring last November,” said Bell. “But notice he hasn’t lost any of his power. If anything he’s hitting harder than ever.”1
Confidence was abundant in Beau’s camp. Chick Wergeles, Sid Bell, and Beau’s sparring partners were confident Beau would claim his third lightweight title. So did the future Hall of Fame manager Al Weill, who had been added to Beau’s team as an advisor for the bout. Beau was exceptionally motivated. He wanted to become the first man to hold the lightweight title three times. Revenge for a fellow boxer and friend was also on his mind. He wanted to avenge the knockout Bob Montgomery suffered to Ike Williams eleven months earlier.
The man who stole Beau’s two titles, Bob Montgomery, also predicted Beau to be victorious. Montgomery had retired following his sixth-round knockout loss to Ike Williams on August 4, 1947. “Beau Jack has too much moxie for Ike,” said Montgomery. “He hits too often and keeps pressing all the time. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Beau Jack win by knockout.”2 Willie Joyce expressed a similar opinion. “If it goes more than five rounds,” declared Joyce, “Beau Jack will whip him. Beau Jack is the greatest distance fighter I ever saw,” said Joyce. “He is like an express train; keeps coming all the time and never gives one a second’s rest.”3 Jack’s aggressive style was bound to create trouble for Williams.
Confidence was plentiful in Ike Williams’ camp as well. During his training camp, future heavyweight champion “Jersey Joe” Walcott questioned Ike about his chances against Beau. “Beat him, I hope,” said Ike. “He’s a pretty tough customer, but I’ll be in shape for him. I saw him fight Montgomery three times and Johnny Hutchinson once. He was pretty good all four times. But I think I’ll beat him.”4 Jimmy Wilson, Ike’s trainer, expected Williams to win via knockout. “The way I see it, Jack is too wide open for a sharp shooter like Ike,” exclaimed Wilson. “He has no defense and Williams will cut him to pieces.”5
Philadelphia was hopping with activity during fight week. Along with the upcoming title bout, it was hosting the Democratic National Convention, which was ongoing at Convention Hall from July 12 through July 14. President Harry S. Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt after he suffered a fatal heart attack just 82 days after being sworn into his fourth presidential term, emerged as the Democratic presidential candidate. Promoter Herman Taylor ensured tickets were conveniently made accessible for the convention delegates and predicted an attendance of 35,000 and gate of $150,000.
For a while, it looked as if neither fighter would make weight. Several days before the official weigh-in, both men were over the 135-pound weight limit and chose not to weigh in the day before the fight. Instead, they waited to stand on the scales the day of the battle. Fortunately, both fighters emerged from the weigh-in at 134 pounds.
On the warm and humid evening of July 12, a throng of 12,952 enthusiastic fight fans went through the turnstiles at Shibe Park. The crowd and gate fell woefully short of Taylor’s predictions, but still produced a respectable gate of $83,787. As fight time got closer, the odds in favor of Williams defeating Jack had decreased to 7–5.
The opening bell for the championship bout sounded at 10:15 p.m. Beau began strong, throwing barrages of punches and pinning the champion against the ropes. Exuding confidence, Beau fought furiously in the first three rounds, electrifying the fans with his savage hell-for-leather style. The boisterous cheers from the crowd bolstered Beau after he landed a thunderous left hook to Ike’s jaw in the first round. Ike returned the favor, stunning Beau when he countered with his own left hook to Beau’s jaw, followed by a hard right to his temple. In the second, Jack came out swinging like a wildcat, attacking Ike’s body, while Williams countered with short hooks to Beau’s face. Taking advantage of a lull in Williams’ attack, Beau won the second round. Williams fought back vigorously in the third, landing blistering rights to the head and body.
As Beau tired in the fourth round, Williams jammed him momentarily against the ropes and used him as a punching bag. Ike had youth, stamina, a 3½" height advantage, and overwhelming power. On the other hand, Beau appeared sapped by dropping weight for the bout. Against the ropes, Ike landed jabs, powerful body shots, and left hooks to Jack’s head. In the middle and at the end of the fifth-round, Ike again trapped Beau on the ropes, where he shook him with heavy blows.
Williams came out in the sixth round seeking to end the fight. Everyone in the crowd was on their feet screaming with excitement. Williams swiftly connected a brilliant left hook to the challenger’s chin. The champion then landed a right hand, forcing Beau into the ropes midway on one side of the ring. Beau sluggishly attempted to avoid the onslaught, moving along the ropes into a neutral corner, but he couldn’t get out of the way of William’s attack. Ike reacted by unleashing vicious power punches on Jack, combining left hooks and rights. Under tremendous pressure, Beau, with legs shaking, “grabbed the top ropes with his arms shoulder-high and extended as far as they could go in the classic posture of Crucifixion.”6 Jack’s face was swollen and bleeding badly, but he gallantly refused to go down. All that was holding Beau up was his tremendous heart and the corner ropes.
Sickened by the scene, Williams motioned with his gloves for Referee Charley Daggert to intervene. Daggert didn’t respond, so Ike implored him verbally to stop the fight. “Stop it,” Williams said to Daggert. “You want me to kill him.”7 Finally, Daggert stopped the fight 33 seconds into the sixth round, awarding Williams a technical knockout over the nearly unconscious Beau Jack. That night, Williams proved, “a fighter can win without being merciless—and still be a great fighter.”8 As to why he withheld punches at the end of the fight, Williams said, “I didn’t want to hit him around the head anymore.”9
Even though Beau’s knee appeared to hold up during the battle, he lacked his previous speed and quickness. Perhaps dropping down to the lightweight division took too much out of him. It was only the second time Jack had been knocked out, and it took a broken kneecap to stop him the first time. This time, Beau never tasted the canvas. It was only through his amazing will and the ropes that he did not collapse to the canvas. Following the fight, Beau humbly uttered, “I didn’t go down. Why the man stop it when I didn’t go down?10 I just forgot to duck that left hand,” explained Jack.11
Remarking on Williams’ strength, Beau said, “He’s some fighter. He’s some fighter.”12 Meanwhile, in his dressing room, Williams replied to reporters. “Yes, Beau was a good fighter, but he left himself open too much.” When asked how Jack compared to Bob Montgomery, Ike stated, “Montgomery was harder to hit. He didn’t leave as many openings as Jack. I don’t want to say which was tougher.”13
The Ike Williams fight would be Beau’s last contest producing a gate over $40,000. The gates for his remaining bouts would only average $12,577.75. Jack, however, was unwavering that he had better days ahead in the ring. “Fighting’s my life. It’s the only thing I want to do.”14 After his reappearance in the lightweight division for the title fight, Beau quickly returned to the welterweight division, blaming his loss of stamina to making the lower weight.
Ike Williams, on the other hand, always known for giving back to the community, graciously donated $1,000 of his winnings to the U.S. Olympic fund and scheduled a benefit bout for the YMCA15 before attending the Olympic Games in London.
The Olympic Summer Games were returning after a 12-year hiatus due to World War II. Although there had been years of destruction, rationing of food and clothing, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) felt the games of the XIVth Olympiad needed to continue as soon as possible. During the games between July 26, 1948, and August 14, 1948, the U.S. won 48 gold medals, the most medals by any country. In boxing, however, the U.S. only won one medal. Hank Herrington won silver in the welterweight division.
Racial Indignation
The date was February 12, 1946. The place was South Carolina. Isaac Woodard (1919–1992) had just been honorably discharged from the Army at Camp Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. While still wearing his uniform, he boarded a Greyhound bus to travel home to North Carolina. Shortly after departing the Augusta station, Woodard asked to take a bathroom break. The bus driver responded by ridiculing the veteran. At the next stop in Batesburg, South Carolina, the chief of police, Linwood Shull, and several of his deputies met Woodard outside the bus and brutally beat him with nightsticks, leaving him completely and permanently blind. To add insult on top of injury, Woodard was charged with drunk and disorderly conduct before he was finally taken to a hospital in Columbia, South Carolina.
South Carolina refused to pursue a case against Chief Shull. An outraged President Harry S. Truman ordered a federal investigation. Although Shull was indicted and tried in a South Carolina federal court, he was acquitted within 30 minutes of deliberation by an all-white jury.
Nearby, in Monroe, Georgia, 50 miles east of Atlanta, another African American veteran who had served four and a half years on the Pacific front, George Dorsey, along with his wife and another black couple, were gunned down on July 25, 1946, by a white mob in what became known as the “Moore’s Ford Lynching.” Loy Harrison, a white farmer, who employed George Dorsey, had just posted bail for another of his black employees, Roger Malcom. Malcolm had been accused of stabbing a white farmer during a fight several days earlier. Harrison was driving Dorsey and his wife Dorothy, as well as Malcolm and his wife Mae, back to his farm.
After a curve in the road, Harrison’s car was met by a white mob of 20 or more unmasked white men who stood, blocking the way. As Harrison stopped, the mob dragged the two black couples out of the car, while holding Harrison at gunpoint. Women were not usually lynched, but apparently one of the wives recognized someone in the mob. Therefore, both black couples were lined up next to each other, and at the count of three, their bodies were riveted with more than 60 bullets. Investigation of the incident was hampered by silence and lack of cooperation by local authorities. The case remains unsolved.
Again, President Truman responded, creating the first President’s Committee on Civil Rights (PCCR) by Executive Order 9808 on December 5, 1946, to safeguard and strengthen the civil rights of all Americans. In December 1947, it issued its landmark report, “To Secure These Rights,” condemning racial segregation, especially in the Services. Soon after that, on July 26, 1948, to avoid a legislative filibuster on the issue, President Truman issued Executive Order 9981, establishing equality of treatment and opportunity and demanding the end of racial segregation in the Armed Services. Even so, it would still take five years for the Armed Services to become integrated.
1. “Beau Jack Adds New Fight Weapon,” Indiana Gazette, July 7, 1948, 13.
2. “Bob Montgomery Favors Beau Jack as New Champion,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, the Evening News, July 8, 1948, 23.
3. Ibid.
4. Jack Saunders, “The Sports Broadcast,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 10, 1948, 10.
5. Ibid.
6. Jimmy Cannon, “Beau Jack’s Shining Shoes Again,” Orlando Sentinel, April 10, 1959, 3.
7. Ibid.
8. Mort Berry, “Williams’ Story: ‘Didn’t Want to Hit Him Any More.’” The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 1948, 32.
9. Ibid.
10. Jimmy Cannon, “Beau Was Real Man,” News-Herald, March 7, 1964, 9.
11. Oscar Frailey, “Today’s Sport Parade,” Daily Herald, July 13, 1948, 8.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Mort Berry “Williams’ Story: ‘Didn’t Want to Hit Him Any More,’” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 1948, 32.
15. After Ike Williams took the New York-Pennsylvania title from Bob Montgomery on August 4, 1947, he also gave to charity, establishing two college scholarships for graduates of Trenton High School.